Plink!

This is the happy sound of my tomato jars sealing after a long-ish hour of canning! Okay maybe it was more like 2 hours. It sure didn't seem nearly as long as the peaches.. although I only did one batch of tomatoes and 3 of peaches...

Here's my final product:

I have about 10 cups of leftover prepared tomatoes. I was hoping they would fit in the smaller jars that I have, but it only filled about 4 jars and I need at least 6 to fill my canner. I decided that I would either buy more tomatoes tonight or buy the stuff to make salsa.

I might just do both! I took inventory of my jars this afternoon and after alll this I still have 7 large (like the tomato ones), 10 medium (500mL) and 21 jam-sized jars! I was thinking that I will definitely do salsa (probably tonight) and then maybe I would try out some pickles... Simon like sweet pickles (I don't yuck!) but he can't find the kind he likes out here... We bought them in BC, but I guess the stores here just don't carry his kind! I bought a Bernardin canning recipe book (Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 delicious and creative recipes for today) so it may be able to lead me in the right direction for pickles. I will probably consult my mom about it too....

MOM what do you think?? Are sweet pickles hard to do???

(I've called my mom probably at least 5 times in the past couple days with canning questions :p the Mennonite cookbook just isn't clear enough for beginners sometimes!)

These are the leftover tomatoes trying to save their friends from being boiled!!! They didn't quite make it.. not tall enough and plus it's hot!

I was kinda bored when the jars were boiling.... these extras didn't last long though..

Toooooomatoes!

Today I am tackling canning tomatoes! I succeeded at doing peaches so I figured I would do tomatoes today. It's cooler today so it won't be as bad/hot in the kitchen as Tuesday!

I have been checking on my garden daily and luckily we haven't had any more visits from sir.eats-a-lot! We've picked about 6 tomatoes from the plant and there are more just about ready to be picked! I left them for Simon to pick cause there's a HUGE spider living on the tomato plant.

These are my yellow beans. We've eaten some already and there's many more to come! I told the small green ones that I'd be back for them in a couple days and I encouraged the flowers to make beans! The beans in this picture are freakishly large cause we were away for a week and no one did any harvesting in that time!

I was surprised to find so many peas out there! I almost forgot about the peas we planted because they didn't grow up the chicken wire as we had planned, they kinda grew along the ground, like a creeping plant! I think they were just reaching for the sun and fell over!

Alll right time to watch a bit of TV then tidy up the kitchen and make a mess canning tomatoes! At least it won't be as sticky as doing peaches!!

August = fun times!

It's August!

This brings many-a-birthday-and-anniversary in my family!

It was Simon and my 4th anniversary on August 5th so we went on a vacation! We drove to Toronto to visit some friends then off to Niagara falls for a week! Simon's been there, but I hadn't and it was really fun! We went on the Maid of the Mist and did the Journey Behind the Falls, went on a winery tour in Niagara-on-the-Lake, watched fireworks, are WAY overpriced food and just relaxed a bit! Here are some of the highlights of the trip...

While we were in Niagara we picked up about 30lbs of peaches to can!

This is my mission today: Can as many peaches as possible! The first batch is currently in the canner and as I type I can feel that I am still sticky!



It's taking forever to boil though... I just called my mom and left a message.. We'll see if it starts to boil.. Its a good thing I didn't start the next batch right away! I might start another batch in my second canner cause Simon will be home from work in about an hour and half and I would like the kitchen to be clean by then!

OooOOooooOO It's boiling!

I'm hoping to also can tomatoes and make salsa and pasta sauce. We'll see how much I get done (not all today!) Luckily for me I'm not working much this week!

P.S. this is me filling up the canner with water...