I have been having so much fun canning lately, but yesterday with my mom it was the best. Not only did we get a serious amount of canning done, but it was so much fun working with her!






1. I brought so much stuff over! We powered through a lot of the goodness from the farmer’s market and our CSA box. Yet we still had to make a trip to the store (and Tuesday and I made two before we came over). It’s official I will never have enough sugar, vinegar, or onions.
2. Apples quartered for apple butter. My first time trying this and it was great (but really with five cups of sugar I was pretty certain it would be).
3. Came up with this: use a steamer basket for lids if you don’t have enough burners to prep them. It worked great. What did not work great was putting vinegar in the water bath. I had read that kept the jars really clean and decided to try it. Result? Our “vintage” canning rack rusted up and the water turned so gross!
4. Bill comes home to our madness.
5. And we had roasted tomatoes going in the oven all day.
6. Some results. Clockwise from left: Carrot Pepper Salsa, Ripe Tomato Chutney, Apple Butter (classic), Tomatillo Salsa, Plum Jam, Green Tomato Chutney, Plum Chutney.