Homesteader's Honey

My memories on FB popped up this photo. It's from the 1990s. The man in the photo is my brother and the boy is my son. The handwriting is my mom's and it says "Adam and Wm picking clover and fireweed for me to make honey" The side note says (*Enlarge?)

I may well do just that. It would be a gorgeous print.

She got her recipe from the local cooperative extension service. Here it is:

Homesteader's Honey

6 cups sugar
3 cups boiling water
30 white clover blossoms
18 red clover blossoms
18 fireweed blossoms
Sterilize canning jars and prepare lids. Boil together
sugar and water for 10 minutes; maintain steady
boil on low heat without stirring. Remove from
heat. Add blossoms and let steep for 15 minutes.

Strain mixture through cheesecloth and immediately
pour into hot canning jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace.
Wipe jar rims and add prepared two-piece
lids. Process 5 minutes in a boiling water canner.
Note: Sugar syrup can be tricky. If it crystallizes before
canning, return it to the pan, add 2 tablespoons
water per cup of honey and heat.

My mom used to make so many jars of this as a present.

I hope you enjoy the memory. It made me smile to see it in my memories today.

Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade

So this marmalade came into being because we have a LOT of rhubarb. Last year, at the beginning of spring, my husband and I split our plant into 8 smaller plants. We gave away 4 of them, and kept 4. Those divisions were fairly large and now I have 4 huge plants.

My rhubarb is green. It's a Victoria-type that's very sweet, very tender and tends to have thinner stalks that get very long. The bottoms are red, but the lengths are a celery green.

Those oranges are fairly large oranges.

There are a lot of recipes for orange-rhubarb marmalade on the internet. They call for various cooking methods and varying amounts of the ingredients. Sometimes they have nuts or spices in them. Our recipe is fairly simple, but it's really tasty. My daughter did the cooking. I did the harvesting and gave her the recipe.

Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade- makes 3 pints of marmalade

You will need:

7 cups of  rhubarb  (12-15 stalks)
2 large navel oranges
6 cups of sugar
2 cups of water

Wash your fruits. Anything that you grow yourself and you know what gets on it, you can decide how best to wash it. For oranges from the store, wash with a bit of soap and water. For store bought rhubarb, dunk it in 1:4 vinegar water mix, scrub lightly, then rinse.

Zest the oranges into a bowl using a paring knife, microplane or vegetable peeler. After that, cut the orange into quarters, and cut off the peel and pith. Then cut the quarters in smaller pieces and put them in the bowl.

Cut the rhubarb into half inch pieces. This might require cutting them in half length-wise then chopping them into smaller pieces.

Put the rhubarb, oranges, sugar and water into a heavy bottomed 5 quart pan and bring to a boil. Turn it down and let it simmer for about an hour stirring frequently. It will thicken. Check it by lifting the spoon, when it sheets off the spoon, it's ready.

While you're doing that, prepare your jars. We used a combination of 4 oz jars and those gorgeous Ball Canning Elite Jelly Jars that are in the photo.

Fill the jars leaving a 1/4 inch headroom, remove bubbles, wipe rims and process jars (hot water method) for 10 minutes.

This makes a lovely, tart and sweet marmalade that is delicious on pancakes according to my daughter who is eating some just that way right this moment. Me? It's hard not eating it just by the spoonful, but I'm looking forward to trying it on chocolate ice cream.

Why I need the Ball Blue Book® Guide 37th Edition

I planted too much zucchini.

Right now it's only seedlings, but it's still there. I can see the future and it's going to be entirely too much. But my kids, who LOVE zucchini are still think I should have planted more. After all, the package had 30 seeds and we plant all of the radish over a summer. No, I didn't plant zucchini, that's madness. But 6 of 7 seeds I planted are growing. 6 zucchini bushes.

My raspberries? Are trying to take over the world. I've mentioned them before, my incredibly sweet raspberries accidental hybrid raspberries? Once upon a time I planted 3 canes.

Yeah, that's a wall of raspberry plants. With lots of flowers.

Then of course my rhubarb, which is very large, very happy and needs to be split this year.

Which brings me to the new Ball Blue Book® Guide to Preserving (shortened frequently to Ball Blue Book or Ball Blue Book Guide)- the 37th edition is a HUGE update from last year, and every year brings new recipes and is always the most current information on safe food preservation. So even if you have old copies, it's well worth it to get the most current edition at least every other year. This year is one you should definitely have-

Same great format, this book is the number 1 canning reference in my kitchen. Yes, I have a lot of canning books and love them all- but this is the one everyone needs. It teaches you step by step canning basics, and you check out the videos on the Ball Canning website for more information. Then it has recipes.

Jams, salsas, ketchup, juices, jellies, relishes, ways to use them, non-canning methods like dehydration and jerky as well. How to preserve darn near any food item to use or giveaway as gifts (a jar of jam is a great way to say "I love you") , everything well indexed. I LOVE the index, Apples to Zucchini (well, actually Acid to Zucchini-Pineapple Doughnuts, but it sounds better the other way)

Too much zucchini- call friends, see who is willing to take zucchini. Then look up the recipes for what you know you'll still have leftover-

Several kinds of pickles, a wonderful looking jardiniere, relish, the above mentioned doughnuts, dehydrated zucchini chips. I'm set! What doesn't wind up on the grill, in soup, in baked goods or passed off to friends and family will get used in these recipes. I know my son will eat the heck out of hot zucchini pickles in the fall and winter.

Raspberries- preserves, jams, jellies, conserves, fruit leather and juice. All set there too. I know some people say they can eat all the raspberries they grow- but last year I got quarts and quarts of berries and this year is looking even bigger.

At the end of the book is a trouble shooting section, and a section that explains how to tell if your canned goods went off and how to dispose of them.

When people ask me about canning, this is the book I recommend to them to get started. It might be the only book you need. It's no fluff. There are pictures, but most of it is recipes that are clearly written and easy to read and follow.

Follow Ball Canning on Facebook and Twitter for more information, recipes and occasionally nifty jar crafts.
You can get the book from Ball Canning-  Ball Blue Book® Guide
Or you can get it from Amazon here-

Follow Don't Eat the Paste on Facebook

Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

International Can-It-Forward Day webcasts!

You can watch them here if you'd like.

Ball® has so many things planned for today. Don't forget to chat on Twitter using #canitforward and directing tweets to @BallCanning. The parts of the schedule that I'm really looking forward to are The Mixology demo AND they are doing a demo for the salsa that I wanted to make!

• 1:30pm - Salsa Verde demonstration by Chef Sarah featuring the FreshTECH Automatic Home Canning System

It's so easy being green- tomatoes, jars and salsa (with a giveaway!)

You already know that we are big fans of Ball® jars and food preservation products. We use them for everything. Drinking glasses with their new lids, canning!! making yogurt and more recently making chia pudding. 

Ball® sent me some really cool things to review, use and enjoy AND they are going to give away the same things to one lucky reader!

The Ball Blue Book® Guide is THE go to guide for food preservation. Between this book and a good extension service, you have a wealth of information ready to go for preserving your garden and summer market finds for the year. 

The Ball® Heritage Green Jars are my favorite. It's hard to choose, because the Elite jars are so stylish, and last year's blue jars are my daughter's favorite color- but green is my favorite. Look how pretty that color is! This year they come in two sizes- pints and quarts. 

The Herb Series
The  Ball® Dry Herb Jars are really nice. If you grow herbs (and you should, it's so easy and can be done in containers)- all you do is hang them to dry, then after they are completely dry, put them in the jars. I like the jars because they are nice, wide and easy to fill compared to using standard spice jars and a funnel. They also have shaker tops. Those are the jars with the black lids, the green flips up to reveal generously sized holes for shaking crushed herbs into your recipes. 

The  Ball® 5 Blade Herb Scissors are really helpful for fresh herbs. If you look on top of the sheath for them, you can see some chives that I've chopped into nice small rings. Already to go into all sorts of summer recipes, they also work fantastically well for leafy herbs like cilantro. 

At the end of this post, I'll tell you how you can win all these things, plus a Fresh Herb Keeper, and Ball® Frozen Herb Starters. The Ball® Fresh Herb Keeper is the ideal way to keep things like cilantro fresh in your fridge for a couple of days. Those leafy herbs that tend to wilt too quickly stay fresh and pretty enough to use for a garnish in the keeper, and the Frozen Herb Starters are silicone trays with lids that you can make frozen cubes that are ready for recipes. Put your favorite soup seasonings stock or water and freeze for fresh flavor that's ready to go, or you can use olive oil and other fats as well. 

Ball® Canning and International Can-It-Forward-Day

Tomorrow, August 16th, there will be events across the Ball® Canning social channels. They are pretty nifty. A live webcast canning demonstration by Chef  Hugh Acheson, a demonstration of how to make Pepper Jelly using the Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker (I have one, and love it, my daughter loves it even more), crafts, even more canning and recipes- check the link above for a complete schedule and follow Ball® on their social channels- 
@BallCanning on Twitter, Follow BallCanning on Pinterest, like on BallCanning on Facebook

 Did you see the little tomatoes in the photo above? 

I have 8 beautiful tomato plants, and so far have had 2 red tomatoes. There are a lot of flowers, and a lot of green tomatoes. A quick search on FreshPreserving.com yielded this recipe for a salsa verde that uses the Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Jam and Jelly Maker. So easy, we have the cilantro and tomatoes in our garden, the rest of the fresh ingredients can be gotten at a farmer's market, and it will look gorgeous in those green jars. 

So do you want to win everything I mentioned? 

• Ball Blue Book® Guide 
• Ball® Heritage Green Jars pint and quart size
• Ball® Dry Herb Jars
• Ball® 5 Blade Herb Scissors
• Ball®Fresh Herb Keeper
• Ball® Frozen Herb Starters

Leave a comment here or on my Facebook post 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review- Drink the Harvest

Drink the Harvest by Nan K. Chase and DeNeice C. Guest is a great primer for people who want to start making drinkables from their own garden produce, and things they can find seasonally in farmer's markets. This photo-rich book is thoughtfully laid out in a way that makes it easy to follow, even for absolute beginners.

It starts with giving the reasons you should be making your own drinks, and offers suggestions for what to grow in your garden for making great juices. Not just fruit juices, it talks about berries, rhubarb, things that can be grown for tea, and vegetables.

The next section discusses equipment, sterilization methods, and how to pick and wash your harvest. This is an essential chapter for beginners because have an overview of the equipment that's going to be necessary, as well as tips for optional equipment that will make it easier.
The recipes:
It starts with the basics, the juice recipes Berry juice, pear juice, non-alcoholic ciders, some vegetable juices and a great spicy bloody mary mix as well as other recipes. These can be modified to fit what you have available and processing times are included if you decide you want to can your juices instead of freezing or refrigerating them.

The next chapter is the one for adults, the ever classic dandelion wine as well as a few mead recipes, hard cider recipes and herbed, fruit and other types of wine. This is the chapter for the patient, and explains how fermentation works, how to ferment, how to rack for flavor and clarity and everything else you need to know about making your own wines, meads and ciders.

After that, the chapter for people who love to make their own sodas, or want specialty syrups for other things, it's the syrups! For this, knowing how to make juice is important, because you'll be using the juices as the base for syrups. Watermelon, herbed fruits and berries, and single flavored syrups are included as well as instructions for bottling.

The last chapter covers teas, tisanes and decoctions. This chapter has less recipes, and is more about techniques and a suggestion list for various types of flowers and herbs that can be dried to use as teas. It includes how to dry using the paper bag method, or using a dehydrator, and storage instructions. Then there are instructions for drying citrus peels which are popular in teas, how to make a rose hip decoction which can be kept in the freezer to add for a vit. C boost to other drinks and full, photo instructions for making kombucha, how to troubleshoot a SCOBY and how to bottle for carbonation.

I do recommend this book.
----
The part above is what I'm posting on Amazon, so here's the rest of the story...
 For me, canning and other preservation methods are about putting away a bit of summer to taste in the cold dark winter, luckily within walking distance I have wild chamomile and wild roses, in my own yard, I have clover, chickweed and dandelions for "weeds" and of course, my thicket of raspberries which look to give up even more than they did last year.

So I'll be making a raspberry syrup to use on a dessert on Winter solstice. I think that's a grand tradition to start, putting up some of my favorite of summer to have on the longest night as things start to turn back around.

Like Storey Publishing on Facebook for contests, recipes and information.

The Kindle version is only 3.99 right now!


Kindle Format Paperback

Amazon.com affiliate links don't affect your cost, and provide extra income to me personally, which helps support this site.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

National Can-It-Forward Day- giveaway!

National Can-It-Forward Day is winding down. But the fun doesn't have to stop. Ball has lots of links, recipes and videos posted year round.

What did we do? More jellies! We have lots of friends who can, and have exchanges with them, I really recommend it. Find out who cans, or who you know who has an interest in it. What they grow, what they might want to can and preserve will be different from what you want to do. It's a fun way to try all sorts of things. For example, one of my best friends does amazing mixed fruit jams, but doesn't do salsa or pickles. I grow cilantro and dill for canning salsas and green beans. So we swap, and return each other's jars filled with new things.
You can find my son's favorite pickled pepper recipe HERE.

Ball is sponsoring giveaways on a whole bunch of blogs, including mine! The idea is to get more people enthused about canning.

This giveaway is open to US residents only.

This is the the Ball Canning Discovery Kit. The basket is made of polypropylene which works just fine at boiling temps and will hold 3 pint jars easily. It fits into your lidded stock pot for hot water bath canning and comes with jars and a basic how to can booklet. I have one, and use it regularly. Ball sent me a second one for this year's Can It Forward Day, and it belongs to my daughter who wanted her own set. Perfect for small batch canning, or for beginners who want to start with small batches. 

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving- Beyond just canning, this also covers dehydrating and freezing food to preserve it. Essential for the beginning canner, and a helpful reference for people who have been canning a while. This is updated regularly for the very newest information on safe canning, has lots of full color photos and clear explanations on how to can, and instructions and recipes for almost everything the home canner needs. I have several years worth of Ball's Blue Book and recommend it. The recipe for the rhubarb above was done from this book by my daughter who has never canned before this year.
(Want cute rhubarb labels? Look here!)

The other part of the prize package is a coupon good for 1 case of jars, which come with lids and bands. , Ball jars have been the standard for home canning for as long as I remember. They are uniform, easy to find replacement bands and lids for, they are great quality, and will last for years. The compound on the lids seals effectively and easily.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ball Canning provided the products reviewed for me free of charge. There was no other compensation, and this is my honest opinion of the products. And my daughter made jam, jelly and preserves by herself and has the canning bug in a big way. This morning I got to enjoy fruit punch jelly on toast and it was fantastic!

National Can-It-Forward Day!

It's National Can-It-Forward Day! A great day to learn how to can and talk to other people about canning.

Ball®'s  FreshPreserving.com  is having all day webcasts, there is a Twitter event going on (#CanItForward) and other ways to participate.

Can-It-Forward TV

Here's the webcast schedule- there will be chances to win giveaways as well as all the great things you'll learn!

Broadcast Schedule:

10:00am-10:45am: Jam making and water bath canning demo by Jessica Piper
10:45am-11:00am: Craft Corner with Jordan DeFrank
11:00am-11:45am: Pickles Demo by Rick Fields 
11:45am-12:00pm: Craft Corner with Jordan DeFrank
12:00pm-1:00pm: Special Guest Host Ted Allen canning and cooking demo
1:00pm-1:15pm: Cocktails in Ball Jars hosted by Mason Jar NYC Restaurant
1:15pm-2:00pm: Jam making and water bath canning demo by Jessica Piper (repeated)

Book Review- Put 'Em Up! Fruit

If there is a book out there that has made me more eager for farmer's markets and for my own berry patches and rhubarb to be ready to harvest, I don't remember it. Put 'Em Up Fruit- A Preserving Guide & Cookbook. Creative Ways to Put 'em Up, Tasty Ways to Use 'em Up is by Sherri Brooks Vinton who also wrote Put 'Em Up.

Enthusiastic, knowledgeable and creative, this collection of techniques and recipes for preservation and recipes for using what you've preserved will inspire anyone. It's presented in a great way that can be understood by absolute beginners to canning, dehydration, and other preserving methods. There are great photos throughout the book as inspiration, illustration and instruction.

So what makes this book so great? The variety of fruits and methods is certainly one thing. She explains different methods for preserving everything from every day apples to things like quince. Berries, rhubarb, pears, citrus and my favorite stone fruits are all included. The methods covered create jellies, jams, sauces, gastriques, infusions,homemade vinegar, cordials, fruit leathers and compotes.

The recipes for using up your preserves are also a great reason to enjoy this book. You'd expect a lot of desserts, and you'd be right of course. Fruit lends itself well to desserts, but there are also a lot of savory recipes. Not just for cooking with your preserves, but also one for blueberry ketchup my daughter wants to make after we go blueberry picking later this year. There are main courses and side dishes included in the recipes. The recipes are good for entertaining and family dinners, mostly simple enough to make with great flavor and texture combinations.

The information is fantastic, the author explains the methods step by step in a clear and concise way. She also includes cutting instructions so people can learn the basic knife skills to really make things beautiful. The instructions include great, full color photographs for visual learners.

The book starts with a table of contents of course, but at the end also includes a resources guide and a very complete index.

Absolutely recommended to anyone interested in food preservation and canning. This is one that will be used extensively throughout summer as more things ripen and become available in both my garden and at local farmer's markets.

You can watch videos by the author right here- Put 'Em Up! Fruit - You will learn how to make a blackberry gastrique, how to can using the water bath method and a recipe for using the gastrique with downloadable PDFs of the recipes shown.
The author is also going on tour to promote her book and you can catch her all over the country at farmer's markets and book stores. Check out the schedule HERE.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- The Pickled Pantry

My family loves pickles very much. We don't really like sweet pickles, mostly we prefer sour or sour/spicy pickles.
The Pickled Pantry: From Apples to Zucchini, 150 Recipes for Pickles, Relishes, Chutneys & More is more than just a cookbook, it's a primer about pickles. If you've only made a few types of family recipes of pickles, or have never made pickles before, you'll probably learn a lot just reading this volume. If pickles were a college course, this would be the text book for Pickles 101: What are pickles? The next classes would cover regional recipes in depth, and how pickles are served.

It covers various pickling methods. Fermented, hot pack canned pickles, and refrigerator pickles are all discussed with recipes.

The book starts with an overview of pickling methods, supplies and techniques. There is a lot of information in it and it shouldn't be skipped. It includes information about pickling spices, canning and a bit of the history of pickles. There is also a great chart for figuring the total volume of produce by weight.
Each chapter starts with a more in depth look at the technique and uses for the types of pickles made.

Lacto-fermented pickles are made by creating a brine, and allowing the pickles to ferment and develop lactic acid for sourness. It's a very traditional way of preserving produce, and creates a wonderful flavor. Before even getting to the recipes, she introduces my favorite author on the subject of fermented foods, Sandor Ellix Katz, the author of Wild Fermentation. He explains the methods he uses, and talks about how much he loves pickles. The recipes start with dill pickles, then go into things like different variations of pickled cabbages, such as kimchi and sauerkraut. There is also a recipe for a classic Tabasco like hot sauce.

Single jar pickles is exactly that. Small recipes perfect for quick canning. Again, there are several recipes for America's favorite, dill pickles. Then there are a bunch of vegetable pickles. Pickled beans, carrots, and even pears for a sour-sweet addition to meals. This is the chapter for people who love farmer's markets or have small gardens.

Big Harvest Pickles is the chapter for large harvests or fantastic deals on produce. These recipes make a lot of pickles to put up or give away as gifts. There are recipes for pickled apples, older recipes like Overnight Sunshine Pickles which uses overripe cucumbers to get the most of your harvest, and dilly beans. Most of the recipes call for a few lbs of produce. The notable exception is pickled watermelon rinds which calls for the rind off on watermelon to make 6 pts of pickles. Nice variety for different kinds of gardens in this chapter.

Salsas, Relish and Chutneys are the spreads and dips of the pickle world. Lots of sweet chutneys, like the one made with rhubarb, some sauces that combine produce with vinegar, and salsas.

Refrigerator and Freezer Pickles is my second favorite chapter (Fermented pickles is my favorite)- these are the very quick recipes that age in your fridge or freezer. The advantage to them in a hot summer is obvious. They don't need to be canned. A lot of them are made very simply by pouring a brine over the produce then chilling. If you are lucky enough to have a large freezer, the recipes that can be frozen make a tasty way to save some summer flavor. This chapter also has a great variety. Pub-style pickled onions to Asian inspired recipes like Vietnamese-style pickled daikon and carrots. This is the nearly instant gratification world of pickles. You can eat a lot of these after they've been in the fridge overnight to develop flavor.

The recipes chapter proves that pickles go beyond sandwiches and cocktails. Creamy Dilled Smoked Fish uses smoked salmon, pickles and pickle juice for lots of flavor. There are a few main courses, some good lunches, lots of side dishes and a German Sauerkraut Chocolate Cake recipe. The author swears you don't taste the sauerkraut.

It's a wonderful book, and one I really recommend.
Published by Storey Publishing.
I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- Better Homes and Gardens Can It!

Now that it's getting time to start planting, it's also time to start planning canning projects. Can It! from Better Homes and Gardens is a book full of boiling water canning recipes with a few freezer recipes. No pressure canner recipes in the book at all.

If you don't know anything about canning, and it's something you're just starting to get interested in to take advantage of gardens or local farmer's markets, boiling water canning doesn't take expensive equipment. I do my canning in my biggest stock pot.

The book is laid out well with good explanations for people who've never canned before. It explains the equipment you'll need, how to follow a recipe, and how to process in a hot water bath.

There are also lots recipes that are easy to follow  for experienced canners who want to go beyond their usual recipes. Savory recipes, sweet recipes and seasoning and combinations that will appeal to foodies.

Fantastic photos, and a good index in the back of the book to find things fast. The chapters are separated by types of food. 

There are traditional recipes in here, like strawberry jam which is a staple for anyone starting to can, but where it shines are in recipes that appeal to people who are really interested in experimenting with flavors.

Adults will enjoy Strawberry Margarita Jelly made with Triple Sec and tequila, and people who enjoy savory sweet will like the herb jelly recipe.

There are a lot of recipes that will be in regular rotation here. My daughter really enjoys canning and is looking forward to making and canning the spicy roasted tomato pizza sauce. My son, who is wild for pickles of all sorts really likes the Asian Pickled Carrots. We plan our canning by what's seasonal as well as what is growing in our garden to take advantage of low prices on in season produce. 

Lots of types of vegetables and fruit are used in the recipes, so if you grow a great crop of beans, you have several options for canning them with different flavors. All the recipes are very safe, with acid added for low acid foods. 

I recommend keeping one jar out of anything you are canning for immediate consumption if your family is anything like mine. Canned food also makes a wonderful gift.

Great variety of recipes, a lot of which can become the basis for meals in the winter, and well written instructions make this the kind of winner you expect from Better Homes and Gardens. It's a book I'll recommend to my friends who can. 

Published by Better Homes and Garden, An imprint of Wiley.

You can get this book from Amazon using the affiliate link below.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Pickled Peppers

Recently I made a batch of pickled peppers for my pepper loving family.
I used Lucy Norris's recipe here with some modifications.

For the brine I used
1 cup of water
3 cups of vinegar
1 tsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. kosher salt

Brought to a boil in a stainless steel saucepan so the salt dissolved.

I packed my jars with
1.5 lbs green jalapenos cut into rings
half of a large red onion sliced thin- mix these two.
In each jar:
1 head dill
1 cloves garlic
1/16 tsp. Ball's Pickle Crisp (a calcium chloride additive to make pickles crunchier)
Pour the brine over the packed jars leaving 1/4 inch head room.
Packed in half pint jars and processed for 10 minutes. Makes approximately 6 half pint jars. The basket in the Ball Home Canning Discovery Kit set will hold 5 half pint jars.

One jar I put into the fridge. The other half was processed.

The Pickle Crisp made the fridge jar super crispy. Even the thin onions snapped when bit. The processed jars weren't as crispy.
Because of the cumin and garlic,it has a definite taco-ish flavor. These would be wonderful in omelets or quesadillas.
Since I'm a complete wimp when it comes to spicy, I tried bits of the onions. For less spicy pickles, you can remove the seeds from the peppers. I didn't because other than me, my family loves spicy.
The pickles are a hit. I think today I'll do some refrigerated pickled green beans with the pickle crisp and see if they get crispy.

Raspberry Jelly Labels

 I like using Avery Sticker Project Paper (Amazon.com affiliate link) for labels because I can do custom layouts. For people who prefer other methods, you can download the labels individually and use them in your word processing or graphics software to make your own label sets. Click on the images for the larger versions. 

Other cute label designs in this series:
Rhubarb
Strawberry

A friend of mine who is also very into canning has been really wishing I'd make raspberry labels. So I started them this morning, but getting the face just right for the amount of cute I want was challenging. While I was posting in progress designs on Facebook, Lillian asked if I could make dark purple ones. I said "Sure, color changes are easy peasy." Then Jennifer (who originally asked for labels) made a joke about them. Then said "‎*giggles* Sorry, that was probably uncalled for, wasn't it *^^*;;;" which made me think of a bratty kid. Bratty kid! There was the answer to making the face cute enough. A raspberry giving a raspberry. Perfect.
So that's what I drew, then recolored it to make dark purple blackberry type raspberries for Lillian.

While we were canning jelly the other day (have I mentioned how much I love the Discover Canning small batch kit? You can read my review here) we couldn't find a ruler. Now, you have to understand, I have rulers. LOTS of rulers. Metal, plastic, great big T rulers and little 6 inch school supply kit rulers, but at that moment, we couldn't find any of them. Turnip Girl brought over the model I printed of the printable ruler to make sure it was exact. Well, a paper ruler won't work to measure head space in jars. So I had her grab her marshmallow stick and we measured on that and made a small notch at 1/4 inch. It worked very well.

The marshmallow sticks are our family's answer to the fact I won't let them roast marshmallows on coat hangers because of the coatings on them. We got a 3/8 inch oak dowel and sawed it in half. Then the kids sharpened them in a pencil sharpener and sanded them smooth. Their marshmallow sticks are their responsibility not to loose and to clean after roasting marshmallows. Every so often we saw off the ends, put the rest back our craft supplies for other projects, and start all over with a new dowel. The non-marshmallow end can be decorated with various things if you have kids who want to decorate them. Nothing loose or that dangles, but wrapping craft wire around one end with beads or coloring with permanent markers works.

Canning Salsa

Every so often, there is a product that I just know is a brilliant idea that I want to try then tell everyone else about it. The Ball® Canning Discovery™ Kit is one of those things.

The idea behind it is simple, a compact, easy, inexpensive way for people to discover how easy canning can be. A plastic rack with a handle that will fit into a nice big stock pot for small batch canning. The rack will accommodate 3 jars at a time.
The kit comes with the rack, 3 1 pint jars and very basic, easy to understand instructions.
You supply your own stock pot, and it needs to be at least 7.5 inches deep and 9.5 inches in diameter. A canning funnel and a small non-metallic spatula are also helpful.
If you have the spatula and stock pot, as well as ingredients for the small batch recipe you want to try, you can start immediately. The canning funnel is very helpful for filling jars, but if you don't have one, you can ladle things in the jars carefully.
If you're worried about using a plastic rack, polypropylene is a thermoplastic that melts at around 300 degrees F. Water boils at 212 degrees F. I have a gas stove, and the first recipe I did needed boiling for 35 minutes. The plastic held up just fine.

Our experience with it:
I haven't done any canning since my mom passed away, and the Turnip Girl had never canned before. So if you've never canned before, trust me, you can follow the instructions in the booklet.
Since it was her first time canning and I wanted her to be enthused about it, I let her choose the recipe. She chose a very simple salsa recipe using Ball Fiesta Salsa Mix, 2 lbs of tomatoes, and 3 tablespoons of vinegar. We chopped and cooked, and followed the recipe and canning instructions. We decided to stick to the instructions for the salsa without adding pepper or cilantro. We had a lot of fun. Then we ladled it into the jars, and processed. The basket has a handle so you don't need a jar lifter. Since we did it in the afternoon, we couldn't check to make sure they sealed properly until morning but we heard the *pop* of the lids being vacuumed as the hot air in them cooled and contracted. When we checked them in the morning by pressing lightly on the lids to see if they seal, they had sealed perfectly.
So now we had two very pretty jars of homemade salsa ready to set in our pantry. Except Turnip Girl wanted to open one immediately to try it. So she did that.
She loves it. She loved the whole process, and it's something she wants to do again. She has been going through recipes and planning gifts for friends. Next time she wants to try the Salsa Verde recipe that's on FreshPreserving.com.
As far as the salsa mix goes? Half of that first jar is gone already, and I'm not going to complain about her eating lots of tomatoes. So it's a great way to add vegetables to your menu. She likes salsa in omelets.

If you haven't canned before, but you've considered it, looking at the wonderful availability of vegetables, fruits and berries at the farmer's markets or from your own garden, this is a nice way to get into small batch canning. It's doesn't take up much space if space is a consideration.

You can get the kit, the salsa mix and lots of information and recipes from FreshPreserving.com. The kit is 11.99, and the Fiesta Salsa mix is 5.99 for enough for 8 pints, or 1.49 for a packet that will make 2 pints.

You can get more information about my review policy here.
None of these links are affiliate links.