Canning – Day 2!

Much apple butter, rhubarb/apple/ginger jam, and three 1/2 gallons of plum cordial have been ‘put by’ in the last two days. The plums are slowly ripening. The fourth 1/2 gallon of cordial will be put up tomorrow morning. Then I have to take a long drive to pick up something we lost at the Ren Faire. No doubt the plums will all ripen while I’m away for a few hours… Next will be gallons of jam! And applesauce, which my grandson put in his order for yesterday via phone 💕.

My apple crop is augmented by a close acquaintance who moved suddenly. I ran out to her former place Saturday, where we’d tied organza bags around developing apples months ago. Keeps them from getting wormy. Not only did I pick up the apples I bagged, but she told me to take hers too. She’s not going to have time to do anything with them, sadly. I’ll send her a care package. I’m going to need more pint jars…

One of the apple butter batches is from last year. I made it while we were ‘camping’ downstairs during the kitchen remodel, and then froze it. There’s no way to can anything on a hot plate. After defrosting the 2022 batch (made from store bought apples as the Island apples did not produce last year), and taking the immersion blender to it (a wee appliance I did not allow myself while cooking in such cramped quarters) it added an addition 12-half pints to today’s production!

A friend, and sometimes client, says I can come gather some of their apple crop! Maybe there’ll be cider this year!