Goals to get ready for Canning Season

Last year I didn't do much canning and no gardening. Instead we took our kids on a month long cross country trip.

Great memories to hold with us always.

So this year I'm very excited about gardening and canning.

So here are my goal to get ready for canning season.

1. Clean out and re-organize my pantry  Done

It took me two whole days to clean everything out of my pantry and put it back organized. I have come up with a different arrangement for my pantry. One I hope will make it easier to get empty jars out and put them away. When my daughter empties the dishwasher, if she can't easily find where the jar goes she just puts it anywhere in the pantry. So needless to say I found empty canning jars in all kinds of strange places.

2. Take Inventory of Pantry  Done

As I cleaned out and re-organized my pantry I sorted, counted and wrote down every empty and filled canning jar I had in the pantry.  I have pretty much every size Mason Jars come in. Because I have never count my jars, I was very shocked when I add them all up. Empty jars 329. Filled jars 255. That's a total of 584 jars! 

I didn't just inventory my home canned items, I also inventoried the store bought items, too.

3.Use up what I still have

I need to think of different recipes or ways to use what I have left.

Last year before we went on our cross-country trip I found recipes for canning soups, stews and chili. We took several jar with us. What I found was they weren't flavorful enough for us. So this year I will go back to canning the ingredient separately. It will still be easy to make soup/ stew and I can season it the way my family likes. 

4.List to Can

(I'm sure I will think of more as the season goes on.)

-Carrots

-Potatoes

-Veggie Mix                                                    

-Pumpkin

-Salsa

-Stewed tomatoes

-Salsa Verda (tomatillas)

-Dill pickles relish

-Dill pickles (need to find a good recipe)

-Pickled veggie mix

-Chili Beans

-Stew meat

-Chicken breast meat

-Tuna

-Strawberry jam

-Raspberry jelly

-Blueberry jam

-Blueberry pie filling

-Salmonberry jelly (try something new)

-Thimbleberry jelly(also new)

-Spiced Apples

How much vegetables and fruit I can of each, will depend on how much my garden produces. Hopefully I will have a bumper crop.


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