Every year around this time, I think about it. I never actually do it, but I think about it. Trying to convince myself I should do it. Can or bottle up some seasonal fruits and vegies to eat later in the winter. Just so I can have the pleasure of cracking open a bottle of summer warmth and sunshine in the middle of winter.
Thinking about it as about as far as I get.
I will toss a few things in the freezer. Blueberries seem to freeze fairly well. And I’ve had good luck with tomatoes just tossed in a bag and into the freezer. Although we have also in the past turned them into actual sauce and bottled it. But it is a lot of work.
There are a couple things I have done on a regular basis. Cranberries for one. Each fall I will generally cook up a big batch of cranberry sauce and stick it in bottles. We eat of a lot of the stuff and I enjoy spending an early fall afternoon hanging around a bog picking cranberries.
And with the tomatoes, maybe the ripe ones can turn into sauce or get tossed in the freezer if they don’t get eaten, but not all the tomatoes turn red. If there are enough green ones hanging around I will usually try to make a batch of chow-chow or something similar. The “something similar” is pretty much the same as chow-chow, only with a couple hot peppers tossed in.
But that’s about the extent of my canning. It’s one of those things I have good intentions about, but never seem to put into action.
Maybe this year. Although I’ll probably just keep thinking about it.
