canning

i haven't done much in food preservation this year. i did a little freezer jam and i've got some raspberries frozen in my freezer that i am going to eventually make into jam, but other than that, i haven't done anything. we still have some peaches and pears from last year, and i just don't have the energy to do those this year. plus, i'm really missing allred's orchards and haven't found any peaches that measure up here.

i knew that i wanted to do marinara sauce again though. it really is a staple in our house and our jars from last year are dwindling down. my pathetic attempt at growing tomatoes has not produced anything of note, so i knew i needed to buy some tomatoes but kept putting it off. i kept thinking that i had plenty of time and that it's still summer (the weather has been gorgeous the last few weeks), but last week i noticed that the leaves are starting to change and decided that i couldn't put it off any longer. 

a few weeks ago, i went to a food preservation activity at our church, figuring that i was mostly going for the social aspect because i already kind of know my way around a canning pot. i should have known better. i learned a couple of great things: 1. when blanching fruit (including tomatoes), just put a couple of layers in a clean and plugged sink and dump a big pot of boiling water on it, wait a few minutes, pull the plug and drain the sink, and then plug again and pour in ice water. you can do a ton of fruit at once and it makes clean up so easy. 2. in the northwest, you have to remove the rims from the cans after they seal or else they rust on. i've never canned in washington before and would have had no idea. i would have been really sad come next spring. it also explains why a friend gave us a jar of jam with no rim on it, which i just thought was odd at the time.

now that i've thoroughly bored you all, here are the rest of my pictures of the process. i got twenty-six pints done and plan on doing one more round next week. then there's the applesauce...