DH has been teasing me that I get more excited about seeing Mason jars than I do jewelry. It's true. We don't go anywhere where I need fancy jewelry. I have a lovely wedding set from when we married 26 years ago and a couple of nice, but simple necklaces and I'm good for out to dinner or to church. But the sparkly Mason jars...that's what catches my eye!
Yesterday I decided to inventory what I have so far. DH has grown tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, garlic, herbs, and carrots. I have purchased fresh green beans until a friend gave me a few pounds this week as they finished their garden. I wanted a list since my pie safe is full, I have some jars in the bottom of a Hoosier cabinet, and now in the bottom of the island:
51 quarts of green beans
19 pints of green beans
15 quarts of tomatoes
13 pints of tomatoes
2 pints of tomato basil salsa
1 half pint of tomato basil salsa
6 pints of onions
2 half pints of onions
6 half pints of apple jelly
6 half pints of grape jelly
13 pints of pickles
2 half pints of pickles
4 pints of relish
2 quarts of carrots
8 pints of carrots
I would have more carrots except I ran out of jars. I prefer the pints because that is about what we eat at a meal, but I punted last night and used the quarts. One of the thrift shops had pint jars really reasonable so on Tuesday I am going to stop by and see if they have them. I don't need a whole case at this point. I have about 8 quart jars left for tomatoes.
In addition, I have 3 pints of minced garlic in the fridge that DH grew and I have about 2 pounds of chopped bell peppers in the freezer.
I still need to dry herbs, but I feel like we have a good showing. I imagine before the first frost I will make green tomato relish as we scramble to pick the tomatoes. I made it last year and used it like relish and a friend liked it so much, he ate it like salsa.
I make apple juice for DH since he likes it when we have Sunday brunch. Sometimes I make far more than he will drink in a couple of weeks, so I used it to make apple jelly. Early this summer we bought grapes and although they tasted good, the skin was kind of chewy. I juiced them to make the grape jelly.
The ongoing joke around here is I tell DH I need a walk in pantry. Although it would be nice to have one, I have no idea where we would locate it and I certainly don't want to spend money. I will say that I'm going to be forced to go through my cabinets and truly purge those items I don't use such as different dishes and pots so I can make room for any other canned goods. Guess this is the initiative I needed. I tend to use the same casserole dishes and pots so it is silly to keep the ones I never use.
Hopefully all this stuff will help on the grocery bill come winter.
Canning Update
September 4th, 2016 at 08:55 pm
September 4th, 2016 at 09:08 pm 1473023333
September 4th, 2016 at 11:40 pm 1473032439
September 4th, 2016 at 11:53 pm 1473033196
September 5th, 2016 at 02:11 am 1473041503
September 5th, 2016 at 01:54 pm 1473083695
September 5th, 2016 at 02:01 pm 1473084076
September 5th, 2016 at 02:02 pm 1473084178
September 7th, 2016 at 01:43 am 1473212582