more bang for your buck

Here are four canning post in one.   More bang for your buck.  Not that there are any bucks involved. 

I put up 23 quarts of green beans.  Many were in pints, but it totaled 23 quarts.   It was 1 bushel of beans, which this year weighed 26 pounds.  I paid $25 for them.  Last year my bushel was 33 pounds.  I felt like there were more this year, so maybe last year I was not weighed properly.   

I made a batch of cheater style grape jelly.   It's so stinkin good.  I will make more of this as needed.  Cheater jelly lets you do that.

On a whim, I canned several jars of cherries.  They aren't especially local but the grocery was having a super sale so I thought I'd try them out.  I hot packed them to allow more to fit in the jars.  Normally I cold pack things because it takes a step out.

One jar didn't seal right, so we ate them that next day, cool from the fridge.  Bee and I went crazy for them, the boys were neutral.

I used my new tattler lids on the cherries.  They are reusable canning lids.  They are a little different to use but can be used dozens and dozens of times.  I did one batch of 7 jars and 6 sealed great.   Rather than reprocess the mystery jar, we just ate it.  I've only ever had one jar not seal the first time, so I hope that there's just a learning curve and I'll get this method down too.

When my oldest younger sister was visiting, she made her first batch of strawberry jam.  I walked her through it, but she did it all so she could give it as gifts this Christmas. 

I saw this graphic somewhere and thought it was fun.  I think she's going to drop a jar.  I would know how she felt.

Part three to the crash saga is that Hubby did decide to remove some of the basement ceiling to check for grossness and yuck after juice started leaking through.

So this is how it sits.  as it turns out, there is no grossness or yuck.  It just sits open.  We'll see for how long!