Preparing for the Winter

After many days spent on canning this past month, here is what I have accomplished. With the peaches, pears and apricots, two of my friends came over and we worked together to get all of our fruit done. I feel more prepared for the winter now and look forward to enjoying the "fruits of my labors". I joked with my friends that I will not let anyone touch anything we worked so hard to bottle until October. We'll see if I can hold out that long.

This year I bottled for our family: 20 quarts of pickles, 12 half pints of cherries, 3 1/2 quarts of cherry pie filling, 7 pints of blueberry pie filling, 7 quarts of applesauce, 38 quarts peaches, 35 quarts of pears, 15 quarts of apricots, 9 1/2 quarts of pear sauce, 13 half pints of jalapeno pepper jelly, and 13 pints of pizza sauce.

I learned a lot and especially enjoyed working together with my friends. Already I am planning what I want to do next year. Hopefully I will acquire a pressure cooker so I can venture into canning vegetables.