Hi friends.
Well, things have settled down (as much as they ever do) since my dear friend Becka left last week. But there’s always tons of stuff to do.
I’m still working on some long-term projects, but I thought I’d share a little bit of what I’ve been doing.
Last year I tried canning for the first time and immediately fell in love. I canned like crazy, much to Little Man’s dismay. Thankfully, this year he doesn’t seem to mind, and mostly wants to help out.
Anyway. I made strawberry freezer jam once this summer, but other than that I hadn’t done much.
I thought I’d lost my chance for canning things cherry-related when I failed to buy cherries when they were cheap at my local supermarket.
But then I found organic cherries for $1.88/lb which is the cheapest I’ve seen this year, I think. (For those of you locals who read this, you can get them at Bob’s Produce Ranch in Fridley this week at that price!)
Since cherries might be my most favorite fruit, I couldn’t resist.
My friend Elizabeth came over yesterday and we stemmed and pitted until our fingers were red. From cherry juice.
First, we made this fruit butter found here by Healthy Life, Happy Cook. Only 4 ingredients– cherries, honey, ginger, and lemon juice, but the flavor is fantastic. The ginger is fairly subtle here, so you don’t have to worry about it overpowering the cherries. It’s a really nice counterpoint to the sweetness.
It makes a pretty small batch, so we had a fair amount of cherries leftover.
So we found a simple recipe for canned cherries in a light/medium syrup. It was really easy, except her recommendation for leaving 2cm as head space left us with leaking jars after processing, so we had to take out some syrup and re-process. But they’re still super pretty and I hope they taste really nice. Check out the link for pictures of gorgeous canned Ranier cherries!
Have you done any canning this year?
by amber's hands 