Blackberry Syrup

Oh, yum!



I made this yesterday, canned it and had a small amount leftover that wasn't enough to fit in a pint jar, so I decided we'd have pancakes from scratch with blackberry syrup for breakfast this morning!


This syrup is ridiculously easy to make. Seriously.

Combine equal parts blackberry juice and sugar in a pot and simmer until you have a consistency you want.
(mine's quite thick and that's because I actually forgot about it on the stove so it simmered for probably 15 minutes)


But, for those of you who just need this in recipe format, here you are:

Blackberry Syrup

yield - 7 cups
(or 3 pints + 1 jelly jar's worth)

Ingredients

5 cups blackberry pulp or juice
5 cups sugar

Directions

Combine ingredients in a large pot over med-low heat. Simmer for approx 3-5 minutes for a thin syrup or up to 15 minutes for a thick syrup.
If canning: Ladle into hot, sterile jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust sterilized lids and rings. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

How easy was that?!

Plum Chutney

I had planned on using my remaining plums to make plum jam, but I ran across this plum chutney recipe in my Ball canning cookbook

...I highly recommend it...

and decided it would be perfect to use for the chicken with plum chutney dish I sometimes make...and will probably make more often now that I don't have to make the chutney each and every time!

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Plum Chutney

Ingredients

4 quarts chopped and pitted plums
3 cups brown sugar
2 cups raisins
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons mustard seed*
2 teaspoons ginger*
1 teaspoon salt*
3 cups vinegar

*Note: I didn't have these on hand, so I used a pickling season mix.

Directions
Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer until thick. Stir frequently to prevent sticking or burning. Ladle hot chutney into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath

Rotel

I never seem to use the same recipe twice...and until I was getting ready to post this, I had completely forgotten about the Rotel recipe I posted last year.
(Duh, Katie. Duh.)

So what you see above is not what I made last year...but it's close. I think the main difference(s) is that I used cider vinegar instead of lemon juice and omitted the bell peppers.

Blackberry Jam

This morning I canned some blackberry jam.
It was a chore removing all the seeds, but much easier than last year thanks to Lorrie letting me use the food mill!

Here's the first batch of blackberry pulp/juice:




and a little bit of left over jam:
(it wasn't enough to fit in a pint jar, but was too much to throw out!)

I just used the recipe that came with my box of pectin. If you make this, I recommend you follow those instructions, but here's a link to the Sure Jell recipe.

Plums in Syrup

Last week I canned some plums in a basic sugar syrup.
These are delish poured over vanilla ice cream!!!

It's pretty much just removing the pit from the plums, cutting them to the desired size, put them in a jar, cover with sugar syrup and process in a hot water bath.

Go here for the full recipe!

Peach Butter

Mmm...this turned out very yummy!
It did take a long time, but I think it was worth the wait (and mess!)

I started with about 2 pounds of peaches and got 1 pint and 1 jelly jar of butter, so I'd guesstimate that you'll need 1 1/2 pounds of peaches per pint.

Peach Butter
yield 3 pints

4 1/2 pounds peaches
4 cups sugar

The first step is to blanch and peel the peaches, then remove the pits and make into pulp with a food processor, food mill, stick blender or, as I did, a potato masher.

Add 4 cups peach pulp and sugar to saucepan and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally and with more frequency as it becomes thicker.

Fill hot pint jars with butter, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Add lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Canning Pears

Today I canned my 6 pounds of pears!
I took the easy route and just canned them as sliced pears. Nothing fancy. I didn't even peel them - although I'm thinking I should have.

It took approximately 1 pound of pears per pint.

Here's a thorough recipe for canning pears in syrup.

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If I find pears at a good price per pound again, I may try making pear butter and pear-sauce!

First Canning of the Year!

This weekend I got 5 10oz bags of mushrooms for $0.75 each.




So, I decided to can them! I got 5 half pints and 1 pint. Not too bad for $3.75!



Here's the instructions for canning mushrooms.