Erin's (attempt at) Hobbies- Canning

Earlier this Summer we decided to join Bluebird Farms and have been thrilled each Tuesday when we get our fresh vegetables. The day I signed us up for Bluebird Farms, I developed a healthy obsession with canning.
Canning is great for me for a couple of reasons; 1. If you know me at all, you know I've got a thing about running out of food. I live in a constant state of fear of running low which has resulted in weekly Sam's club visits, an extra freezer in our kitchen and a closet full of overage. I did not grow up without food, so I'm not too sure where this 'thing' came from, but I've got it. My name is Erin and I'm a borderline food hoarder. 2. I love working with the ingredients and making food for my family that is healthy and that hasn't been doused in pesticides. 3. I really enjoy giving away things I've canned.

Here are a couple of things I made a few weeks back:

This is an amazing Blackberry Port Jam I've made twice now. Recipe (as my memory allows) is below.

 I began by boiling my jars to sterilize them.

Steve loves Apple Butter- so Apple Butter he got. I had to push it through a sieve. My arms were super sore.

This is a picture of the Apple Butter cooking. Has a much richer color after all of the Fall ingredients were added.

I made a Fall Blend of Apple Butter and used Maple Syrup, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Brown Sugar, Cloves, All Spice, and Maple Flavoring along with even more sugar.

I didn't need to add any pectin to this since I cooked the apples with peels and pressed everything through a sieve.

Finished Blackberry Port Jam

Finished Apple Butter.

Blackberry Port Jam:

5-6 Cups Whole Blackberries
1 Cup of a good, fruity Port
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. cinnamon
6 Cups sugar
Pectin


Cook Blackberries in pot until they turn bright red and get nice and soft. (about a half hour to 45 minutes). Mash them with a potato masher to get the juices out and to break them up a bit. Add in your sugar, port, cloves (to taste... I like a bit more than Steve does) and cinnamon and cook for about another hour to combine all of the flavors and to make sure things have reduced down nicely. Add in your pectin packet and stir until dissolved.

Pour into pint jars leaving about 1/2 inch below the top. Seal and place in a hot water bath canner for about 10 minutes. Remove and cool on a dry towel listening for the pops. All of my jars popped pretty quickly.

Steve and I have really enjoyed this jam on toast as well as with pork chops. Steve reduces some of it down with some rosemary and other things and it's just great with a pork chop and some roasted veggies.

Apple Butter:

1 5lb. Bag of green apples
1 container of sugar-free applesauce
Good quality maple syrup (I used about a cup or two)
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Sugar- about one cup for each cup of Apples
Nutmeg
Brown Sugar

I wish I had a good description of how I made this.  Really, I just used an apple butter recipe from online- then added in whatever I thought would be tasty. I pretty much just dumped in ingredients and kept tasting it until it was sweet and tasted like Fall.
It was a hit.

I hot-water-bathed the apple butter for around 10 minutes, as well.