Day 180... June Canning adventures

       I have been surprised this year that I am as excited about making jam and pickles as I was when I threw myself into this project last year.  When I heard the strawberries were in at my local picking spot... I was ready to GO!!!

  But it was Mothers Day and my husband kidnapped me for a fun weekend....  and the next weekend we went to the beach for a week for our anniversary.. which got extended by a couple of days to cover Memorial Day... and then we hit the ground running when we got back!
     Not only with the 'catch-up' from our schedules being off for the last few weeks.... but also preparing for a refi appraisal [yeah they called the day after we got home and said... I'll be there at 1pm].... and then I got called to work at the library... and two preschool graduations [when did this get to be a thing?], my cousins came to stay with us after their European adventure [and all my own kids came to visit at different times over the course of a weekend... lots of food and fun!].
    As all this was going on, I did get my canning things out.... and managed a morning picking strawberries... just a gallon this year... one batch of jam and some good eating.  Plain strawberry jam....

And my produce box has had an abundance of BEETS!  Beets which my husband won't eat and I do but not that many!  So I am hunting for recipes

  Life kept moving.... and the following weekend I snuck out again and picked the last of the strawberry crop - got 2 quarts!.. and 2 quarts of blueberries....  The strawberries I put up with a Strawberry Apple Jam recipe to utilize the natural pectin in apples.

So this week I prepared the beets for canning and pulled a couple of recipes from last year and some new to try..  Gingery Pickled Beets from (Food in Jars by Marissa McClellan) are done.... and I have more beets to can that I'll share next time.

This morning, the 2 quarts of blueberries are simmering as I write Blueberry Jam (also from Food in Jars).... and when I have them canned, I am wandering off again to collect another gallon of blueberries to play with.

I will share more recipes as I prepare them....