First Canning of the Season

We spent the majority of Saturday canning our green beans and strawberry-rhubarb jam.  We ended up with 4 quarts of beans (all just picked within a week) and 14 half-pints of jam (plus two plastic containers to eat in the next few weeks).  This is my all-time favorite jam and it tastes great!  An evening check of the green bean plants showed lots more ready to be picked!  I'm going to try freezing the next batch of beans to see which preservation method ends up tasting better.  Freezing is a much easier method, but it also relies on a constant supply of electricity.  I also froze a bag of snap peas in between canning the beans and jam.  This was our first time using a pressure canner (for the green beans), and I was so excited everything sealed and turned out great!  I can't wait to try other vegetables!  

 

Note to self...next time, think ahead before attempting to buy canning materials during canning season.  We looked at several stores for a pressure canner with a gauge, but there were none to be found (except online).  I also couldn't find small lids!

 

We have a great recipe for Cashew Chicken and Broccoli that we'll use these for in the future.

 

The feeling is so rewarding to know that we grew these in our own garden and we know exactly what was put in each jar!

 

All of the rhubarb in the jam was from our garden, but only a little over a handful of strawberries were our own.  As mentioned in a previous post, our strawberry produce was down this year, so we had to supplement with hand-picked berries from a nearby strawberry farm.  One of these years, I'll get the two to coincide with good production!