Dooms Day Prepper????

Lol!  I feel like a prepper over the past few days.  My counter tops have jars stacked everywhere.  As mentioned in an earlier post, canning is a lost art that I believe is making a come back.  For me, it is totally relaxing and very rewarding to "see" the end results.  It always looks so pretty in the jars and the entire house smells scrumptious.  Our entire family gets involved with the process.  Talk about great, quality family time.

We actually started canning a few weeks back when our favorite little farm, The Clark's Family Farm, started selling seconds on their tomatoes.  Seconds are those tomatoes that don't make the cut to the produce table.  They might have a crack, a bruised spot, or maybe just a bit over or under ripe.  In other words, they are not pretty and perfect.  They are less expensive and are usually sold by the half or whole bushel, which makes them perfect for canning.  So far we have put up spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, tomato soup, tomato preserves, and dried basil tomatoes.

Seconds

Prepped and ready to be cooked

Treats for the chickens

Removing the skins and seeds for the soup

Tomato Soup

Homemade candied ginger
I needed it for my tomato preserves

Prepping for tomato preserves

Tomato Preserves

Loading the dehydrator 

Spaghetti Sauce

Dried Basil Tomatoes

Simmering Pizza Sauce

So far, all of our tomatoes have been purchased from the Clarks', however, it won't be long until we can pick them from our garden.  Kevin planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, green beans, Brussel sprouts and lettuces on the 4th of July weekend.  Everything is looking good.  We actually have picked enough cucumbers to make our first batch of dill pickles.

Just one of our tomato plants
and she is loaded!

Look closely and you can see Lydia's
pretty flowers

Picking our first cucumbers 

Gonna be delicious!

Cutting Dill slices 

Making pickles :)

First 5 pints of Dill Pickles getting
a water bath

We are also fortunate to have a pear tree in our yard and it is loaded with pears.  So loaded, that a limb broke off due to the weight.  The pears were not quite ready but we didn't want them to go to waste so we made some scrumptious, old fashion, pear preserves.  The kids and I peeled over 100 pears from that one broken limb.  We still have a tree full!  If you are a friend or relative, you know what your Christmas gift is going to be.  Lol!

These pears soaked in sugar all night in the
fridge, creating a delicious syrup  

Preparing the jars.
I haven't found my canning pot yet! :(

Can you smell them?  Mmmm!

Getting their water bath

Ta Da!  Old Fashion Pear Preserves

I have to admit, the past few weeks have been fun.  I love being in the kitchen with my family.  Yes, it is a small kitchen and no, I haven't found my canning pot and some other useful tools, but that hasn't stopped the Lambings.  We just got creative and used what we had.  This is a picture of our results.

Just a portion of what we have canned :)

If you have never tried canning, give it a try.  I am pretty sure you will like it.  Oh, and don't forget, make it a family affair.