July 2015 - Canning

It's been busy in the garden!  We've had regular rain almost every couple days.  

It can get ahead of me really quickly. Last week the green beans made had come in enough to make the cut, and Neil also showed up with a box of peaches from a local farmer.  

So off I went looking for some recipes.  

Beans aren't too complex.  I found good directions at a site called PickYourOwn.  This year, there have been no pests, and nothing eating my crop.  The beans have been just perfect.  So other than washing and cutting into smaller pieces it was pretty straight forward.  It will be nice to have those during the winter time.

The peaches took a couple days to ripen to perfection.  And I do mean perfection.  They tasted amazing!  

I found a pretty easy receipe for peach preserves at Allrecipes.  It came out really well.  

Then I decided to have a little more fun and tried making a peach and pepper chutney.  When I told a friend I was canning peaches, she sent me the recipe below.  I had some left that didn't fill up an entire jar so I used it wiith dinner last night.  Neil is not a raisin fan and he never said a word.  It was fabulous!  It has a nice sweet/sour flavor with ginger.  It was great as a stir fry sauce with chicken and pea pods.  The intent of the recipe was that it be used as a condiment, but this worked great.    

The chutney did take the longest out of the 3 projects, but the results were well worth it.  I think I'm going to look for more recipes of this type.  It would make cooking in the winter quite a bit more fun.  

Next in line for canning looks like it will be the cucumbers, and then maybe the tomatoes.  We're planning on doing salsa with all the peppers and onions we have growing this year.  I can't wait for the sweet corn this year!!

Happy Gardening and Canning!

Cheers

Peach, Pepper and Ginger Chutney Recipe

1 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar

3/4 cup Sugar

14 medium-sized Peaches, halved, pitted and cut into 1 inch pieces

1 Yellow bell Pepper, Diced

1 Orange Bell Pepper, Diced

1 Red Bell Pepper, Diced

2 Cloves of Garlic, Minced

1 Large Yellow Onion, Diced

1/2 Cup Raisins

1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries

1 Orange, Juiced

1/2 Lemon, Juiced

2 Tblsp Crystallized ginger, chopped

1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 Tsp Salt

Simmer cider vinegar and sugar in a saucepan for 10 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients except the ground ginger and the salt.  Simmer forty-five minutes to an hour until mixture is thick.  Add the ground ginger and salt.  Taste for seasoning.

Ladle mixture into sterilized jars and seal.  Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.  Remove jars from bath and cool.  Wipe jars and check seals.  

Make approximately 5 pints.