Preserving for Winter

As I said in an earlier post I have spent the better part of the last couple months canning and preserving.  While a lot of people struggled with their gardens this year due to the weather, I was surprised that mine did so good.  Everything I planted produced well for me with the exception of the bell peppers.  I have a few on but they are small and bitter tasting.

As usual the canning season started off with sweet corn.  I put up 27 quarts and 40 pints of corn. 

From my own garden I was able to preserve:

27 quarts and 12 pints of tomatoes
12 quarts and 56 pints of green beans
11 pints of pickles
9 half pints of hot peppers
7 pints and 9 half pints of salsa (got some of the peppers and tomatoes from a friend, everything else was from our garden)
86 quarts of peaches (not all were off our trees.  Some of these were given to us and some I bought at a produce auction)

I also  found a lot of free sources for produce.  Apples were a big one for us this year.  I found a couple different places that had apple trees that the owners weren't interested in having.  Yay for me!!  I was also able to find places to pick pears and grapes.  So in addition to the above I also added this to my pantry...

21 quarts and 26 pints of pears
8 quarts and 41 pints of applesauce (as well as lots of dried apple rings)
3 pints and 12 half pints of apple butter
11 pints and 19 half pints of grape jelly
1 quart and 5 pints of grape juice.  

I also attended a produce auction where I bought 100 lbs of tomatoes and with that I made 27 pints and 6 half pints of tomato sauce. I have a seperate post about that!

So as you can see, I have been a bit busy.  With grocery prices going up I am happy to have a pantry full of healthy, homegrown canned goods for my family.