Doing the Can-Can

Just popping up for a bit of air between canning sessions. I'm extremely pleased with my pantry, considering that we didn't get back into the house until high summer, and considering that I didn't put in a garden this year. Rowan's garden has kept us well stocked, especially with tomatoes, however. Here's what I've done so far this year in the way of canning:

10 pints king salmon (plus a few pounds smoked)

12 cups blueberry jam (a third of which is already gone)

6 cups bread and butter pickles

8 quarts applesauce

4 quarts tomato sauce

6 cups hot salsa

4 cups of lovely sweet pickled peppers, made from a mess of gorgeous bright red, yellow and green hot chiles from my neighbor's garden.

Aside from canning, I've also done a good bit of other preserving, mostly freezing. There are about twenty gallons of assorted frozen berries in the chest freezer, and an even dozen loaves of zucchini bread from the crate of zucchini that an unknown neighbor left on my porch (Anonymous Squash (Must be August)).

In the fridge I have a half-gallon of sauerkraut that we will probably never eat, and three quarts of kosher fermented dill pickles that we must eat soon, as they are getting inedibly sour. Next month we are getting a quarter of beef. More later - it's time to make dinner!