Preserving the harvest: Canned Peaches

It seems almost wrong to have peaches and not can them.  When we got peaches my husband and I saw that they were very ripe and we had to work at getting them done soon.  So that night after the kids went to bed we made it a date night and canned peaches together.  I was bad and didn't take pictures of the whole process.

A little trick that I just absolutely love about getting the skins off of peaches.  Put the peaches in boiling water for 30-60 seconds and then put them in cold water and the skins will come off so easily.  I give props to whoever discovered that years ago!!!

We packed our peaches in light syrup which is a cup of sugar to a quart of liquid.  Then we put sliced peaches in the jar filling it until there was 1/2inch headspace then filled it with the liquid.  This next part is important make sure you get all of the air bubbles out from around the slices!!!   Then wipe your rims and adjust the lids then process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

They are so pretty.  We did 3/4 of a bushel and ended up with 25 quarts of peaches.

Preserving the harvest: Jams

I have already made two different jams/jellies this summer.  The blueberry jelly was my first one and raspberry jam was the other one.  We bought a bushel of peaches and they needed to get used fast.  I remember my mom making peach freezer jam when I was little.  I don't have any room in my freezer so I made some that I could can. 

Here it is while it was cooking.

The end result it looks so pretty and it tastes pretty yummy as well. Here is the recipe and directions that I used.

2 quarts crushed, peeled peaches

1/2c water

6c sugar

Sterilize canning jars (boil in water for 10mins).  Combine peaches and water; cook gently 10 minutes.  Add sugar; slowly bring to boiling, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly until thick, about 15 minutes; stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Pour hot jams into hot jars, leaving 1/4in headspace.  Wipe jar rims and adjust lids.  Process 5 mins in a boiling water bath.

If you want to make spiced peach jam tie 1 teaspoon whole cloves, 1 stick cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice in a cheesecloth and add to the jam during cooking.  Remove spice bag before pouring hot jam into hot jars.  Process as directed for peach jam.

Preserving the harvest: Freezing Corn

First of all, SORRY for not put anything up last week.  I don't know what happened but it just wasn't flowing or something.  It was a busy week.  We have been canning and freezing all week.  I thought that I would share with you what we did throughout this last week.

The first thing we did was freeze some corn that a friend gave us from her garden.  It was great because I was able to have my daughter help me out a lot of this one.   She helped shuck the corn and handed me ears to put in the water.  

After shucking the corn I actually just cooked it for 5 minutes in boiling water and then pulled them out and let them cool.

After they cooled enough so I could touch the cob I cut the kernels off and put it in a bag.  My wonderful daughter labeled the bags for me.

With 8 ears of corn we were able to fill two quart size bags for the freezer.  It was a great little activity to break up the day for us and to have corn to enjoy later.

An Anniversary Gift

Five years ago my wonderful husband and I got married.  It hasn't been easy but it sure has been worth it!!  I wanted to share part of my gift for him.  I saw in a few places an idea of doing 101 reasons why I love you.  It kind of developed from there.  I made a list this past week of reasons why I love him.   I typed up the list on pictures of us we have taken this last year and glued them on an "accordion album" that I found at Oriental Trading Company.

Mailbox....

Remember my mailbox for my husband in this post?

Well my beautiful daughter has asked me if she could have one as well.  I thought what a great idea that everyone in the family should have one.  Here is hers that I painted in the colors that I want to make her new bedspread in if I can find the right fabric.

Kids Calendar

First of all sorry about the quality of the picture, I took this at night.  This was the first project that I made with my cricut back in January.  I wasn't sure how it was going to fly with my daughter so I only did the first 6 months of the year.  I put all the holidays, birthdays, and random days like national kite day on it.  My daughter loved it and referred to it all the time.  July was a busy month and I just now was able to print off the rest of the year.  I now need to find my calendar with all those cool random days and write them on the calendar.  Now she has something to refer to so she can see how long she has until school starts which she keeps asking me.  :)

What I saw last night...

We were at the state fair last night and was having a blast. Then I looked up in the sky and saw this:

Preserving the harvest: Raspberry Jam

On Saturday we got up and went out to a farm and picked some raspberries.  It was nice we had the bushes to ourselves for about 45mins and were able to pick to our hearts content.  When we came home I got straight to work.

I rinsed off some berries.  Don't they look gorgeous? :)

I put them in a big pot and smashed them, the recipe calls for 9 cups of crushed berries.  I think that I was really close to that.

I think added 6 cups of sugar and boiled it until 220 degrees F.  My thermometer decided to quit going up at about 200 degrees and so after a little bit I took a little bit of the jam and put it in a little glass and put that in the freezer for a minute then checked to see if it gelled up and it had so I knew it was done.

Then I scooped it into the jars. Then put it in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

Here are the beauties.  They are a big hit with the family!!!

Here it the recipe and directions that I used:

9 cups crushed berries

6 cups sugar

Sterilize canning jars.  Combine berries and sugar.  Bring slowly to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves.  Cook rapidly to or almost to, jellying point, depending upon whether a firm or soft jam is desired.  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Pour hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Wipe jar rims and adjust lids.  Process 5 minutes in a Boiling Water Bath.

Girl's Shirt Redo

I was going to post this yesterday but the day got away from me!!!  My daughter has this shirt that she loves but it has ties on it that become a problem every time she wears it, she doesn't like having the knot on her back and I can't stand to see them dangling all the time.   Here is an example:

So I decided to remove the ties.

I decided to use the ties to make a head band for her to wear with it.

href="http://www.wmcraftgoodies.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n563/Wendy_Gardiner/tgifbutton.jpg" border="0" alt="Craft Goodies">

My August Cleaning Goal

I thought that I would share part of the August Cleaning Goal that I did this morning.  We only have one set of stairs/hallway but it's probably the most used part of the house.  With that said its also the part that doesn't get cleaned the most often either. 

Its kind of hard to see all the food, dust, feathers and other random things that have showed up on the stairs but trust me it was there! :)

I went through 3 clorax wipes to clean the walls and get the food, and mud off of the walls.  I also had some pencil markings to get off of the walls.  Some of them came off better than other's with a white eraser but I just wanted to get the worse of it off.  I will take the rest off when we move with a magic eraser.  

Then here is the top of the stairs I didn't realized how bad it was until I started cleaning it :)

Here is part of the goal for this month.  Good luck with doing it!!