It started with apples

I have an apple tree in my backyard. This apple tree has produced a massive amount of apples. I started to feel bad because they were going to waste. I didn't want them to just rot; I decided to bottle some apple pie filling and apple butter. I went to the store and bought the mason jars. While there I decided that I could also do a batch of strawberry jam. (I mean come on, who doesn't love homemade strawberry jam on toast?) On my way to the produce section I saw that raspberries were on sale. I bought two flats and added raspberry jam to my rapidly growing list. Then on the drive home I saw a fruit stand and thought that I might as well add peaches too. I figured I was going to be in the middle of canning hell anyway, why not add something else.

After 3 trips to the store, 25 lbs of sugar, 8 hours on my feet, ridiculously sore hands from peeling apple, I was done. The finished product was 16 quarts of apple pie filling, 10 quarts of peaches, 18 half pints of raspberry jam, 20 half pints of strawberry jam, 18 half pints of apple butter and 5 half pints of pepper jelly. Yeah, somewhere along the way I added pepper jelly.


You would think that I would be sick of canning, but I am not. Next week on the agenda is tomatoes and salsa plus a few other things. Green beans, chili, pumpkin pie filling, and maybe some potatoes. I am working on getting my food storage ready. I figured this is a good start.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I will also be posting my thoughts on General Conference a little later.