Because We "Can Can Can!!!!!!"

My mother-in-law, my mother, and I canned a ton of fruits and vegetables this summer. We canned our butts off. For a while there my schedule was as follows: eat, sleep, can, work, repeat. Canning and preserving is a ton of fun; sure, sometimes you are on your feet for eight to ten hours in a kitchen, but at the end of the day, when you look at your bounty, it's all worth it.

We have playfully dubbed our operation "Canning Club," because the three of us have become a well-oiled machine. We can can at the drop of a hat. And it's a good thing, too. Sometimes our farmer will surprise us with 50 pounds of peaches; other times he'll drop 100 pounds of beets at our feet. We take whatever we get and we can it!

The end result? A wealth of cans. I had to do an inventory I had so many jars. A serious honest-to-gosh inventory. We aren't quite done canning yet--apple season has just begun, after all. But we've gotten to a good point where I wanted to stop and share my work with all of you in cyber space.

Since I have sooooo many cans, and such a variety of wonderful things to eat this post is the first an ongoing series that will be called, "From The Canning Vault." It's going to show you all the ways I am using my canned goods in real life. I hope that it inspires you to get in the kitchen and perhaps to get into some canning and preserving.

Canning Club has totally enriched my life. It's amazing what goes on between three women in a kitchen. And we often invite over other ladies to come and hang with us while we can, and toward the end, we have some cocktails and share whatever leftover from canning have occurred; sometimes it's a great salsa and chips, other times we've got a great jam to share. But what really keeps Canning Club running is the great bond we share as women.

We bare our souls and talk about everything from relationships to family to sex and better canning and preserving techniques. We laugh a TON, cry a little, and I have found it to be a great emotional support and outlet. There is just something between women that cannot be described--such a bond.

Without further adieu, here is my canning inventory (as of September 6th) and a few pictures!!!! Enjoy!

Jams and the like: 

Strawberry Jam- 10 jars
Blueberry Jam- 7 jars
Peach Jam- 10 jars
Pepper Marmalade- 7 jars
Peach-Cantelope Conserve- 4 jars
Plum Conserve- 6 jars
[Indian] Apple Chutney- 4 jars

Beets:

Pickled Beets- 3 pint and a half jars
Hot Pickled Beets- 3 pint and a half jars
Pickled Beets with Onions- 8 pint jars

Peppers:

Pickled Banana Peppers- 5 pint jars
Hot Pickled Bell Peppers- 3 pint jars
Hot & Sweet Pickled Bell Peppers- 1 pint jar

Applesauce (spiced)- 6 pint jars

Peaches:

Spiced peaches- 4 pint jars
Peaches & Nectarines (mixed)- 4 pint jars/ 1 quart jar
Drunken Peaches- 3 half pint jars/ 1 pint jar
White Peach nectar- 3 quart jars
Peach & Kiwi nectar- 3 pint jars
"Just" Peach nectar- 4 pint and a half jars

Other Fruit:

Plums- 4 pint jars
Drunk Pears- 5 pint jars

Tomatoes:

Bruschetta- 8 half pint jars
Medium Salsa- 8 pint jars
Chipotle Salsa- 5 pint jars/ 5 half pint jars
"Just" Tomatoes- 17 pint jars/ 7 pint and a half jars/ 27 quart jars
Tomato Juice- 3 pint jars/ 3 pint and a half jars/ 7 quart jars

TOTAL JARS CANNED: 199 !!!!!!