I Can Can

This year we did a little more unusual canning than usual. We often make some jam or apple butter, but this year we were just trying to preserve the harvest without too much fuss.

While much of the harvest ended up in the freezer, a few things found their way into jars and hopped into the canner while we weren't watching.

Above, French Onion Soup. We used six pounds of yellow and white onions from our garden and simmered them in a homemade beef stock with some dried herbs vaguely resembling a bouquet garni.

Sideways sliced dill pickles from the last cucumbers of the year. These pickling cucumbers were a bit overgrown (think two pound torpedoes), but they sliced up fine.

The long-sliced dills are identical except for shape. In the past we've made bread and butter pickles but we really like dills. These are sort of a mix between the two. The kids love them and I think they're pretty good.

What canning blog post would be complete without dilly beans? Sorry, Ben - no hot pepper variety this time.







Beets made for beautiful canning creations. We topped the beets and sautéed some of the greens. I think I was the only fan of the greens - we'll see if the kids go for the beets.
































The Mehu Maija rests after steaming apples for juice and apple puree.