Anyone canning this year? If so, I would love your recipes. I love to can. I am canning Sand Plum Jelly, Bread and Butter Pickles, Sweet Relish this week.

My husband and I have a deal - he picks the Sand Plums (lots of thorns) and I make jelly.

What in the world is a sand plum?

LOL. They might be an Oklahoma delicacy. Sand plums grow wild here in Oklahoma. They are a little bigger than nickel size. They make the best jelly and people beg you to make it for them around here. Put it out in an auction or bake sale and it is the first thing to go. Very tasty.

I canned grape Jelly and Bread and Butter Pickles last year. Will be doing the same, but our canning season is much later "up here" - I won't start until August.

We just canned some tomatoes Sunday afternoon. We made and canned our own Salsa dip last year...it was pretty good for our first time.

I only planted tomatoes this year, so I'll (hopefully!) be canning some of them.

Most of the canning I do is to help my Mom. This year it'll be all things tomato and pole beans. No telling what else.. they have a big honkin garden & the fruit trees have gone mad this year.

If it can't go in a ziplock, I don't mess with it anymore!

I don't do much canning anymore but would like to do a batch or two of salsa. But that won't be until August. I also have an awesome recipe for freezer cucumber relish. I will be freezing as much of that as I am able!

Links to recipes, please, especially for tomatoes. Most of the family is grown so instead of presents, we do baskets at Christmas with our homemade goodies and silly inexpensive gifts. My sister gives everyone herbs and spices from her garden in return.

Still have strawberry jelly but all out of saur kraut. But that won't be made till fall.

Joker, cherry tomatoes can be frozen and used for sish kabob or in chili and stews. I do the same with Italian plum tomatoes. Much easier than canning them.

What's the trick to salsa that stays fresh in a can?

Pressure-cooking.

wow, TR..never thought about freezing them whole! I freeze them blanched and ready for salsa, spagetti(sp) chili and all.

I sent my sister freshly dried herbs at christmas...I couldn't decide if she was pleased or not?!? She's a heck of a cook, so I thought she'd be very pleased!

TR....slap me...you make saur kraut?? yummmmmmmmmmmm!

I didn't have enough grape tomatoes to put up...I ate them soon as they were ready...on a daily basis, between me and a neighbor! LOL!

<--- freezes all my tomatoes whole... great to toss 3-4 whole frozen ones into the slow cooker with my other meats and veggies in the winter. Tomats just are not worth the work to blanch and such when they come out of frozen so well.

I would love the Salsa recipe if the recipe doesn't include the word "pressure cooker". *shudder*

Love the Sand Plum jelly. The harvest comes at great personal sacrifice, as the chiggers love to live in the Sand Plum bushes!

OB, have you already harvested your crop?

Do I have a deal for you! I don't use the pressure cooker when I can salsa. I'll try and remember to post my recipe from home tonight.

Harvesting and freezing sand plum juice this week. Husband is supposed to go out again tonite for another 5 gallon bucket. We like to have at least 2 years of frozen juice in the freezer since you can't count on getting a good sand plum jelly crop two years in a row.

We put the plums on the back porch table, to ripen, and process those that are ready nightly. There will be quite a few ready tonight. I just boil, drain overnite and freeze in the mornings.

Thanks! Can't wait to get that Salsa recipe. Salsa is a favorite at home and here at work. I can get all the tomatoes I need from the neighbor. He has a huge garden. He sets up a pickup in town twice a week and sells his goodies.

I haven't even picked blackberries this year. Shame on me. (except a few I've plucked and eaten along the way!)

I have a huge bag of rhubarb at home that I need to freeze. A woman at work has a huge patch and asked if I wanted some. I told yes, a little bit would be fine. She brought me a paper grocery bag plum full!!!

(don't tell ^^^ but rhubarb is icky.)

I go to the u-pick strawberries place every year and can 30 or so jars of strawberry jelly. We have blueberries around our entire fence line and we do those every year too. Takes a long time to get those picked though.

I have also canned tomatoes, and we blanch and freeze squash.

No kids at home anymore but I still do strawbery jelly, tomatoes, salsa, and freeze corn. We either eat or give everything else away. We do make vegetable soup with all of the fresh vegetables at the end of the summer and freeze it for the winter. Oh, and I make many loaves of zuchinni bread for the nephews and grandchildren.

Black Berries and Green beans in about two weeks. Freeze the black berries, "wet bath" or "cold pack" the green beans (The wife does it). I think that is the term. We do not have a pressure cooker, wish we did, it would make the process faster.

Potatoes next week, we just store the big ones, but can the small one.