Canning Asparagus and Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

I started canning today. I have a lot of stuff to can and I'm not sure if I can get it all done before it gets old.

There is more asparagus (scroll down the linked page until you get to "Guide 4" and download the PDF) cooling off in the canner. These were hot packed. I might try raw packing because it will be faster. I still have about 16 bunches to go. And that's after I gave away 4 bunches!

Strawberry Lemonade concentrate. Vet2Be loves it! I had a bunch of lemons in the fridge so one batch is made with real lemons, the other batch is made from RealLemon lemon juice. I'm sure the fresh lemons will taste a bit better. But it was lots faster to make the batch with the RealLemon!

This is what the kitchen looks like right now... a big mess! (Don't pay attention to the fact that I still haven't painted the walls and the electrician hasn't come back to finish the lighting in the ceiling.)

One of the handy tricks I found out at my class was using a roaster to keep jars and water hot, but not take up any room on the stove. They are great for scalding tomatoes and fruit to get the peels off, too. I found the small roaster at Savers for $20, it was brand new. It still had Styrofoam on the inside and plastic on all the parts!

The new Presto pressure canner I got through Amazon comes up to pressure much faster than the old pressure canner I have.

Some people are worried about aluminum pressure canners, but if you treat them right (follow the manufacturers instructions) they are fine. I don't cook in it so I'm not worried about my food getting aluminum in it.

I still have 1 1/2 flats of strawberries, some to be made into no sugar jam, some into low sugar jam, and more into strawberry lemonade concentrate. I've also got 6 not-quite-ripe pineapples that will be dried. And behind the pineapples are 12 apples that will be dehydrated, too. Some will have cinnamon sugar on them and some will be plain.

Oh, man! There's still a lot of canning to be done this weekend!

Here's the page from the USDA Food Preservation Guide. I like their book because it has altitude adjustments on every recipe. There isn't a comprehensive index, just an index at the beginning of each section.