Pages

Friday, September 30, 2011

More canning....

During all the hectic-ness of the beginning of the school year, I canned 60 pounds of peaches.  Due to a minor miss communication, the day that I picked up the peaches, they needed to be canned.  Like yesterday.  While canning isn't terribly complicated, it is time consuming.  The last thing I wanted to do was spend an otherwise free evening canning...and making a big sticky mess in our kitchen.

However, I am SO thankful that I got these peaches at a great price, had all the stuff already on hand that I needed, actually had a free evening, and got it done.  And the best part is -- these peaches are paleo!  Normally when you can fruit, you use a boatload of sugar.  But you don't have to!  I used some pure, unsweetened apple juice.

While Brandon and I don't eat a large amount of fruit, our kids do.  And these peaches, along with some Paleo Granola make a great, quick breakfast or even just a snack.  And one that we can take with us when we travel too.  So while I may have spent a long evening canning, I save us some time on busy mornings by doing so.  And I would trade a long evening for some extra shut eye in the morning any day.


When the canning season is all said and done, we should have two plus cupboards full of paleo canned goods.  Right now, we have peaches and pizza sauce from this year and pickles and a few pears (not pictures) from last year.  I just ordered 120 pounds of apples, so soon we'll be knee deep in applesauce as well!

3 comments:

  1. how do you can with our using sugar. we have our fruit trees

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sugar is only necessary in canning for two reasons: 1) as a sweetener and 2) to activate traditional pectin in jams and jellies. If you find your fruit sweet enough on its own and don't want to add additional sugar for paleo reasons one option is to use a pectin that does not rely on sugar to activate it. The brand that I use is Pomona's Universal Pectin. It is activated by calcium (included) rather than by sugar. If your fruit does need some added sweetness but you don't want to use sugar some other, more paleo friendly options include honey, stevia, and fruit juice.

    Hope this helps. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Im still confused, ive been canning for a while, and just recently went Paleo, I have my own garden and get my own friut when I can so canning is life to us lol. I really like making things like blackberry jam, if I use the Univeral Pectin (if I can find it) does it still keep for a long while, or do you have to keep it in the fridge or freezer?

    ReplyDelete