Deferred canning

Cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry jam 4-14-13

Sometimes I do deferred canning.  Summer can be hot and miserable.  Fall can be filled with so many other things that need to be put up.  Fruits are so easy to clean up, freeze, and can in the winter when my schedule is less filled with other things to do.  Winter turned to spring this year before I finally pulled the fruits of summer out of the freezer to turn into homemade jams.

I purchase Door County pitted pie cherries from the local fruit market which are already frozen.  Sometimes they become pies, sometimes jam.  I had no jam on the shelves so it was time.  My raspberries and blackberries came through a barter with friends and family which involved the exchange of homemade salsa in return.  The strawberries were hulled and frozen whole for a later date of jam making.

It was cold and snowy this morning which prompted me to pull out the canning kettle and wash up the half-pint jars.  Once the mess is started, doing four batches is not much worse than doing one.  Another advantage to making the jam all at once.  Three or four hours later all was done and cooling on the racks.  It felt good.

As long as I was going through the freezer, it was also time to take in the frozen venison "scraps".  All together we weighed in 60 pounds of venison to have made into fresh and smoked sausages.  It will be a good summer of grilling.