Being a frugal person, I am always on the hunt for cheaper foods, preserving foods or making new recipes.
After making some new friends they gave me some valuable information on an orchard/farm that sells 2nds for a significantly cheaper rate. So I bought many bushels of: Red Pears, Anjou Pears, Honeycrisp apples, Gala apples, nectarines, peaches, etc. (over the course of a couple of weeks I purchased that much. I don’t like to get too much at one time that I can’t process & preserve before they go bad.)
Its sweet and I like to use it like a dessert, or a sweet snack spread on a tortilla.
Here is a lovely Spiced caramel Pear Jam recipe:
Ingredients
8 C chopped pears
4 C sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Instructions:
1) Boil & stir
2) lower heat, stir frequently for an hour
3) skim off foam
4) Pour immediately into sterilized jars
5) water bath 10 – 30 min depending upon elevation
Having family & friends with fruit trees or every produce is always a bonus. Grandma & Grandpa have a bunch of fruit trees that we love to go and pick from. They have the yummiest golden delicious apples, that make the best dried apple slices.
Drying apples:
1) rinse apples
2) Core & peal
3) set apples in a citric acid water bath till ready to fill the dehydrator
4) Dehydrate overnight = CRISP apples are ready in morning
Growing up my favorite thing about my parents garden was their grape vine…..not to eat the grapes but to make grape juice. Once you’ve had homemade grape juice you’ll never go back to store bought. Welch’s ain’t got nothing on this stuff!
Canning homemade Grape Juice
#1) Once picked we rinsed & de-vined the grapes.
I borrowed a steamer pot: it is a pot inside a bigger pot with a spout tube, all sitting on another short pot where you put water to steam the fruit in the top pot.
#2) Put devined grapes inside the steam pot. Fill bottom with water & let the steamer do its magic.
#3) Once the grapes start to juice the spout tube will fill up, have sterilized quart jars ready to fill up.
Fill Quarts, top with sterilized lids & rings.
#4) Water Bath can for 20-30 minutes depending upon elevation.
$5) Pull quarts out and let cool on counter, while lids pop & seal.
BOOM! Lots and lots of yummy grape juice.
TO SERVE: Pour concentrated juice into pitcher, add 1 quart of water & 3/4-1 Cup of sugar.
(I add a little bit more water to help it go a little farther….its THAT GOOD!)
almost 100 lbs of grapes + 3 days of devining and steam juicing = 39 quarts of the best juice on earth!
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