Canning season is closed

When I arrived on Vancouver Island, I had one goal: can tomatoes. Of all of the things that I have preserved in the past, diced tomatoes are my absolute favourite thing to crack open in the dead of winter.  So when I moved to the farm, that was project number one. I figured I'd get it out of the way and be done with canning, especially since neither Josh or I had any equipment of our own, let alone enough jars to do more than a batch.

But two things happened. First is that by moving to a farm, I suddenly had access to loads of organic fruit and veg. The second is that I knew that all of this abundance was temporary. In a few short months, none of these things would be ripe and growing and I'd be left trying to make it through the winter on potatoes and pasta (if I didn't want to eat food shipped in from California). This combination threw me into a food preserving whirlwind. Josh called me Hummingbird as he witnessed me at my Type A finest: canning, freezing and dehydrating my face off. Late nights in the kitchen, not a moment to rest. So we established rules, like that we weren't to fill the freezer more than half full (it wasn't even our house), we would only do two layers of the dehydrator at once (too much rot of we stuffed it full) and on multiple occasions we declared a moratorium on jar purchases. But my empty-winter-pantry fears prevailed. As of last week - when canning season was officially officially declared over (ie. we were moving) - here was our count:

135 jars of preserves

8 jars of dehydrated fruit

3/4 of a freezer of frozen fruits, veggies & stocks (1/2 of which didn't fit into our new freezer and still lives in the house sitting freezer)

So just to prove that do indeed go crazy sometimes, here is a little photo journal of September and October's harvest. 

 Dehydrating melons

 Freezing strawberries. This is where I might have gone the craziest. But seriously, when do you ever get access to unlimited organic strawberries? 

 Grated summer squash for the freezer

 Award for the most labour and littlest result by volume: pickled roasted red peppers

 Tomato paste. Also time consuming and probably no cheaper than the little cans in the store, but an impressive xmas present...if you have the right crowd.

 Pickling peppers

 Freezing peppers & chard stalks

 As if I hadn't had spent enough time roasting red peppers, round 2: roasted red pepper hot sauce

Dried oregano

 

Royal the poodle. He loves canning, though he's not much help.

 John and Jill put our urban farming to shame when they collected 150lbs of apples from a tree in the city. 
Another 3-day round of canning ensued.

 Pears. Another 2010 fave that couldn't be left out.

Veggie stock. Lesson: when you make it in a massive pot you end up with a massive amount of stock.