I was up to my eyeballs in beets a couple of weeks ago, then last week it was fruit. My fingernails are a muddy brown color, my fridge smells like beets, and I’ve been cleaning up purple juice splats and sticky syrup from the fruit all over my kitchen! I bought a bushel of beets to freeze because I didn’t get as many out of my garden as I wanted. We all love beets around here, so I wanted to make sure we had enough to last and we definitely do now! Last summer I posted on how to prepare and freeze beets, so check that out if you are wanting to do some.

I have been busy busy busy with all of this food preservation. I finally finished my peaches and pears on Saturday and it is wonderful to be done and see all of those bottles lined up and SEALED. I ended up doing 103 quarts of fruit!!! It was a lot of work, but well worth it. I still plan on making applesauce (chunky) and will post on that because I think it’s the most amazing applesauce anyone has ever made in the history of the world . . . so stay tuned for that. If you are interested in how to bottle fruit, my recommendation is to just buy a canning book and it has everything you need to know in there. I couldn’t possibly cover everything in a short post, and I really don’t want to leave anything out. The change that I make is with my syrup. I use organic cane sugar and make a medium syrup (about 2:1 water to sugar ratio). It turned out great and I’m glad my family will still devour the fruit even if it isn’t sickeningly sweet! I am anxious to get everything done, but doing the peaches and pears is a HUGE load off my shoulders. Now they are nicely packed into boxes in my kitchen and I couldn’t be happier. If you are stuck in the canning zone like me, GOOD LUCK, press on, it will be worth it when we’re done!