We started at 5:45pm with three canners, Janet and Clare of Facility Kitchens, and Diane Devereaux, The Canning Diva, who also ran the session.
Janet & Clare brought in 20 pounds of fresh asparagus with the goal of processing it all into canned, pickled, and frozen asparagus. Diane brought in ingredients to test the creation of her new recipe of conserve.
Michigan asparagus is in the peak of its season and our produce was tender and tasty which was perfect for processing. To prepare the asparagus, we washed and trimmed off the tough ends, then cut the spears to fit in pint jars, saving the cut off parts for freezing. The hardest part of this whole process was getting the spears into the jars. The spears to be pickled were hot packed with vinegar and salt and water bathed. The spears to be canned were packed with just water and pressure canned. A few spears and the reserved ends were blanched, vacuum packed and then frozen.
Tally! 9 pints of canned asparagus in water, 9 pints of pickled asparagus in vinegar and salt and 5 bags of frozen asparagus for soup. We easily accomplished our goal in the 4.5 hours.
Diane focused on perfecting her new conserve recipe; check out her facebook page at www.canningdiva.com for pictures and details. Tally! for Diane, 9 pints of very colorful conserve.
Clare Seesing is in from Kansas City and is learning and helping to preserve the summer's harvest.
Next week we are producing rhubarb & strawberry pie filling. Stay tuned!
To sign up and see the list of ingredients for the pie filling visit www.canningdiva.com
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