Canning jelly and pickles

Canned pickles and grape jelly

I spent the pretty good part of a day earlier this week canning dill pickles and grape jelly.  This effort was prompted by a neighbor who had grapes in abundance that he offered to us.  I picked about four pounds of grapes, and then decided to make jelly.

This then prompted a bike ride to the grocery store to purchase pectin for the jam recipe.  I next biked to the hardware store to get jar lid covers, cheese cloth and a funnel.

Next step involved straining the grapes.  Then it was cooking the grapes, with lots and lots of added sugar.  After that I funneled the jam into previously sterilized jars, sealed and submerged them in boiling water to complete the deal.

Since I was set up for canning I decided to put up a few jars of pickles, using cucumbers from our garden.  This was pretty quick, since we already had the dill, vinegar, onions, garlic and salt on hand.

I have renewed appreciation for previous generations who went through the rather laborious process of canning much of their food.