Canstravaganza! Food Preservation 2024

Shelves full of small jars in various colors attest to the bounty of 2024 and my many weekends of chopping, stirring, and canning. I still have jars left from 2023—salsa verde, piccalilli, chow chow—so I didn't make things I still have on the shelf. Make that shelves: Pantry shelves in the laundry room, more stored inside a laundry room cupboard, and a lot stored on shelving in the garage. We can only eat so much salsa verde and the tomatillos were so, so prolific in 2023 I still have some in the freezer.

On a wintery day in early February 2025 I woke to snow on the ground and we had periods of snow falling throughout the day. I decided it was the perfect day to make the kitchen smell like summer. The first canning of 2025 really represents some of the final canning of the 2024 harvest. Not the final final, mind you. I still have blueberries, elderberries, green cherry and grape tomatoes in the freezer. From 2023 I still have big bags of tomatillos and some chopped leeks I've been thinking I might make into soup, or leek jam/marmalade of some kind (maybe this recipe for Leek and Roasted Garlic Jam). And oh my gosh, just realized I have another two full gallon bags of blackberries still in the freezer after that canning session.

Those snowy Sunday recipes:

• Tayberry Jam Recipe by Chef Heidi Fink. 11 quarter-pints, 6 half-pints
• Classic Raspberry Jam Recipe by Creative Canning. 7 quarter-pints, 7 half-pints
• Blackberry Roasted Plum Preserves by Southern Fatty. 8 quarter-pints, 8 half-pints
• Blackberry Plum Fruit Leather: No recipe needed. Pureed blackberries and plums in the food processor, dropped in dollops about the size of a Nilla wafer on the dehydrator trays, and dried overnight to produce little fruity coins by the next morning. Those went into the freezer.

Somewhat belatedly in summer 2024 I started a tally of what I'd made. I reconstructed it by going back through my journal, where I'd usually noted what I made and the yield, and by reviewing what I'd lined up on the shelves. I hadn't always made a note so it's an imperfect record but still gives an idea of volume and variety.

Tally from 2024 canning that doesn't include a fair amount of jerky (mushrooms, jackfruit, cauliflower) that I also made along the way using that old food dehydrator:

June

• Sweet & Salty Pickled Cherries, 10 half-pints, 3 pints
• Quick Pickled (Refrigerator) Red Onions, 6 quarts

July

• Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, 2 quarter-pints, 12 half-pints
• Sweet & Salty Pickled Cherries, 4 half-pints (these are definitely on regular repeat every cherry season in the future!)

August

• Rhubarb Orange Chutney, 9 quarter-pints, 3 half-pints
• Hot Sweet Zucchini Chutney, 9 quarter pints, 8 halfpints
• Blackberry Apple Chutney, 8 quarter-pints, 4 half-pints
• Canned Apples, 1 pint, 3 quarts, 1 1-1/2-pint container
• Blackberry Vinegar, 7 four-ounce bottles
• Smoky, Spicy, Skillet Tomato Jam, 6 quarter-pints, 1 half-pint, 1 pint
• Citrus Ginger Marmalade, 6 quarter pints, 6 half-pints
• Caramelized Onion Jam, 5 half-pints
• Canned Apples, 7 pints

September

• Salted Caramel Pear Butter, 5 half-pints
• Cinnamon Cardamom Pear Jam, 5 half-pints
• Orange Tomato Jam with Smoked Paprika, 6 half-pints
• Maple Applesauce with Cinnamon and Cloves, 7 pints
• Pickled Pears, 3 pints
• Basic Canned Tomatoes, 1 pint, 2 quarters
• Dried Tiny Tomatoes, maybe 2 pints? (didn't measure; did this any time I fell behind the tomato onslaught)
• Slow Oven-Roasted Roma Tomatoes, maybe 2 pints?
• Raspberry Vinegar, 6 four-ounce bottles (no real recipe; did the same thing I did to make the blackberry vinegar)
• Marinated Dehydrated Tomatoes , ~4 quarts
• Zucchini Tomato Salsa, 10 pints
• Apple Mint Jelly, 4 quarter-pints (made without the pectin the recipe calls for)
• Gingered Pear Preserves, 6 quarter-pints, 4 half-pints
• Tomato Citrus Marmalade, 7 quarter-pints, 4 half-pints
• Spicy Tomato Jam #2, 6 quarter-pints, 2 half-pints
• Indian Apple Chutney, 13 half-pints
• Plain Applesauce, 4 pints
• Chunky Caramel Apple Jam, 7 quarterpints, 5 half-pints
• Apple Ginger Jelly, 7 quarter-pints, 5 half-pints
•  Easy Addictive Tomato Chutney, 3 quarter pints, 8 half-pints
• Chai-Ginger Apple Butter, 4 quarter-pints, 1 half-pint
• Tomato Jam, 1 quarter-pint, 6 half-pints
• Canned Apples, 6 pints

October

• Canned Crushed Tomatoes, 4 pints
• Smoky, Spicy, Skillet Tomato Jam, 6 quarter-pints
• Scarborough Fair Vinegar (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme), 10 4-ounce bottles
• Pickled Hottish Peppers, 3 half-pints (I can't swear that this is the recipe I followed but Chili Pepper Madness is a great site)
• Green Tomato Chutney, 14 quarter-pints, 16 half-pints
• Lacto-Fermented Green Cherry and Grape Tomatoes, 3 pints
• Dehydrated Seasoned Green Tomatoes: Not going to link to because they weren't good enough to repeat. I'm hiding them in batches of soup until they're gone.

Thoughts on the season:

1. I'd make almost every one of these recipes again. (The Chunky Caramel Apple Jam was a bit disappointing; I might grate the apples and amp up the caramel if I repeated it.)
2. I don't need to repeat all these next season, though, because those shelves are packed full!
3. I give some of this bounty away every so often, apparently not often enough.
4. No wonder September 2024 is sort of a blur in my memory.

I blogged along the way to capture recipes I found and those I created. I'm glad I did; it will make it easier when I do buckle up for another ride on the canstravaganza train.

• Blackberry Apple Chutney Recipe
• Green Tomatoes. So Many Green Tomatoes.
• Apples, Apples, Apples!
• Zucchini Tomato Salsa (Everyone Needs Salsa, or, What to Do with a Really Giant Zucchini)
• Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes!
• Pears, Pears, Pears!
• Future Marmalade