How to Make Dill Pickles and Preserving the Summer’s Bounty

Happy Labor Day weekend!  I cannot believe that summer is almost over.  Really?  Where did it go?

We spent so much time On the Road this summer that it literally disappeared before I even knew what happened.  Oh, well…I will embrace fall wholeheartedly and get back into the kitchen to do some serious cooking…if we can ever stay home long enough to find the time to do it!  I make myself exhausted just thinking about the trips that we still have planned. 🙂

Our holiday weekend has been designated to finish our remaining canning, preserving and freezing for the summer.  Many of our summer’s favorite fruits and vegetables will soon be gone and the apples and pumpkins will be replacing them, so it’s now or never!

I put Mr. Bunkycooks to work on the corn schucking job!

Canning foods and preserving them properly is time consuming, however, there is nothing more rewarding than going to the basement in the dead of winter and opening up a can of your own green beans or jar of tomatoes.  You know right where they came from and how they were prepared.  Besides, they are better than anything that you can purchase in the store.  Trust me, you will be spoiled once you start putting up your own foods.

I will have a few posts coming over the next week or two (while we are on the move again) with some canning recipes for a few of our favorites.  There is still time to gather up the last of the summer’s best produce and get to preserving your own food, so why don’t you give it a try!

One of the easiest ways to start is with a simple freezer jam recipe.  I get more questions from readers about making jam, so I assume that more and more people are making their own jams and jellies these days.  These freezer jam recipes are simple, quick and do not require a canner.  The recipe I use for Spicy Fig Orange Jam is also incredibly easy and can be made without traditional canning methods.

We also like to remove corn from the cob and freeze it in freezer safe containers. Be sure not to waste the corn pulp and the cobs.  You can add the pulp to all sorts of dishes…even ice cream!  We make corn stock from the cobs to use in corn soup.

Mr. B also cut the corn off the cobs and scraped the pulp. 

A mountain of corn!

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