Canning Forecast

I was looking through the remains of my pantry to see what I still have remaining.    Only 2 jars left of my McClure's style pickles my way.    Anytime I open a jar of these pickles, they go fast.   I will need to make more this year, and I made a ton of them last year.  I want to say that I made at least a dozen quarts.This year, I need to keep better track of the quantities I make.    I have lots of strawberry jam left, largely because I demoed it at both the Chelsea and the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, and I made some grape jam and cherry berry spoon fruit so the jam eaters of the house (largely the menfolk) had more jars to eat than usual.   There's also 6 jars left of my most famous canning recipe of all, Salsa #5, but I expect we'll be done with them all by the time August hits (high salsa canning season).   From an old blog post, it appears I made 24 pints and a few stray quarts last year.   I have only one jar left of  pickled Brussels sprouts that I am saving for the Downtown Home and Garden pickle contest this year. One thing I didn't make last year, but wish I did, was corn relish.  I missed that this past winter. 

I decided to crack open a jar of strawberry jam myself this morning to sample my own wares.  This jar could have won the Michigan State Fair blue ribbon if we still had a Michigan State Fair.  The oldest state fair in the country, it ended its run in 2010.   This jar had tons of fruit evenly suspended in a matrix of not too sweet jam, and there were no air bubbles or foam.  It still has a very true berry taste, and smells of a quart of freshly picked berries.  This year, I expect our berries to be here early....maybe by Memorial Day, which would be unusual.   I better start eating more jam.