Although we have just got a few ripe tomatoes, I’m starting in canning in earnest. I already did my batch of rhubarb conserve, then on Friday, I went out and picked all of our ripe jalapeños to start Cowboy Candy. They were nice and big with thick walls. Just perfect! I sat on the front porch and sliced them up. When I mixed up the syrup, I made a triple batch as I use lots of it in my various relishes, Cowgirl Candy (sweet peppers in the syrup), Vaquero and Gaucho Relishes. All in all, I ended up with 16 half pints of Cowboy Candy and eight pints of leftover syrup. And that’s just a start!
As our chokecherries are almost ripe and the Cedar Waxwings have preyed on all of our other wild berries so far, I decided to pick them a little unripe to beat the birds. I cheated and sat in the old golf cart to pick the low branches as standing in one spot for a long time really kills my knees and hips. It worked great and I ended up with an ice cream bucket full.
I already have a full case and more of chokecherry jelly, so I’d decided to make chokecherry syrup. I use this on pancakes and waffles plus drizzled over cheesecake and ice cream. As I use only cane sugar, I can skip the GMO beet sugar and high fructose corn syrup (also GMO) in commercial syrups. Nothing but sugar and juice. I juiced the chokecherries in my Mehu Liisa steam juicer and ended up with nine cups of juice. To each 3 cups of juice, I added 4¼ cups of sugar, making a big batch. I boiled it for 10 minutes at a rolling boil, ladled it into pint jars and water bathed it for 10 minutes. I had a little left and it was perfect. Just thick enough.
I’ve got lots of chokecherries out there to pick. What a blessing that is! — Jackie
