Today I wanted to add another list of helpful hints and tips for home canning. Some of these are things that have been learned and shared by canning veterans who are kind enough to share what they know and things we may never have thought of on our own. I enjoy hunting down and gleaning knowledge from experienced canners!  Isn't it a blessing that people are willing to reveal their discoveries and secrets?  So without further ado here are seven very helpful tips to make your canning experience more satisfying and successful! If you have any tips of your own to share, feel free to leave them in the comments section for others to learn from! Keep hard water deposits off your jars by adding 1/2 cup of vinegar to your processing water.  Half a cup of lemon juice is a good substitute for "Fresh Fruit" to keep your fruit from turning brown while you are working with it. In a pinch a butter knife or chopstick makes a good bubbling tool.  Don't plan to cook dinner ...

Summer in Oklahoma means lots and lots of wild sand plums.  We have so many of these bushes on our 10 acres of land and the wildlife love them. Once several years ago when we were still homesteading that land, I attempted to make jelly from wild sand plums.  I had heard that it could be done with just the fruit, sugar and water. Well either I did something wrong or that recipe was wrong. It never jelled. But the good news is that it still made a delicious syrup for pancakes! What I would have given then to have this recipe. As soon as the plums start to ripen this year, I intend to give it another shot. I was rummaging through old recipe forums and found this one that I want to try. When I read the first ingredient I realized what may have gone wrong for me so long ago. It calls for part of the fruit to be under ripe. All the plums I was using then were well ripened.  I had not heard of this before so I am very curious to see if this is the key. Of course this rec...

So you might have spent some time browsing the recipes on this blog and thinking... what would I do with all that jelly if I did make it?  Two things:  There is no such thing as too much jelly, (that is my motto). You have to learn to think outside of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich box.  There are so many ways to enjoy jelly, so many things to put it on.  The French put it on croissants. You can put some on a bagel, but don't tell any New Yorkers about it! The British are famous for scones and jam, a tea time favorite. Southerners are known for buttermilk biscuits, butter and peach jelly. Nobody doesn't like a jelly doughnut or long john. Native Americans eat fry bread and jelly. Mexicans eat strawberry jelly in tamales. Mint jelly is good on lamb and pork. Cranberry jelly and chutney make turkey something special. Try some of your favorite flavor jelly on your oatmeal. I like peach and apple on mine. In a pinch some cream cheese and...