Fall Canning Season

me and a fellow alaskan-living-in-spokane, melissa weight, canned apples and peaches a few weeks ago. it was quite exciting to, once again, go through the process of making my own food. mmmm! we picked three different varieties of apples, one variety of peach and i found out what pluots are. they're delicious! you should definitely try some!
below is a pic of melissa and her two twins. they were great helpers in picking apples. at one place they each had a plastic bag that they were carrying (definition = dragging) around until it got a huge hole in it. ever hear the story of hansel and gretel? well, the birds didn't eat the apples first but they could have if i hadn't acted fast enough! or rather they would've just rotted where they dropped. i love apple picking with kids! so much more entertaining! :)
and here's one of the girls trying to console remi. he was soooo good during picking and just started to fuss towards the end (he was getting hungry).
ah, sugar. my life-long frenemy. when eating jams and jellies it's easy to forget how much sugar goes into making them. try making them. you won't feel so good about that peanut butter and jelly sandwich anymore. or toast and jam. might as well get a spoon and down the sugar straight from the bag. ...but freezer jam is oh-so-good!
melissa was a bit less sugar-happy than i and chose to can most of her peaches whole, in water. most of mine were made into freezer jam. next year i'll do more whole peaches since they're added-sugar free.
and the applesauce. mmmm! i know it's hard to tell from the pics, but they're a beautiful pink color which melissa's girls loved. and we added NO sugar, just lemon juice to preserve the color. pink is much better than brown.
i love making things with melissa. i had forgotten how creative she is - she made all these labels and more for all the goodies that we made. sooo much better than the plain, drab labels i made last year. these definitely have a peppy personality. :)