Adventures in Cannin'

Adventures in Cannin'

So lately it seems that I am having the urge to become Laura Ingalls, I'm making skirts out of stripped floral cottons, I want to wear lace up booties and call my dad "Pa". And I've been trying to figure out what to do with the orange tree in the back yard. This orange tree is a Giant. It's two stories tall, covered in oranges and Tripp is the only one eating them... he's always snacking on a orange in the backyard. So I've been collecting recipes from cakes to infused vodkas... so why not try to can them?




Mike was such a doll to get me a started kit of supplies which originally were for flavored vodka's but decided before buying all that booze I should just try to can things i have for free, ie thousands of oranges using the waterbath canning method. So I collected a BIG bag of them, rinsed them quickly, and started chopping and peeling while watching a little TV. I ended up cutting them up instead of normal peeling them cause they were SOOOO ripe and juicy.



After boiling the glass jars, heating the lids and boiling the syrup (I didn't make an added sugar syrup I made a water/juice syrup, no added cals!), I began canning! The hardest thing I think I found was making sure there were no bubbles before closing the jars, I think I might've broken a bunch of the orange slices while trying to poke the bubble out. I fill the jars with the syrup to around 1/2" from the top, wiped the edge and put the lids on. Then gently dropped them into the boiling water for 10 minutes. This morning I checked them and they seem sealed, so here's to hoping I can open them up in a month or so and they aren't rotten! I got the recipe on how to can oranges from this website > http://www.pickyourown.org/canningcitrus.php. You can also get tons of recipes from the Ball Jar website and download a quick beginners guide to Waterbath canning > Check out their beginners guides here.




The only thing now is, what do I do with canned oranges? The oranges are the best tasting but make AMAZING juice and are great to cook with, so you guys have any suggestions? Overall the entire process was fairly easy, you just need big pot and patience for many pots of boiling liquids... and lots of burners on your stove :)

I'm sure I'll try some more stuff soon! Adam is growing cucumber so we will make pickles, and I really want to make pickled beets! And anything to do with oranges! Yum!
Everyone CAN AWAY!