Wednesday, January 11, 2017

5 Wonderful Winter Canning Projects for Your Pantry


"The pantry door stood wide open,
giving the sight and smell of goodies on the shelves..."
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

My favorite time to can is in the winter when the kitchen needs the heat of the simmering pots and steamy, boiling canning equipment! Winter also gives you a slower canning pace without the rush of the summer harvest at your heels. Here are five of our favorite seasonal canning projects to fill your pantry shelves:




I don't think I need to share the convenience of having cooked beans in your pantry and dried beans are ready to can year round! These are as versatile as it comes. Visit here for 14 meals to make with pinto beans and I hope it inspires you to stock your cupboards! We also like to process black beans and white beans. You will find our tips for canning beans here.




Simmering soups, stews and a variety of rices are all the more beautiful if you have a supply of stock and/or broths to infuse nutrition and flavor into your meals. These can be made with leftover vegetable scraps, meaty bones or a mix of the two and make a wonderful addition to the pantry! Visit our tutorial here.



Lemons are now in season and falling off trees! Canning the juice is very simple and is very handy to have in the pantry! We use ours in homemade meat marinades, jams and everything else you need a splash of lemon juice (such as these ideas here). 


Marmalades


Marmalades are fun to make and add a splash of color to a cold winter day! You can read my sentimental musings in the article above and see why I enjoy this pantry project.



This recipe above is for the traditional marmalade which features sugar. Ladle some onto scones, stir into hot and cold teas or smear over cream cheese and crackers for a fun treat.


And once you are finished with canning that lemon juice or anything else you make with lemons, prepare a batch of our frugal "French inspired" lemon syrup. With a glass of sparkling water, you can look forward to enjoying some refreshing drinks in the summer! Happy winter preserving ladies!


"...study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing."
~ 1 Thessalonians 4:11-1
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Greetings, dear ladies! For the new few months, I will be sharing a few pre-scheduled posts (and round-ups) as I prepare for and enjoy a wonderful extended visit with out-of-town family. With that being said, I will not be able to do much online "visiting" and commenting but would still love to hear from you in the comments should you desire to share. Thank you for understanding and have a lovely week!
Love, JES

10 comments:

  1. My cherished JES,

    I've just read your lemon marmelade recipe and I've saved the link of your post, for I really want to try it, we all so love lemons, but I've never made a marmelade with them !

    Thank you darling for your advices always so rich of wisdom and care, so useful for caring home and family as I do love, as once, since some things haven't change, yet, and never will, if we do want it !

    Hope your week is off to a good start,
    I'm sending blessings of joy on your coming days,
    be a sweetie !

    Xx Dany

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  2. Winter is my favorite time to can, too. I always freeze our berries for making jam when the kitchen is cooler. Thank you for sharing your recipes.

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  3. I like the convenience of canned beans! The lemon syrup sounds interesting!

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  4. Bone broth is a great kitchen-warmer. You get the long cook time of the broth AND the heat of actually canning. Plus, when it's really cold outside, we can just cool the broth outside instead of heating up the contents of the fridge. (We cool it down to be able to easily get the fat off the top.)

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  5. This is great Jes. Just did a batch of beans this past weekend:). I too like the extra heat.

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  6. Wow, I am a canner and do much in summer but never thought of during it in winter! Thanks for some great ideas and will look forward to filling my pantry with some of these!

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  7. Oh JES - this blog is so encouraging, I am very thankful for all that you share... looking forward to canning soon. :)

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  8. Beautiful and inspiring. At the moment being summer here some fruit has started to come my way. It is exciting! I have two buckets of figs and lots of peaches I am about to pick. Plus some apples.
    The figs I am making fig and almond jam, fig pizza and baked figs. The apples will be crumble and baked apples mostly. The peaches will be used fresh plus crumble (crisp) which thanks to a US lady I discovered! I will freeze potions for during winter. I love this time of the year for the fruit!

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  9. Thank you for sharing. I think I may work on beans.

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  10. I agree that winter canning is much more pleasant than heating up the house in the warm summer months. I just made some pineapple jam from canned pineapple and think I'm going to take your suggestion to can some beans. Thank you!
    Blessings, Leigh

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