Canning & pickling

Canned some fresh blueberries yesterday, just to get my canning groove primed. My Mom used to can like a freak. We had a little root cellar in the basement (still there but now it's a storage cubby I think). No doubt my folks saved some money off the grocery bill by canning their own garden produce. My grandparents were even more fanatical about canning, fermenting, salting, smoking and pickling. My Mom's folks, who were farmers, had 11 kids. It was all old school self-sufficiency. So, while I know how to can and helped my Mom do it a little when I was younger, this is the first year I'm really doing it all by myself (as we prepare to live off the grid more and more).

Pickled some green onions & pearls today (martini onions!). Here's a few small jars (I think stuff like this that is used primarily as a garnish should be done in small jars, because you probably won't be using a whole lot of it all at once). I love the color.

My pickling recipe: malt vinegar/dark brown cane sugar/sea salt/thyme sprigs/chunk of jalapeno/lime zest/basil leaf (decided to toss the basil leaf in at the end just for kicks...put a sprig of rosemary in one jar too, just to see how it turns out).

Bought some nice apricots the other day too. Thinking of making an apricot, cherry, blueberry chutney.