My Can Plan

So Food In Jars linked to this awesome Can Plan post by Apartment Farm.  It got me all up in a tizzy about making my own Can Plan.  Last year's was on, like, the back of a receipt or something.

Still, even with a crummy Can Plan, we put up 36 quarts of tomatoes, a boat load of jam, tomatillo and peach salsa in unknown but plentiful quantities, chow chow relish, endless refrigerator pickles, 4 pints of canned pickles (that are gross), 2 quarts of asparagus, and some dilly beans.  We are out of tomatillo salsa, down to our last 9 quarts of tomatoes and our last few half-pints of jam.  We have plentiful chow-chow relish, peach salsa, and, of course, pickles.

This year, there will be more tomatoes.  I'm also going to work on tomato sauce.  My hippie friends and I are going to try to pull off a group canning extravaganza of tomato sauce a la this.

We will also need MORE JAM.  I had no idea my child was such a jam-a-holic.  In our effort to drastically reduce sugar intake, though, I think he sees jam as his last, best hope of something sweet.  We put up strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, blueberry, blueberry-basil, sour cherry, peach, peach-lavander, and cranberry apple jam last year.  We'll repeat all of those this year in greater quantities and will also hopefully add more variety to the mix.  And with this crazy weather, well, strawberry jam might be right around the corner.

I'm working on my Can Plan for this year.  I am a bit troubled that many of these things won't be canned, exactly.  I might need a new name.  Like Preservation Something, but better than that.  Before this new inspiration, my can plan was still a bit low-tech.

Now I have a spreadsheet.  That will basically guarantee success, right?

We're hoping to grow more of our own this year, hit some more u-pick opportunities, and see where that takes us.

In preparation for our garden, we received our seed order today from Renee's Garden.

(P.S.  I really wish I'd gotten around to taking pictures this morning, before we lost the light.  Please enjoy my gloomy Chicago pictures as evidence that the climate isn't totally shot to you-know-where.)