How do you start canning?!

Well, the answer is obvious, first of all, take your friend and go pay a visit to a farmer's market and pick up the best local grown produce there, bring it home and let the fun begin!

Basic things you are going to need:

A canning kit, some jars and a pair of hands.

Why canning your own food is better, than buying it from the store?

• it's an easy way to preserve all the fruits and vegetables if you have a garden;
• it's a good opportunity to spend some extra time with friends and family, sharing recipes and ideas;
• you control the quality of ingredients that goes into your food;
• you control the amount of salt and sugar, making it perfect to your taste and lifestyle;
• it's great for people with food allergies or health conditions;
• your own flavorful canned food makes thoughtful gifts for holidays;
• aaaand it is just a satisfying experience.

It took about 5-6 hours for @spurious-claims and I to get the supplies and can some serious delights yesterday, so plan accordingly! Also make sure you follow her on here, she is going to make post and talk about canning from her point of view in the coming days.

At this time we made a spicy plum sauce, strawberry syrup and pickled some cucumbers. The only recipe I will share with you guys today is going to be the plum sauce recipe. It turned out so tasty, that it's too hard not to spread the word about it! The pickles however were made using a classic brine recipe and I am sure you all know it.

Spicy Plum Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 lb fresh plums;
• 6-8 cloves of garlic (peeled);
• 2 cherry peppers;
• 2 green chilis;
• 100 ml water;
• 4 teaspoons sugar;
• 1 tb. spoon salt;
• half a teaspoon of black pepper;
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander;
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger;
• 3 cardamom pods;
• 4 allspice pods;
• 2 cloves;
• 2 bay leaves.

Directions:

Wash the plums and remove the pits. Transfer them into a pan with the water in it, let them cook for about 10 minutes to soften the fruit. Process the plums in your blender or food processor and cook the mixture at a low heat for 30 minutes, stirring the sauce and making sure it doesn't get burned.
Next, put your garlic, cardamom, allspice, cloves and hot peppers into a blender and process into a fine paste, add into the sauce and cook for 10-15 minutes.
The last step is to add the rest of the spices into the sauce and cook for additional 10-15 minutes. DONE! Now, pour the hot goodness into your clean jars (take out the bay leaves!) and seal them.

Dill Pickles!

Hopefully this post inspires anyone else to start or continue making their own canned food! And if you do, please, link me to your creations in the comments, I will gladly check them out.

Please, consider voting for @agoric.systems as a witness, and have an awesome weekend :) I'll see you again on Kitty Sunday!