My first (solo) canning adventure

Every year around Labor Day, Mom and Granny go over the mountains to Yakima to get peaches, pears, cherries, apricots and lots of other fruits to can. For years while growing up I watched them can but never had any interest in doing that myself. Until this summer. Actually, it's been on my list of things to learn for a few years, but I've never gotten around to it. I was always going to learn how to can "someday", but last Sunday I decided that was the day to do it. Since I didn't own a pressure cooker, I bought one and got started.

Filling jars with green beans before putting them in the pressure cooker

I have to admit I was a little terrified of blowing something up. 

Fortunately, nothing blew up or caught on fire. And I had a success story to tell Granny about. I honestly didn't know what I was doing, so lucky for me, Mom had the time to walk me through it over the phone. This is one of those times when living 2,000 miles away from my mother really sucks. 

I can guarantee Mom wouldn't have let me put the pears in the boiling water to remove the skins. Oops. Since that's done for peaches, pears must be the same, right? Definitely not. Spoiler: it makes a mess and makes the pears fall apart. Lesson learned. 

Blanching the peaches 

Water bath for the peaches and pears

Next year, I'm planning to can a lot more now that I (somewhat) know what I'm doing. Looks like I found a new summer hobby!

Finished product...not too bad for the first try