A section of our cellar pantry shelves are filled with home-canned tomatoes, applesauce, plums in sugar syrup, small jars of drunken cherries, dilly beans, pickles, grape jelly, orange marmalade, dried apples and herbs, extracts of wildflowers, and bottled and corked dandelion wine, apple wine, and rhubarb wine.

We grow and gather and dry and ferment and sauce and put it all into jars so we have some things available all year. Bushel baskets of potatoes and onions and squash and dried herbs also are stored here.

The shelves in late summer before the applesauce and apple slices were shelved.

Tomato sauce

Taste testing homemade spaghetti sauce.

Water bath canner boiling away with jars at the bottom. We use an outdoor propane-fired cooker so our kitchen doesn’t get unbearably steamy while canning in warm weather and because propane boils the water in the canner more quickly then our electric kitchen stove.

Tomato sauce on the shelf next to jelly, dried apples, and applesauce.

Cherries in sugar syrup

Sour Hungarian cherries from our own cherry tree preserved in sugar syrup. These squat round jars the cherries are in are Weck canning jars, which belonged to my mother. Sour cherries are good for making pies and preserves where you add sugar anyway. These were pickled and then preserved in a sugar syrup so they are a bit tart and a bit sweet.

Sugar plums

Plums we grew and preserved in sugar syrup. They are floating too much toward the top. This was my first time trying to pack them in as tight as could be and I really just wasn’t so great at it. They came off our own plum trees, and I thought I could make this delicious plum torte with them.

From left to right, plums, dried apple slices, and dill pickles.

Home grown produce in baskets are also stored here.

Bushel baskets of potatoes (sweet and not) sit at the base of a shelf with a bowl of onions near. The onions are small and sharp this year and have to be chopped quickly and set aside because they sting the eyes.

Onions, sweet potoatoes, squash, regular potatoes, and some home made wine.

Making wine in spring and summer to store away

Dandelion and rhubarb wines bottled after fermenting in spring and summer.

We make dandelion wine from dandelion petals, sugar, golden raisins, water, and wine yeast.

Fermenting wine during the summer is at left in the picture above.

Fermenting bubbles in dandelion wine.

A finished glass of wine months later, in early spring of the following year.

Applesauce

When we make applesauce we put it away and enjoy it later, ice cold applesauce on a hot day is a favorite.

Dried flavors

Dried herbs that grew in the garden add flavor to meatballs, tomato sauce, stews, etc. We have basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro, lemon balm (for tea), mint, and some wildflowers like yarrow and calendula.

We slice and dry some fruits and vegetables and put them in jars in the canning pantry.

Dried jalapeno peppers for adding to soups, chili, and stir fries.

We have a stash of dried dill heads for pickling.

Pickles

Home made dill pickles from cucumbers grown in our garden. We grow tiny french cornichons from seed in the garden to make tiny pickles.

Marmalades and jellies

Orange marmalade, using the calendula citrus marmalade recipe posted here. We zest the oranges so it’s not bitter. Tastes more like a sunny glass of orange juice.

Grapes that we turned into grape jelly last year.

Apple jelly in jars. That’s snow behind the jars (we made it VERY late for a holiday gift).

Boxes once full of canning jars will fill again once again with cleaned empty jars and stacks of lids for next season. We buy plenty of lids ahead of time so we don’t run short in a pinch.

What are your favorite preserves ?