My original plan for last year's blueberries that were taking up space in the freezer was to make blueberry jelly. But here is the thing...I don't like blueberry jelly. I love fresh blueberries and it seems I now like the frozen again but that was about it. I don't think I have ever had a blueberry pie so I was trying to figure out another thing to do with the blueberries. So I googled (oh how I love google) "ways to preserve blueberries". Blueberry syrup came up. And that was my original recipe. So days later (this stayed on my computer for about a week because I was out of lids and big jars) I decide to make the syrup. But I wasn't too crazy about the recipe I had so I googled again. This one came from the pickyourown website...http://www.pickyourown.org/blueberrysyrup.htm. So far, the pick your own people have yet to let me down so this is what I went with. Oh my house smelled so good. I ended up with 2 1/2 quart jars and a half pint of "surdup" as Aiden calls it. I tasted it as I was canning because I needed to know, you know. Oh yum. This stuff is good. If I didn't have the crock pot going with chicken teryaki I would be making pancakes for dinner. Aiden even liked it and she is not a "surdup" fan. Tomorrow we will have pancakes for breakfast and I honestly can't wait.
I didn't take pictures because my hands were covered in blueberries and my camera had already had one close call this week (Evan brought it out on the deck dangling it by her fingers announcing she had taken it away from Aiden). I did not yield the amount of juice they said I would probably because I did not have a juicer and I was trying to calm Lucas down-the shots have made for some fussy boys today. I tried to squeeze as much juice out with my hands before boiling and then again with a glass once they had cooked. I ended up with 2 cups of juice. The recipe called for 7 cups of sugar for 4-5 cups of juice so I halfed it and used 2 cups juice and 3 1/2 cups of sugar. I think this would even be good on vanilla ice cream-might have to try it.
My little canning hobby could get expensive. Today I spent about 12 dollars on new jars and lids-if I had noticed before I left that I did not have any rings it would have cost more. My neighbor left cucumbers on my front porch so I may be making pickles again. I also have two quarts of last years blueberries left and I found another canning idea of the syrup and the whole berries for pies/cakes. And then the tomatoes. I bought a salsa packet today and maybe I will make it one day.
**Note**the syrup was by far the most involved and lengthy thing I have canned. A juicer or a food processor (which I have but didn't want to deal with) would probably have cut the time and effort in half. Blueberry syrup is not something that I normally buy-occasionally I buy strawberry but mostly maple but I had blueberries on hand and needed to do something with them to free up some freezer space and to not waste the berries.
I am also going to need another cabinet with all of my canning. I guess I could clean mine out but I would like to separate my canning from what I purchase-only because I keep snacks for the girls to grab if I can't get to it, in the same cabinet and I can just see jars of pickles or syrup getting broken and ending up in the kitchen floor.
