Memorial Day Chutney Making, Etc.

Memorial Day was quite relaxing. We laid low, spent time relaxing at home, during work in the yard and garden outside, watched all of the animals and pets at our nearest neighbor's house, let the chickens free range for the first time, had a couple of movie nights, had homemade calzones for dinner, and I even took a nap on the deck (that may have been my favorite thing!) I got to enjoy the outdoor speakers that the husband recently installed while I was working, playing and relaxing outside, very nice!

One of the last things I did was make and can what I decided to call "Summer Fruit Chutney" - I sampled a bit this afternoon and it is delicous.

The recipe:

2 mangos cut into 1/2 inch cubes

6-8 pears skinned and cut into small pieces

6-8 apricots pitted and cut into small pieces

2 cups golden raisins

1 lemon, seeds removed, flesh cut into small pieces

2 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

2 tbsp pickling spices in cheesecloth ball

6 cloves also in cheesecloth ball

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup water or orange juice

3/4 cup shredded coconut

3/4 tspn salt

After everything is chopped, cook until boiling for 20 minutes.

Ladel the chutney into sterilized canning jars. I use a canning funnel to avoid sticky messes.

Put the lids and rings on the jars and lower into boiling water of your water bath canner. Cover and boil for 25 minutes (depending on your altitude you may need to boil longer)

When you take the jars out of the water you should hear the jars "pop" as they seal.

The tools above are some of the tools I use for canning that I couldn't do without...I tried to and it just wasn't a good time. On the left is my pair of jar tongs, perfect for lifting the jars in and out of boiling water. Before I had the tongs I burned myself a few times. The stick-looking-thing in the middle is a lid magnet, used to lift lids out of boiling water. Lids have to be boiled to be sure they are sterile, jars and lids must be sterile to insure that bacteria is not trapped in canned food. On the right is my peeler - I didn't use it this time, pears are too soft for this peeler. But, the peeler is excellent to use with apples, I saved tons of time using it last summer.

Since I taught myself to can fruit last summer, I've been impressed with how easy and useful it is. I'm hoping that our fruit orchard gives us a large harvest this summer so I can put up lots of fruit. Even if we don't get much from the orchard we will buy fruit in bulk when we head over to eastern Washington this summer...that was where we picked up the yummiest nectarines last summer!

Can't wait until summer is officially here - only a few weeks!