Cherries and canning.

**momof42003** · 07-13-2012, 12:58 AM

Today I canned 7 pints of cherries and 2 pints of cherry juice.. My question is what to do with the "juice". It consists of cherry juice, sugar and water.... It tasted so good, I didn't want to throw it out...

I have began my journey in canning. Last year I canned 11 qts of tomatoes and 6 pints of pears.. This year I am going to also do(hopefully): crockpot apple butter, carrots, tomatoes, green beans, pears, backberry jam, and apples. There might be more but I am not sure yet.. Going to MIL's tomorrow and getting her pressure canner and some other supplies and jars that I don't have. I really want to have a pantry full of home canned goods. After this year maybe I will start canning meats... Wish me luck!!!

**pinetree** · 07-13-2012, 12:14 PM

You might try adding your juice to pears. I canned pears years ago and remember adding pineapple to the jar, the pears had a mild pineapple flavor.

Wishing you luck, canning is so much fun, and I love looking at those jars in the winter time.

**Contrary Housewife** · 07-13-2012, 12:33 PM

Cook it down and make syrup for ice cream or waffles. You can also put the syrup into soda water to make your own drinks.

**Durgan** · 07-13-2012, 07:04 PM

May I suggest not using any sugar or sweeteners. I don't even have any in the house, but that is me.

**frugalfranny** · 07-13-2012, 07:23 PM

Quite an impressive list you gave..............ENJOY!!!

Like pinetree..............seeing all those jars of goodies is just a good feeling.........and knowing that you can now 'shop in your pantry' rather than at the store!!!

And ALL OF IT tastes so much better!!!!!!! My fav is canned peaches!!!

**bumplett** · 07-13-2012, 08:53 PM

Where are you finding your canning supplies? Specifically jars?? The price of new jars is killing me, but I haven't had any luck finding any at thrift stores or yard sales.

**renmerc446** · 07-13-2012, 10:19 PM

Not sure about the sugar but one of my favorite new drinks is a mead/cider mix called "Zombie Killer". lol The ingredients are mead, apple cider , and cherry juice. You could always try mixing mead, hard apple cider, and your cherry juice.

**Durgan** · 07-14-2012, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by bumplett

Where are you finding your canning supplies? Specifically jars?? The price of new jars is killing me, but I haven't had any luck finding any at thrift stores or yard sales.

In Canada we are half metric and half imperial. Now all we can purchase in Canada is litre jars. The mouth two sizes has a diameter of 70 mm and 86mm. The narrow mouth (70mm)is difficult to work with. Apparently the manufactures couldn't sell the narrow mouth last year, so they sent only narrow mouth to all the outlet stores this year. Now it is almost impossible to buy wide mouth jars this season.

The quart jar with a wide mouth is an ideal canning size.The cost of shipping quart sizes from the USA is too high, so I am stuck with the litre jars. Big brother looking after us.

When it is mentioned about being regular mouth size they are talking only narrow mouth 70mm. Caveat emptor.

**frugalfranny** · 07-14-2012, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by bumplett

The price of new jars is killing me, but I haven't had any luck finding any at thrift stores or yard sales.

The canning jars start FLYING out of our TS in March and April......and they haven't been a very good price.

If you have CL............check that. Mine will have them sometimes............the price is hit and miss.......some people seem to think they have gold!! I will NOT pay a buck a jar!!.............not for used..............new.......only if I HAVE to and really get stuck!

**momof42003** · 07-15-2012, 03:25 AM

I lucked out on canning jars. One day I heard my neighbor at here recycle bin tossing out tons of glass... Glass Jars that was.. She was given well over 100 different sized ones and she had no need for them----I took as many as I could. Then just this weekend my MIL told me to take 2 dozen more of the sizes I don't have and make sure I got the rings too... YAY!!! I don't know if I could actually go out and buy a bunch, but I keep my eyes peeled for them everywhere!!!! Good luck!