Friday Afternoon Brad picked up 20 pounds of peaches and 20 pounds of tomatoes. Since Apricots are at the end of their growing season, we got 40 pounds of apricots free! We have been munching on them; however, there is no way that we can eat them before they go bad so I’ve been looking up recipes for canning. The first box of Apricots were canned Friday night. I tried two different syrup recipes: one with sugar and another with honey. I have the process listed below.
One of the great things about canning Apricots is that they can be cold packed. Cold packing allows the fruit to be placed into the jars without cooking them first. I love this method because it is one less step to complete.
For the syrup I tried two different mixtures:
- 2 cups sugar with 4 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups honey with 4 cups water
To make the syrup simply dissolve the sugar/honey into the water and boil.
Wash the apricots, slice in half and remove the pits, but leave the skin. Fill quart sized jars with the apricot halves. TIP: place all halves in the jars with the cut edge facing downwards – this will allow more fruit to fit into the jar.
Once the jars are full, fill with the boiling syrup leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Screw on the lids and process in a hot water bath canner for 25 minutes. If these apricots had been hot packed (i.e. cooked before packing) then they would not float to the top like this. I’m not canning for looks so I’m sticking with the cold pack.
There are going to be a lot of canning recipes in the coming days as currently in my garage there are:
- 20 more pounds of Apricots
- 40 pounds of Peaches (we found a clearance box at Carpinitos yesterday)
- 20 pounds of Tomatoes
- 10 pounds of blueberries
- Giant bag of Basil
- And a Fig Tree that has been producing fruit like crazy
Stay tuned to see recipes that I make with each of these items!
Carole says
Very nice blog. I am following you now. Please drop by to Carole’s Chatter and check it out. You might like my Food on Friday series which focuses on a different ingredient. Last week it was Berries and Currants. This week it is pork. If you like my blog it would be great if you followed me back. Have a good week.
Angie says
Yesterday Shannon and I made 6 batches of various apricot and peach jams. I went through the box of peaches and one of the boxes of apricots, and froze what we didn’t jam. I also froze all of the tomatoes. However, that last box of apricots was my undoing. I decided I valued my time and sanity over anything else and gave them to my boss instead. I think I figured out that my max of preserving is the 65 lbs of produce in a day. :)
Kristina says
Following from Mom’s Monday Mingle!
I need to start canning.
Please come by & say Hello if you haven’t already. (And follow back)
Kristina
http://www.yomichaelmichael.com
Rebecca Rider says
This just looks too good!!! I gotta try canning! :)
Anissa says
Yumminess…love me some peaches and apricots. Your newest follower from the MOnday Mingle.
Anissa from Chasing Hailey
http://chasinghailey.blogspot.com/
Marsha says
I usually make apricot jam and it turns out fine. Last year I canned apricots and followed the instructions, but when I opened the jar a few months later, the apricots were so soft..How can you make the apricots come out closer to the condition you put them into the jar? The hot bath for 20-25 minutes I feel is too long, shouldn’t the jars seal with a shorter time?