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This afternoon I made and canned blueberry pie filling. I used the recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation from the University of Georgia website that Randy D. from the Baking Circle called to our attention. I used ingredients for 5 quarts, but I increased the blueberries from 17.5 cups to 19.5, since blueberries tend to cook down. I also added the grated zest of three limes and the juice of three limes, which I stirred in after the blueberries.
I ended up with two 1-quart jars and four 1-pint jars. I will check the seals tomorrow, but they looked ok when I took them out of the canner. I had about 1 3/4 Cups of filling left over--not enough to fill another jar. I froze one cup in a small plastic container, and I plan to use the remaining filling in some kind of sweet roll.
I tasted the filling and am pleased with the flavor--not overly sweet and not overly tart. The real test will be when I use the canned filling, but that will not be until late fall or winter when we need to be reminded of the glorious fruit of summer. I usually use 6 cups of filling per pie, and I stir in 1/4 tsp. allspice.
I checked the seals on my blueberry pie filling today. There were no issues with the four 1-pint jars. The quart jars did seal, but they also leaked slightly under the rings.
Those two jars had my last two blue rings and blue canning tops from Ball. I washed and dried the rings and wiped down around the screw part of the jar. As the seals are intact, I think that they are ok. I looked online for information on this issue, but did not find any from a source in which I have confidence.
I left 1-inch headspace, as directed. Possibly I should leave 1 1/4 next time. The issue was only with the two 1-quart jars that had those colored lids.
I was hoping that the honey producers would have peaches at the farmers' market this morning. When I asked, she told me that the peaches are late this year. Two years ago, she said they were ready by the second week of July, which was when I bought them for making jam. Last year, they had none due to a freeze. She expects to bring some to market in about two weeks. Her peaches are not "pretty," since they do not spray because of their bees, but they have wonderful taste. I'll be patient and wait for them.
I realized yesterday that I am not going to get any more blackberries. The five weeks we had without rain hit them hard, and the critters started eating any ripe ones before we could get them. I seeded the blackberries I had, and the pulp came to ½ cup. I bought some frozen Dole strawberries (12 oz.) and mashed them up, which got me to 2 cups of fruit. (I reasoned that the frozen strawberries would have more flavor than the fresh, "red outside but unripe within" ones shipped from wherever to the store.) I mashed enough of the blueberries we picked to get to the 3 ½ cups of fruit I needed. After the jam maker finished its cycle, I stirred in the grated zest and juice of one lime before filling jars and processing. The yield was three 1-cup jars and one 1/2-cup jar jar. I refrigerated another scant ½-cup jar that we will go ahead and use. I tasted a bit, and the flavor is good.
Note: I have corrected the yields.
Note: For some reason the 1/2 cup jar did not seal, so that one has been refrigerated to be eaten soon.
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