Fall Cranberries

Hello!  I hope this finds you enjoying a wonderful fall day.  Well for those in the northern hemisphere. :)  Here in the Yukon it's full on fall, with the leaves all full of colour and being blown speedily from the trees.  This past week my parents came to visit and we all went out cranberry picking.  A favourite fall activity, but this time was the first time that my Mom and I have gone out together since I was still living in their home.  SO, it's been awhile.  The Lord gave us an absolutely amazing day to go picking (we actually went for two) and there was no rain!  We've rained almost every day all August.

Below are wonderful sweet cranberries and they were great for picking!

We all had a bucket and we ended up with lots of berries...and extra forest debris that got cleaned out later. :)  The younger boys played in the trees and made forts while us older ones picked.  Our dogs kept us up with the local gophers and other people and dogs coming to the area to pick also.

We needed to clean out the debris so we sat down on the deck and worked together to take out the pine needles and extra leaves and twigs.  Soon they were all bagged up (in extra large zippered bags) and set in a cooler to await cooking the next day.

We ended up making 45 jars of cranberry sauce of varying sizes (some pictured below)  Yum!  Mom took a bunch, and the rest were tucked into the pantry.

I learned a new way (well an old way) to can jam.  That is called the open kettle canning method.  So if the jam is cooked it can go into hot sterilized jars and there is no need for water bathing.  This only applies to certain fruit, cranberries being one of them.  Something that I'm still learning about, but this is the way my Mom has always done it, but I had forgotten...SO it's being written down in my homemaking book so I don't forget!

Thank you for dropping by!  I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy some of the bounty that God has created!

Sharing with the Art of Homemaking Mondays.

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