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Made another 2.5L "bruschetta-in-a-jar" today (currently processing in the canning bath). Have also started the apricot butter (FINALLY), though I'm not expecting a lot of end-product by the time it's done... Maybe two cups at the most? We'll see.

Canning Update:
5 pint jars of bruschetta + 7 one-cup jars of bruschetta = 4.25L bruschetta in a Jar
2 pint jars of diced tomatoes + 8 one-cup jars of diced tomatoes = 4L diced tomatoes
5 cup jars of tomato-peach sals + 1 half-cup jar of (mild) tomato-peach sals = ~1.3L salsa
+
8 pint jars of garlic-dill cucumber pickles
1.5 C black currant jelly
2 one-cup jars of asparagus relish (one of which lives in the fridge, as it didn't seal quite right)
4 half-cup jars of black currant curd (made with ribena – aka black currant simple syrup – about a month ago)
+
1-2 C (flattened out in a single freezer bag) frozen edamole (made from previously frozen edamame)
9 half-cups of frozen roasted-and-diced Sicillian eggplant
2-3 C frozen golden zucchini rounds
2 C frozen (freezing) raspberries
2 L (or so) frozen serviceberries
1 L (or so) frozen red currants
+
~1 C dried nectarine chunks (stored in the fridge because they're not totally dry)
~2 C dried peach chunks (stored in the fridge because they're not totally dry)

~*~

I'm hoping to add the following (but we'll see what we can get):
2+ one-cup jars of apricot butter
+
12-20 half-cup jars of roasted-garlic-balsamic tomato sauce
+
8 one-cup jars pear butter (with maple syrup for some of the sweetener)
8-12 one-cup jars pumpkin butter (with maple syrup for most of the sweetener)
8 one-cup jars of apple butter
4-8 half-cup jars of crab apple jelly
4-8 half-cup jars of cranberry curd
+
9 (more) half-cups of frozen roasted-and-diced Sicillian eggplant (this will totally happen, as the eggplant is already part-way processed and just needs to be rinsed, roasted, diced, and frozen before I can check it off my list)
2-3 C (more) frozen golden zucchini rounds (we'll see when I get around to this - I'm quite enjoying having them fresh right now)
24 half-cups of frozen blanched rainbow chard and/or other cooking greens (wish me luck)
+
1-2L dried tomatoes (here's hoping I can slice them thin enough to make this work)


NOTE: I will, of course, also be availing myself of as many bags of frozen broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, snap beans, and edamame as I can manage to stuff into my chest freezer... but I'll be letting companies like Arctic Garden and President's Choice do that bit for me.

Wish me luck with the rest of my canning! :-D


TTFN,
Amazon. :-D

So. A friend of mine has a family with a sugar shack.
She's offered to haul home an order for me in May. What I've ordered:

1 gallon (8 tins) of maple syrup
1 kg (two packages) of cassinade - which has the same consistency as brown sugar, so it's reasonably soft and can be used in baking
1 box of a dozen maple-butter filled chocolates


I'm figuring that this will keep us in syrup for a good two years, possibly more, and it'll mean that - next time I run out of a brown sugar (which should take a little while, I realize) - I'll have a much more local source already on hand. YAY!

I'm really happy about this offer. She's only making it to some of her close friends - I suggested that she put that list on facebook or something, as it would get her family some extra business, but she's making the run by train which means a lot of heavy lifting for her. So she's trying to keep things "in the family" as much as possible.

It makes me wonder about Buying Clubs, however, and whether or not something closer to home - like the Vanier sugar shack, for example - would do a bulk order with similar prices. Don't know, but it's something to consider.

I'm interested to see how much maple syrup I use when it's (sginificantly more) affordable than usual. Like... I know I use maple syrup as part of the sugar in my home-made pumpkin butter preserves. Maple-based brown sugar is about six times as expensive as cane-based brown sugar (though it's only one-and-a-half times as expensive as organic, fairly traded cane-based brown sugar, so... Apples to apples, right?)
But I'm wondering... will I scrimp on expensive sugar? Or will I use it as a plentiful thing when I've got four litres of the stuff Just Lying Around?
In terms of canning, I can - apparently - only use maple syrup in place of 1/4 of the necessary sugar. I suspect that maple sugar would be more of a 1:1 exchange, but I could be wrong. Anybody know?

Anyway.
This is sort of Step One in my quest to do a lot of my grocery shopping "by year" with up-front payments through CSAs and bulk-buying.
Here's hoping it works out! :-D


TTFN,
Amazon.