Canning Help

[shari_dawn]

We planted a big garden this year with roma tomatos and cukes and onions and such and we are doing a lot of jam/jelly canning tomorrow. I know I cannot eat it now because I'm still on induction and I've resisted eating any of the stuff even when we went to the strawberry farm to pick them. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to can them so they are atkins legal. Short of adding splendda instead of sugar? thanks everyone.

[not2late]

I pick over the fruit, removing any that have bruises, etc. Then I wash them and dry them with paper towels.

I put them on cookie sheets and freeze them. then I store them in gallon freezer plastic bags (label them of course.) These frozen fruits keep a long time and they don't use any added sugars/sweeteners. i eat them straight out of the freezer like popsicles or I chop them in the food processor for a kind of sorbet.

You could also try dehydrating them too. I don't have a food dehydrator, but I'm considering one.

For your tomatoes, you can either freeze them raw (whole, quartered, chopped) using the same method for the fruit. If you make soup or sauce from them, that too can be frozen and I would suggest freezing them in 1 cup containers or in ice cube trays for smaller portions.

As for canning, you can make no-sugar added or low sugar jams and jellies using pectin. There are specific no or low sugar pectins on the market.

[shari_dawn]

thanks for the reply I sincerley appreciate it.
We're doing the no sugar added ones next week... wish us luck!!

[not2late]

I've never tried making jams or jellies.....too intimidating for me. I remember my aunt making jelly when I was a child. She had that big jelly bag that you couldn't touch or else it would make the juice cloudy (and her very unhappy with you...believe me!)