Canning my Cuties

I am a sucker for a good deal. I coupon, I search the clearance racks, and I stock up on good sales. My bathroom cupboard is full of toiletries that I have found for next to nothing. Some of them I even made money off of. It is easy to store these things. I can stack my rolls of $0.10 paper towels anywhere that I can find space. But when I found a sale on Cuties, I had to find some way to store them.

Canning has always been a way of preserving foods. In the 1800's when the French military offered a cash prize for a new way of preserving foods, a man named Nicolas Appert suggested canning. It has since been a way for people to grow foods during the optimal seasons and still eat it the rest of the year.

Now fast forward to present times. We often hear talk of zombie apocalypse, a plague that takes out millions, or a war that few will survive. This has brought to us to something called "prepping." What used to be a way for families to survive winter, has now become a tool for being prepared for when the "SHTF."

I have never been a prepper. I don't have stocks of supplies hidden underground. What I did have was a produce store that was selling bags of Cuties, normally $7.00, for $1.00. Being the thrifty shopper that I am, I bought seven bags. Then I realized that I had to do something with my twenty-one pounds of clementines. This led to my first experience in canning since I was little and helped my mom and grandma make plum jelly.

I have to let you know, it is not as easy as I thought that it would be, but seeing my jars of goodies once I was done made it all worth it!

My first set of jars were to be filled with simple peeled clementines. My daughter loves them and this would be a way for her to always have some available. They turned out great! Here is the recipe and instructions.

Canned Clementines:

1. Peel your clementines, and pull apart the sections, and remove as much pith (white stuff) as possible
2. Clean your jars and rings, I washed mine all in the dishwasher with the highest heat setting
3. Once the jars are clean, pack them full of the clementines, leave a little room at the top
4. Prepare your syrup solution. I did a 2:1 solution of water and sugar. You can actually just do water if you would like them to be sugar-free, but where is the fun in that. I used a pan and mixed the water and sugar. Bring to a boil and stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Then pour the syrup into each of the jars. Slide a knife or something similar around the inside of the jar to make sure and eliminate any air bubbles
5. Use a cloth with vinegar on it to clean off the rim of the jar
6. Place lids and rings on jars
7. Place jars in a bath of boiling water, make sure that there is at least 1/2 an inch of water over the top of the jars and boil them for 10 minutes
8. Take jars out of water and place on towel to let them rest and seal. Over the next 12-24 hours the lids will seal
9. You should be able to push on the top of the jar and hear no pop to ensure that it is sealed properly, any jars that don't seal should be refrigerated or eaten immediately
10. Store in a cool, dry area