Canning Culture

The county of Lancaster, Pennsylvania — not far from where my brother Chris and I grew up — is known as Amish country. The Amish community there is famous for their craftsmanship. They make beautiful handmade quilts and furniture, and they’re also expert canners.?When I was little, my family visited a shop ?in the village of Intercourse (yes, that’s its real name!) that had jars and jars of canned items. The shelves were stocked with pickled vegetables, bacon jam, jalapeno jelly, apple sauce, pear sauce, and every fruit butter and preserve you could think of. I was fascinated by the array of jars and thought, “I’m going to make these one day!”

When I started working at FruitGuys, those childhood memories came back to me. I wanted to make our amazing farm-fresh fruit last longer which inspired me to try my hand at canning. I read up on how to can and found good but simple recipes so there wasn’t much I could mess up. I bought a food mill which I used to make vanilla pear sauce, apple sauce, and I canned peaches, all successfully!?Years later, after we moved from Pennsylvania to San Francisco, a family friend shared a pomegranate jelly recipe with me. She used it to make jelly from pomegranates grown in her own backyard. Her stories inspired me to take my canning adventures a step further and try making my own jams and jellies. (Here’s a story I wrote about canning jellies. It includes the recipe I use for hot pepper jelly and explains why and how to use pectin to get that smooth, classic jelly consistency.) I mastered easy jellies first, building my skills until I could finally try my friend’s recipe.

Pomegranate Crime Scene

Making pomegranate jelly is a bit more labor intensive than some other fruit jams and jellies. You have to remove all of the arils (the ruby-red seeds) from the pomegranate, then juice them. My wife and I tried a lot of different techniques to get the arils out so we could put them through a juice press — and things quickly got messy.?(Learn about the Best Way to Deseed a Pomegranate.)

By the time we were ready to can, we were both stained with pomegranate juice. There was red juice splashed across the cabinets and even on the ceiling! (Pro tip: To avoid your own jelly disaster, don’t try to juice intact pomegranate quarters. The more of the white pith you juice, the more bitter the juice will taste.)

The kitchen looked like a crime scene, but once we started cooking the juice, sugar, and pectin together, magic happened. The result was a gorgeous, deep red, slightly sweet pomegranate jelly that we gave to friends for holiday gifts that year.?

Pomegranates are in season now and they are one of my favorite fall fruits. If you love them too, enjoy these pomegranate recipes from our archives.?

After all these years, writing about making pomegranate jelly makes me want to get the canning equipment out again. This time though, I'll have the kids pick out all the arils!

Enjoy and be fruitful!

Your Chief Banana,?

-Erin Mittelstaedt