Related question - how much time can pass between when you put something in the jars, and when you put it through the hot bath canner? Is it still safe, or should I consider that batch to be "use right away" rather than "store for over winter?" I guess we'll find out. Now that I have the right stuff I can can it up as soon as it comes out. Just picked that up on Saturday. I did email a profession and await a response.
Anyway, I didn't get to jelly. In fact, I now have just over a pound of roughly chopped crab apples floating in five cups of water in a pot on the stove. The rest of the crab apples are de-stemmed and the blossom ends cut off, in a big bag on the table. I need to finish cutting them up and continue the process, but I have run out of steam. I'll put the bag in the fridge and try again tomorrow morning, but tomorrow we're going to be running most of the day. I have appointments in three different cities that are all many miles from one another. Thirty miles to my first appointment, then back home to grab kids before heading to the second appointment thirty miles in the opposite direction, before rushing back home again for the third appointment. Yikes! There's so much running on Tony's days off, sometimes it feels like we'll never get caught up on household stuff. When will we have time to repair the barn, fix the rabbit cages, set up the garden spaces, plant the perennials, and have any family time? Sure his hours decrease a little in the winter, but when there's snow covering everything it's not really possible to set up gardening plots and do a lot of outdoor work and repairs. Oh the joys of long work days and homesteading with a disability. Wish I could do it all myself.