Canning Oranges

Last Friday hubby and I went grocery shopping at our local store because they had a good buy one get one free deal on lots of items. One of the deals we picked up were 4 pound bags of oranges. We got 4 bags. I knew what I wanted to do with them. I wanted to can them up so during the summer months when oranges are more expensive I would be able to save by opening one of our jars instead of buying oranges at the more expensive prices and still give my family the vitamin C they need. Out of the four bags of oranges we bought I got a total of 4 quarts, 6 pints and one half pint of pretty and oh so yummy orange slices to store in my pantry for this summer. Don't they look pretty to you to?

Here is a close up on one of my pretty jars of golden sunshine.

The reason I used quart jars and the half pint jar is because I am running out of pints. When all my kids were still at home I canned everything in quart jars so I have many more of them then I do pints. Now with just the 3 of us at home I am starting to can more in pints but haven't gotten enough of them stocked up yet. Working on that as I can afford to.

To can the oranges all I did was to wash the oranges really good in a light soapy warm water then rinsed well. I wanted to make sure there was no chemicals left on them. Then I peeled the oranges, using a very sharp knife, keeping the outer peel as thin as possible for later use, leaving most of the white pith still on the oranges. After peeling off the outer layer I then peeled all the pith off the oranges. Then pulled the sections apart.

I made a light syrup from water and sugar. Keeping the syrup hot while I packed the sections into hot jars I filled the half the jars, wipe the rims, applied the 2 piece lids and placed the jars into the boiling water bath. Processed them for ten minutes then removed them. Finished filling up the rest of the jars and placed them in the hot water bath and processed them for ten minutes.

Now my jars of pretty golden sunshine are sitting so pretty on the shelf in my pantry waiting for this summer when we will be enjoying them as is or mixed in fruit salads. I just love oranges don't you?

Check back tomorrow and see what I had in store for all those peelings I saved from the oranges. :)