Ever find yourself like me wishing your hand writing was better? It was lucky I got markings on these jars at all. Think maybe stickers for jars might be a good investment. Anyone have a good way they handled their canned fruit?
Isn’t that the truth. I do ok until I start to rush, then it just goes out the window. Looks like a lot of nice canning even if you don’t know what it is.
Thanks Derby yes hind sight is always 20/20. I’m mostly going by color on some of it but the problem is blackberries, cherries, and Aronia’s mixed with other fruits look a lot alike. The pears and apples are remarkably similar in color. Some I can read ok.
Oh I bet they all taste good. Once one of my great uncles gave us some catfish frozen in plastic jugs filled with water, none were labeled. As we thawed them there was catfish, squirrel, and figs. Lol
I have grafted tree limbs with no labels…i’ll have to see what they are when they fruit. Very annoying.
I was inspired from the group here to be very careful and put permanent labels on my multi graft tree
I had some that’s labels faded and became unreadable completely. I went to a magic marker system and add a spot of color on the tree as a code to identify variety. I wrote those original labels with a permanent marker and sealed them inside a bag and the sun still got them within a few months. I now have 3 pear trees I don’t know what they are. The good news I caught most while they were still readable. Honestly with trees it’s ok because I grow them for fruit. Worse case scenario I would just say do you want some of this large green pear scion wood I have no clue the variety of.
I don’t have any problem labeling individual jars. I use a wax china marker for that. It doesn’t wear off, but can be scrubbed off. My problem comes in storing the boxes, which eventually become boxes to find a specific thing is a pain. The stacks in a corner of the hallway and under a large desk aren’t exactly an attractive decorative touch. I won’t store them in the uncontrolled temperatures of the garage, and no one wants to give up a bedroom for them.
I think what I need is one of those giant walk-in close closets devoted to the things I really need to store because I don’t need to store but a few sets of clothes. After all, I can only wear one set at a time, and preserving opportunities for each thing usually come once a year. That leaves the desire to preserve at least a year’s worth of each.
I have two metal shelves in the basement and the bottom part is devoted for the cans. I like it that way because I can easily see all cans. Sorry for the bad light in the pictures.
I cover them from light with the old blankets, like this.
I am also lazy with the labeling. I am trying to label better if I am doing several batches of the same thing, because usually they vary in the taste and quality and when I give a can as a present I want to give my best one 
. The next important label is the year, because I do not want for cans to stay more than two years. This is my regular way.
And their labels.
