Twelve bags of cranberries are juiced and I have 13 quarts of juice. Let’s just say we bought enough cranberries that I’ll be canning cranberry juice for a week and we’ll have enough to have one quart per week for over a year.
Cranberry Juice
There’s actually 13 quarts and one pint. I didn’t can the pint . . I’ll stick that in the fridge and we’ll have it tomorrow for breakfast.
We were determined to do something with the pulp that was left. I took a little of it and added a bit of sugar and cinnamon and it was delicious.
Cranberry Pulp
My plan was to freeze dry it and eat it as a snack or break it into small pieces and put it in cereal or oatmeal but I think it will make an excellent cobbler, pie or muffins. Based on getting a gallon of pulp from 12 bags, I should get 4 gallons of pulp from all the cranberries. Some of it, I probably will freeze dry but some of it, I’ll probably freeze in one or 1.5 cup increments to use for cobblers, pies or muffins.
A few years ago, when we realized that we only needed pint sized jars for the two of us, I stopped buying quarts. I’ve been using the quarts I have for soups and for freeze dried things so now, I find myself short on quarts. I’ll have to evaluate my supply of jars tomorrow and see if I need to come up with another plan. Cranberry juice can be canned in half gallon jars. It is recommended that half gallon jars not be used for canning most things and I’d prefer not to use them because that’s a lot of juice to drink within a week of opening it but I’d also prefer not to buy more jars so . . we’ll see.
Bon says
Did you ever think that someone else may have wanted some cranberries? ? You guys are so funny.
Bon says
Bummer. The little wink guy didn’t show.
Tee says
What juicer do you have?
Judy Laquidara says
I have this one but I’m not using the juicer for the cranberries. https://amzn.to/2qO5otQ
Liz says
Get the half gallon jars and use those for the freeze-dried foods that are a bit bulky, like the apples slices, etc. You may be able to get more into the larger jars than using the smaller jars.
I use Thrive foods and when I open a #10 can of stuff, I put most in the half gallon jar and seal it up and then the rest goes into quart or pint jars. The smaller jars are my “daily”use and I just refill as needed. it’s a bit of work, but the food stays fresher than remaining in the larger cans without being sealed.
Judy Laquidara says
The half gallon jars would be fine for things I’m keeping a long time but I’m not freeze drying for super long term use. Once you open those, you really need to re-seal them if you’re not going to use the contents fairly soon. I’d rather have quart jars, open them, and use the stuff within a week or so and not have to re-seal it. I freeze dry Rita’s dog good in 1-1/2 pint jars and each one of those will last about a week so there’s no need to re-seal. Even freeze drying in a quart, I sometimes have to re-seal. I did apples in the quart jars and one serving as a snack for us, a half pint would do.
I’d rather put the freeze dried food in a container where it can stay til it’s gone and not have to be re-sealing and repackaging.
Carol says
Is the juice you are getting only pure juice from the cranberries? If that’s the case, I had no idea cranberries would yield that much liquid per bag of cranberries. I’m interested in your procedure.
Judy Laquidara says
No. I’m using the recipe from the Ball canning book.
dezertsuz says
Too bad you aren’t here. I would give you my quart jars, because I hardly ever use any these days. Your plans for the cranberry pulp are wonderful. Everything sounds so perfect!
Diane Russell says
You could also break the freeze dried pulp and crush it for a topping you could use on ice cream. Freezing the pulp the old fashioned way would make great Popsicles..