Setup a Canning Party - PEP BB community.straw.canningparty

I just finished up with an applesauce party! I planned for AGES! most of the prep work was from picking apples. I provided them. They came from local backyard trees. Grandma's and grandpa's that dont want to pick all their apples.

But there was a nerve-wracking element of inviting people into my kitchen during HARVEST SEASON! 🫣 All permies might understand the wreck that takes over the center of their home as beans dry, squash corn and sunflower seeds cure, green tomatoes picked before the frost ripen up, and most horizontal surfaces are crammed with food in some stage of processing. I stuffed it all away and wiped everything down to my normal standards, regardless. Hours of work!

The party was 6 hours long, starting just after 10am, going til 4pm. Women popped in all day, but didn't stay the whole time. I planned it that way, thinking that would give participants a good window to choose their two hours from. Turned out, most of them came at 1pm anyways. 😆

It was magical! We didn't make as many jars of sauce as I thought we would. I really appreciate the ladies who came and brainstormed with me to create more efficiency as the day grew long.

It took everyone a good 3 hours to process the dozen jars they brought. I think with what we learned, we could cut that down to 2 hours next time.

The party began with four guests. We cooked apples and started saucing. Around noon, some ladies left, some new gals came, and the apple pie filling began! We made 15 quarts (although only 13 are pictured) and 7 pints of sauce. 14 quarts of applesauce pie filling.

At 2pm, the final wave of guests came: thistles coming home from school. Some of them helped me pick apples last week, so it was my great pleasure to show them fantastic ways to preserve apples! They cranked, plunged, spiced, poured.

Their final product was fruit leather, of which we made 9 quarts of sauce that filled the dehydrator.
The party ended after 4pm, and altogether, I had 13 helpers in the kitchen, and we made 29.5 quarts!

The bottleneck in productivity was spaces on a cooktop. We used campsites outside, which took forever in the cold, used a lot of propane, and burnt sometimes. In hindsight, we decided that using instant pots would give us unlimited "cooktops", would be less likely to burn apples, and may even be faster.

I also took up too much work space with food/snacks for everyone. Next time, I would put out easy finger food in another area, or perhaps ask guests to bring a packed lunch?

Guests also gave feedback that more work spaces where they could sit and chop would have helped them keep working. More streamlined work as stations next time!

All in all, guests loved the social interaction, kids romped while grown ups worked, and we got a TON done. Definitely want to do more next year!