Pretty easy :) Fruit is canned in a water bath canner, which beginners tend to find less intimidating. You could can the apples as apple pie filling, applesauce, juice, or apple slices. The plums can be halved and canned. The cherries pitted and canned. Grapes can be made into grape juice. I personally like berries frozen, rather than canned, but you can certainly can them whole or turn them into jam or syrup. You can see the general canning procedure here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/general.html You can read exactly how to can fruits here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can2_fruit.html

As long as you stick with fruits and boiling water bath canning the concerns and problems are minimal and the ease of canning them relatively simple. There are a few low-acid fruits (mangoes, figs, windfall apples) that require special steps to make them safe for canning but the majority are acidic and do quality of the end product is all you have to worry about.

When you get into vegetables it is a different ballgame since aside from tomatoes and pickles all vegetables require pressure canning and it has a learning curve all on its own.

In addition to the NCHFP link Kristina provided pick up a copy of the Ball Blue Book ($8 at Walmart or anywhere that sells canning supplies) as it covers all the basics in detail and if filled with recipes.

Welcome to the wonderful world of canning. :)

Dave

I ended up being able to pick lots of Concord grapes at someone's house last year. I made one batch of jelly, which IMO was a lot of extra effort I did not enjoy. Maybe if I could use a juicer, I'd try again. I made jam (with the skins) which is good for some uses (I like it in jam bars or jam filled cookies) but the skins are a little more noticeable than I'd like. What I found was simplest and I really ended up liking, was canning the grapes for juice with a light sugar syrup. I strain the juice through a sieve when I open the jars. I never was a huge drinker of grape juice, but this stuff is really good.

All the things I did were from the Ball Blue Book.

Methley plums make an excellent jam, as do strawberries. Blackberries make a great jelly or syrup. All sorts of veggies can be pickled up really tasty, and tomatoes are pretty easy on their own or as something like salsa. Two books I would recommend would be Food in Jars, and Preserving in Pints- both by Marisa McClellan. She also has a website called Food in Jars. A ton of great recipes in a wide variety- and all are very small batch that's easy to handle for beginning canners. And of course Ball Blue Book is the bible of canning.

If you want to do something with the cherries other than whole- I strongly recommend getting a cherry pitter. It's worth it IMO. But even whole you can make cherry bounce- that's pretty much just whole cherries in a good bourbon. Not exactly canning, but pretty yummy.

So Kyle, are you getting the info you need?
Dave