Canning anyone???

[Buckhorn Farm]

I have been canning pretty much all my life, but started a little more in 2020! How about you, what do you can?

 

[NC_Quail]

more canners here!

We can grape jelly made from grapes off of our grapevine, peaches, figs, pickles, and beets, among other things.

 

[Sally PB]

I can about 50-60 quarts of tomatoes every fall. I also can salsa: hot-hot-hot for hubby, and wimpy mild for me. I make apple butter and sauce, and have done some jams/jellies.

I haven't pressure canned anything in quite some time. If my beans ever produce enough that I can't eat them all, I probably will can those. Ditto if I get enough sweet potatoes.

Has everyone been able to find canning lids when they needed them? That was an issue in 2020 and 2021.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I also can.

Peaches off our tree, tomatoes and jams.
I am already planning what to plant in hopes of a better season than last year. I think I need to redo my strawberry beds and amend the tomato areas.

Peas, beans and corn end up in the freezer since I don't have a pressure canner.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I dehydrate a lot of things. Mainly apples and vegetables . Then I put them in jars. Not canning necessarily , but it’s food preserving ! One of my favorite YouTubers is RoseRedHomestead - That “woman with a gadget “. She does all sorts of fun stuff, and is also entertaining .

 

[Sally PB]

I dehydrate apples that I can get for cheap at the end of the season. I got a half bushel of Macs for sauce, and since it was a BOGO, I got a half bushel of Empire for free. I've found that if you have to pay full price for fruit to dehydrate, you don't save anything. So I wait for the seasonal clearance at the farm stand, or grow it.

I love dried cantaloupe. One year I had a bumper crop, and dried most of it. So good.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

What a great thread! I have never canned anything, but started looking into it recently because I plan on growing a lot of things in the garden this year that I would like to keep throughout the year such as quinoa, purple hull cow peas (I'll freeze those) bush beans, corn, and a ton of tomatoes and peppers (I'd like to make some stewed tomatoes, pasta sauce, and salsa). Any tips or tricks I can get would be much appreciated!

 

[Sally PB]

@Auntiejessi3, tomatoes are a lot of people's "gateway" canning experience. You don't need a pressure canner, so the up front expense isn't too bad. Corn and beans MUST be pressure canned. A pressure canner can be pretty pricey.

NOTE: a pressure canner and a pressure cooker are not necessarily the same thing. Instant Pots, for example, are pressure cookers, but not safe for pressure canning. Unless they've made a newer model that is; I don't know.

Get a copy of the Ball Book of Canning. It will tell you the nitty gritty of how to do this. Depending on the edition, it'll have lots of recipes for salsa, sauces, jams, etc.

Check out estate/yard sales to see if anyone is selling a canner, pressure canner, jars, and lids. I've never seen canning equipment at my local Goodwill store. I bet that stuff goes fast.

If you're thinking you want to can a lot of stuff, be on the lookout for boxes of canning lids, too. In 2020, they were very hard to find, and got pricey. There were lots of complaints from people not finding lids, and the lids they did find were failing, ie, not sealing.

I got these online:
https://www.fillmorecontainer.com/70mm-generic-lids-silver-bulk.html
I didn't have any problem with them sealing.

Ask any questions you want to! We all had to learn somehow.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

@Auntiejessi3, tomatoes are a lot of people's "gateway" canning experience. You don't need a pressure canner, so the up front expense isn't too bad. Corn and beans MUST be pressure canned. A pressure canner can be pretty pricey.

NOTE: a pressure canner and a pressure cooker are not necessarily the same thing. Instant Pots, for example, are pressure cookers, but not safe for pressure canning. Unless they've made a newer model that is; I don't know.

Get a copy of the Ball Book of Canning. It will tell you the nitty gritty of how to do this. Depending on the edition, it'll have lots of recipes for salsa, sauces, jams, etc.

Check out estate/yard sales to see if anyone is selling a canner, pressure canner, jars, and lids. I've never seen canning equipment at my local Goodwill store. I bet that stuff goes fast.

If you're thinking you want to can a lot of stuff, be on the lookout for boxes of canning lids, too. In 2020, they were very hard to find, and got pricey. There were lots of complaints from people not finding lids, and the lids they did find were failing, ie, not sealing.

I got these online:
https://www.fillmorecontainer.com/70mm-generic-lids-silver-bulk.html
I didn't have any problem with them sealing.

Ask any questions you want to! We all had to learn somehow.

Thank you! I'll start checking out what you've suggested.

 

[Sally PB]

If you're thinking you want to can a lot of stuff, be on the lookout for boxes of canning lids, too.

@Auntiejessi3, Another thing I want to mention. You may know this already.

Canning jars come in lots of volume sizes, but only two opening sizes: regular (smaller) and wide mouth. If you're canning tomatoes, wide mouth quart jars are easier to use. You can get your hand inside and moosh the tomatoes in to pack the jar full.

Which means you need to get the proper sized lid and band (the screw on part) for the jar. Says she who started a batch of tomatoes to can in her wide mouth jars, only to find that she had 2 wide mouth lids left in the box, and all the other boxes were regular.

Quick trip to the store. Thank goodness they had plenty of wide mouth lids in stock...