What are you canning now?

[N F C]

That's it! Can't text while canning! LOL, it's all clear to me now!

 

[napdognewfie]

Also they get a cramp in the texting finger from moving it in different positions (such as holding a paring knife). Just not used to all that physical labor. Lol

 

[N F C]

Maybe you're right, too much work.

But if they eat canned things and like what they eat, it just seems they would be interested in the process. My mom quit canning when we were little bitty kids so we didn't get the opportunity to watch & learn. My grandma always did it but she lived in another state. Maybe someday the kids that have the opportunity to learn, will be sorry they didn't. If nothing else, it would be a good chance to spend time together or learn how to save food for emergencies.

Ugh, I've become an old fogie fuddy-duddy.

 

[Beekissed]

We have TONS of apples here too. First year attempting to can applesauce. Do you have a particular recipe you like best?

For everyone canning apples, is there any tidbit of advice you would like to offer a newbie? Anything that is not written in the books or that you wish you knew before you started canning? Wish I could hang out in one of your kitchens during canning time. I am a very hands on and visual learner. I'd even sit and peel apples while I watched!

We like the apple peeler, corer and slicer gadgets because we do truckloads of apples at a time. To us, who used to use just paring knives to peel, core and slice (vegetable peeler is virtually useless for speed and continuity....I've always owned one and never used it except on carrots), the crank peelers are pure magic. We can process bushels and bushels of apples in a day and the cores and peels are so slender that no apple is wasted. We don't use them if only cooking a little pan or pot of apples...then we just use the paring knives.

We don't worry about the brown and will even leave mild bruises in the flesh...it makes the sauce even sweeter. As long as they are not too far brown/rotten, those little bruises don't hurt a thing. Neither does oxidation, in the long run, if you are using apples that are flavorful and juicy for your sauce...it makes the sauce a tad darker than storebought but changes the flavor in a negative way none at all, if you are using the right apples.

Don't add sugar until the sauce is cooked down...it will concentrate in flavor the longer it cooks, so adding sugar too soon can render it too sweet. Depending on the kind of apples used, you may have to only add a little or none at all, so wait until the end to add it. When cooking down large vats of apples, it will keep you from having to add too much sugar and will also concentrate the flavor, if you juice some of your apples first and cook them in apple juice instead of in water.

We don't double process, but can apple sauce much like one does jams or jellies....pour the hot sauce right in the clean jars, cap it, let it seal on its own. No further processing needed if your sauce is hot enough to begin with. We tend to use large vats or copper kettles to do our sauce and apple butters, so it gets very hot in these in order to cook down that large quantity into sauce. In the copper kettle we place a dozen clean pennies in the bottom to keep the sauce from sticking and we stir it frequently...it must never stick. You can clean the pennies by boiling them in vinegar water.

If you can, use a variety of apples for increased flavor and nuance in the sauce. We tend to gravitate towards the sweet/tart apples with white, crisp flesh rather than the sweet, mushy, mealy types~we find those too bland. If you can press firmly on the skin of the apples and your finger makes a small dent, it should cook down nicely for sauce. If not, this is an apple variety that will take forever to cook down and may also need to be put through the cone strainer with the use of the pestle to render it smooth...too much work, lots of mess, but if it's all you have, it's still worth it to get them into the jar. Those sweet, hard apples are better for making pies as the slices retain their integrity under the cooking process.

If wormy, bruised apples are all you have, use them anyway....they will taste better than having no apples at all. Often those are the only kind we can get in our foraging efforts but we find them worth all the work and effort, as they are what God has provided and we are thankful for them.

It takes too long. It's boring. It's hot. It's messy. I can't text with this stuff on my hands. Lol

Exactly. Life in a bubble holds no place for preparing for the future, even if it's only for the near future of a season or two.

Increasingly this world's youth are encased in that very small bubble of "me", as evidenced by the huge emphasis on "selfies", and feel like all things of necessity should be procured by those too old to have fun and should be given to them upon demand as their due. It's more than a little disturbing, but it's the world as we know it right now.

 

[napdognewfie]

My 28 yr old DS is at least interested in the garden. Most of it is edible - grapes, raspberry, blackberry, apple, cherry, pear, hardy kiwi, blueberry. Herb garden & raised beds. No grass. I like to know what goes in my food.

Oldest DD (36) gardens and has ducks, chickens & goats. She butchers too. She has to learn canning soon. That's my girl.

This year was a bust for me. We had lots of rain and the garden would have been wonderful. Instead of a garden I had a heart attack. All I did was sleep before and I'm not anywhere near full speed now. I told DD I needed her to do my old job of gofer and lifter and I can still do mom's part of sitting and cutting.

 

[napdognewfie]

Oh and teaching!

 

[N F C]

My 28 yr old DS is at least interested in the garden. Most of it is edible - grapes, raspberry, blackberry, apple, cherry, pear, hardy kiwi, blueberry. Herb garden & raised beds. No grass. I like to know what goes in my food.

Oldest DD (36) gardens and has ducks, chickens & goats. She butchers too. She has to learn canning soon. That's my girl.

This year was a bust for me. We had lots of rain and the garden would have been wonderful. Instead of a garden I had a heart attack. All I did was sleep before and I'm not anywhere near full speed now. I told DD I needed her to do my old job of gofer and lifter and I can still do mom's part of sitting and cutting.

Take it easy on yourself, those aren't anything to play around with.

 

[napdognewfie]

Had a stent put in 8 days ago. I'm taking it very easy. It was 95% blocked. Dr says rest of my heart is in much better shape because I garden. Until just a couple years ago I could still dig it by shovel myself. I did try to do one bed in spring but couldn't do it.

I can every year so it's not like we're out of food. I'm going to try just a half bushel of plain tomatoes tomorrow. DH is off so he is my forced labor (grin).

 

[WthrLady]

Oh and a good quality imersion blender!

 

[bauerdog]

Give the young ones time. When I was in my 20s I wanted nothing to do with cooking, gardening or canning. My grandmother has always canned, but none of the 11 grandkids wanted to learn. NOW, in my late 30s, I am really into heirloom varieties of tomatoes and try to grow as much food as possible. Just got hooked on canning last year. My grandmother lives 3hours away, so I now get tips through you guys.