Canning!

[4orm]

Any canners here? I'm thinking of getting into it. After the initial investment I know it will pay for itself time and time again. Can I really can soups, fruit, etc... for months? I know nothing about it really. Any info (and recipes) would be helpful. Share your canning knowledge!

 

[Gigi22]

I have canned, and I still do so occasionally. What you need first is a good, recently published reference work that explains how to can safely. Please note that you cannot use older recipes and be assured that your canned food will be safe. New recipes are a must. Bernardin has published some works such as Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving. Also Ellie Topp has written a number of books such as Put a Lid on it: small-batch preserving for every season.
I am not certain that you can safely can your own tomato soup, I suggest you look at the Agriculture Canada website (I know their name has changed, just can't recall the most recent name) for guidelines. They will certainly steer you in the right direction!

 

[mamo-4-wdw]

I got the Ball canning book,it was by the canning jars at Walmart,and it has great recipes for everything.
I would suggest starting with jams and jellies and working up to the other things.
Good Luck and let us know how you are doing.

 

[brerrabbit]

I have done a lot of pickles, jams, jellies and such over the years. As I recall I always stuck with the recipes that only called for the hot water or boiling method. When canning anything with meats and certain other recipes it always called for pressure canning which required a pressure cooker. I shyed away from those recipes because I was always a little wary of pressure cookers. I know they are safe but just never made the investment.

The hot water method seals the ball lids onto the jar by expanding the contents and then as it cools it creates a vacum. In the pressure method I think its just a greater vacum.

I always liked to do a lot of stuff around Christmas and give them as gifts with a little tag always asking that they return the jar when they were done to cut my future costs.

 

[npmommie]

I have canned, and I still do so occasionally. What you need first is a good, recently published reference work that explains how to can safely. Please note that you cannot use older recipes and be assured that your canned food will be safe. New recipes are a must. Bernardin has published some works such as Bernardin Guide to Home Preserving. Also Ellie Topp has written a number of books such as Put a Lid on it: small-batch preserving for every season.
I am not certain that you can safely can your own tomato soup, I suggest you look at the Agriculture Canada website (I know their name has changed, just can't recall the most recent name) for guidelines. They will certainly steer you in the right direction!

good book suggestions, thanks! I just put a request in for ellie topp's at the library.
I want to start canning too!

 

[Colleen27]

Pick up a recent edition of Ball's Blue Book, it is a classic and perfect for beginners and can usually be found in just about any grocery store that carries canning supplies. Our local Save a Lot even has it.

Like Brerrabbit I stick to the hot water bath method, which is fine for acidic foods like tomatoes & tomato-based sauces, jams & jellies, pickles, fruit, etc. I hated using the pressure canner when I was canning with my grandmother and I haven't used it at all as an adult. For the things that would require a pressure canner I prefer to use freezer preservation methods.

 

[npmommie]

Pick up a recent edition of Ball's Blue Book, it is a classic and perfect for beginners and can usually be found in just about any grocery store that carries canning supplies. Our local Save a Lot even has it.

Like Brerrabbit I stick to the hot water bath method, which is fine for acidic foods like tomatoes & tomato-based sauces, jams & jellies, pickles, fruit, etc. I hated using the pressure canner when I was canning with my grandmother and I haven't used it at all as an adult. For the things that would require a pressure canner I prefer to use freezer preservation methods.

I got the Ball canning book,it was by the canning jars at Walmart,and it has great recipes for everything.
I would suggest starting with jams and jellies and working up to the other things.
Good Luck and let us know how you are doing.

I am going to look for the Ball canning book today!
I want to start with jams.

 

[fkj2]

I didn't pay any attention to your location, but the past couple of years I've been beggering canning jars from women who are older and tired of canning. I've gotten DOZENS of them without cost to me.

 

[lynn_s]

You can also find jars at yard sales (around here, you can usually get them around 0.25/jar). But get NEW lids.

The Ball book is great. I've water-bath canned for awhile, but got a basic pressure canner last year. Hope to do more this year. DH planted a huge garden.

For food safely, The water bath canner's are for high acid foods (pickles, most tomatoes, etc). The temperature cooked to and the acidity kills/keeps bacteria from growing.

For non-acidic foods, pressure canner's increase the cooking temperature, to kill the bacteria.

 

[worm761]

I learned to can from the website pickyourown.org. It explains everything in easy to understand terms for a beginner. and it has pictures! Those help me so I really liked it.

 

[naomi78155]

A great website is www.pickyourown.org
There is a tab at the top right corner and there is tons of info on canning and a lot of great recipes.
Good luck canning. It is my new hobby!

 

[mjbaby]

I totally adore the pickyourown website - always full of great tips.

In addition to finding former canners who will (usually gladly) give you their jars, I recommend taking a cold, hard look at the gear that you'll truly use. As with most hobbies, the sky's the limit on what it possible to spend, but you can usually come in much lower without diminishing the pleasure and payoff. I don't bother with one of those magnetic lid lifter thingies, for example (although I know people who like theirs...borrow before buying, if you can, to make sure you'll use things).

I've written a lot at my blog about canning gear, recipes and risk management (http://hotwaterbath.blogspot.com/ - check out the "newbie" links toward the middle of the screen). My best advice is to take it slow, work up to the hard stuff and have confidence in your abilities. Canning is a very satisfying hobby and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

[ceecee]

I canned for a few years but didn't find it that cost effective and it's a lot of work. I had jars given to me and that's a major expense (I also was able to borrow pots from my mom). I did tomato sauce and tomatos, now I just freeze tomatos and corn, it's so much easier.

 

[TheBigBadWolf]

I can a lot of salsa each summer. I like to cook my salsa in my large electric turkey roaster, which leaves the stove open for stuff like the water bath canner, pots for boiling my lids and rings, extra pots of boiling water, etc. The turkey roaster will hold about 30 pints of salsa, I believe. This is really handy when I make large quantities of salsa, and saves me time when I'm canning.

 

[swilshire]

The lids for the jars are sort of expensive, so try to catch them on sale at the end of the season. Some things are just too much work. We no longer do corn or beans, because they are often on sale so cheap at the grocery.

Our biggest thing is tomatoes, which are pretty easy, and speciality things like pickled okra, which we use for Christmas gifts.

You can also freeze tomatoes for use in cooking. We do that when we don't have enough to bother dragging everything out to can. We'd do all of them this way if we had enough freezer space.

One year we canned over 500 jars of things, but never again. It's just too much work.

Sheila

 

[Happy Mom2]

We started canning last year, and love it. We bought our supplies at Walmart. There is alot of informaiton on the internet. Good luck!

 

[dnbent]

I watched my Mom can for years. I remember my job was always to help wash the jars. I couldn't wait until I could do the more fun stuff.

While 10 years ago I started cooking big time. I decided canning was something I would try. I think the first year I only did green beans. It really was alot of fun and I think we did 50 quart.

Then the next year we did venison, green beans, applesauce, apple slices, apple pie filling and tons of tomatoes. We have even canned asparagus and zuchinni, neither of which I would do again. The difference between fresh flavor and canned is just not worth it.

For the most part I find that for us it is easier to purchase my canning produce from the Amish and then I can do all that kind of produce at one time. For us it is to hard to devote a little time here and a little time there so this works better for us and Amish produce is abundant and reasonably priced by us. We primarily eat or give away our garden produce.

Good luck, have fun and enjoy!!

 

[megsablue]

Over the years, I've canned tomatoes, peaches, pickles (cucumber, baby carrots, dilly beans...) and jam. Didn't do anything last year because it was such a crazy summer, but I'm jumping back in full force this year.

So far I've pickled rhubarb (refrigerator pickles), baby carrots and watermelon rind this year, as well as made some strawberry-rhubarb jam (which DH has gone through already ).

I'm planning on doing a LOT of tomatoes this year (we go through canned tomatoes like crazy and since there's been stuff been coming out about the BPA in the lining, I figured I may as well just do it myself), some peaches, applesauce, more jam (DH says A LOT more jam ), pickles (cucumber) and dilly beans. And whatever else I can dig up for myself this year.

Though we live in an urban area, we live about 5 hours away from the agricultural area in our province (which is also where my in-laws now live) so we'll do a weekend trip or two up there this year to pick up some produce for me to can.

I love canning - it makes me feel so domestic-y (not a word, I know). I'm the type of person who likes doing this like this, so I tend to bite off a lot.

But I agree, you MUST have the Ball (US) or Bernardin (Canada) to start out. They really explain everything well. I get most of my supplies from Wal-Mart in the US and Canadian Tire in Canada.

 

[SandrA9810]

canning seems fun but a lot of work.

besides needing space, is there anything special about freezing fresh produce?? I'm getting to california at the end of the growing season for some of my favorite fruits. So i want to stock pile if possible.

I love fresh smoothies as well as just eating the whole fruit. So i figured freezing would be a good choice.
Maybe next season i can start canning at the begining of the season. But i'm not a real big fan of jams.

 

[sallysue66]

I can tomoatoes & pickles, everything else I freeze (beans, fruits, corn). IMO there are 2 inexpensive things that make the process easier...a canning funnel and the little magnetic thing for picking up the lids out of the hot water. The canning funnel had a wide opening and keeps your jar mouths clean so you don't have to wipe them down before putting the lid on. I also use it to filter cooking oil after frying chicken or french fries by sticking a coffee filter in the funnel.

One more thing, I have one of those tiny crockpots. It came with my regular one and I didn't know what I would ever use the thing for. But it came to me a few years ago when I was looking for a pot to simmer my jar lids in. It's perfect for that!

Happy Canning!