Anyone do any home canning this season?

[ladypirate]

As I have a water bath canner full of homemade ketchup and tomato paste simmering away in the other room, I got to thinking about who else might be into home canning. So anyone else do any canning this season?

I'm doing the ketchup and tomato paste right now and I have diced tomatoes and pickled beets down in the basement. I wanted to do some pickled jalapenos but ran out of time before they were out of season. Also have some heads of cabbage to do saurkraut, although that's more lactofermentation.

Speaking of fermentation, we've also gotten really into homebrewing our own beer. So much fun!

We get most of our produce wholesale from local farms through our food buying club--the tomatoes I used were all from an organic farm less than 5 miles from our house. I wish the tomatoes we tried to grow turned out that nicely!

 

[Octavia]

Yes! Not as much as I wanted to, but I have a pesky lack-of-storage-space problem. I did about 8 quarts of Roma tomatoes (some whole, some crushed); 4 pints of peaches plus 2 pints and 4 halves of peach preserves; 1 pint of apple butter, which never made it into the canner because I started using it right away; and a couple small jars of ketchup and tomato jam that came from a canning session with a friend of mine. I also helped her do a few jars of dilly beans, but she put a TON of spice in them so I left them all with her -- my hubby and I are a bit wimpy that way!

Have you read the "Food in Jars" website? It's a blog, so I won't link, but it's easy to find and a great resource. I live near her so I hope to take one of her classes soon!

 

[sctsbride09]

Im pretty much done for the season, still have a few tomatoe plants going though, so I will get a few more jars of marinara hopefully. This season I canned marinara,salsa (red and green with tomatillos),whole tomatoes,pickles,pickled veggies,spicy pepper mix for sandwiches,enchilada sauce,apple butter,caramel apple jam,strawberry jam,mixed berry jam,peach preserves,peach butter, and a few jars of "pie filling" (great for pies or cobblers if Im in a hurry).
Most of the things I canned came from our garden (completely organic), with the exception of a few things from friends gardens.

Yum, homemade ketchup! Im totally going to have to try that!

 

[dragonfly411]

I have not learned the fine art of canning just yet. That's next year's accomplishment. This year I did make blueberry jam which I am really proud of. We have enough bottles to last all winter and hopefully part of spring. It was so much fun to me to learn how to make it!

 

[packrat]

No, but it's something we both want to start doing. We need to get a pantry built in the basement first, so hopefully next year we will be canning. Starting a garden this spring too. My aunt does a lot of canning and she's just around the block from us, and said to come up and she'd show us how.

 

[yssie]

scts that's quite a list!

I definitely will - I had fun with it last season I hope to pickle a bunch of winter roots, I'm waiting a couple of weeks until we finish rearranging the apartment, fortunately we don't have to worry about not being able to hang-dry outside as winter is never severe out here..

I also need to go lid-hunting, I worry about reusing. Anyone have good ideas on where to find cheap lids?

 

[sctsbride09]

Yssie- I got lucky at a grocery store going out of business sale and scored like 20 boxes of lids for 5o cents a pack a year or so ago. I also buy them at garage sales when I see unopen packs, or on ebay as well. Garage sales are also a great place to find jars too, btw. I must confess that I do reuse lids, as long as I boil them first and Im not canning anything with meat in it, Im ok. I should mention that I dont do the water bath method though. If I did, I would probably only use brand new ones every time.

 

[yssie]

Thanks for that info - I've never thought to check garage sales for jars!

I do use a waterbath, though I do reuse clamps.


Octavia I just found that blog - very cool!! I gotta say, there's something very intriguing about the peach jalapeno jelly on the mainpage..

 

[somethingshiny]

This is the first year in many that I did some canning. When I was a kid, we froze and canned everything so I was burnt out on it for the first several years of marriage. But this year a friend and I did some canning. She has been canning everything for 2 years now. She has a book that says how much of each veggie, sauce, etc you need to feed a family of X for the winter. It's hilarious. We did a bunch of salsa and pickled veggies (which I hate!) and started in on some tomato sauce, juice, etc. I have plans to put up some beets and more tomato stuff and I want to try canning spaghetti sauce too.

I still do lots of freezing and plan to continue with that. (green beans, peppers, corn, apples, pears, pumpkin, squash, zucchini)

 

[tiffanytwisted]

I didn't can any veggies or sauces but we did make apple butter a few weeks ago that is yummy! My sister made old fashioned lime pickles so we have some of those too.

 

[Steel]

I can't say I have ever heard of canning over here; we freeze, jar or dry most things but no canning!

It is great you do home brew, DH is really keen to start that next year.

 

[somethingshiny]

Steal~ "canning" is using a jar, I think it's the same thing just different terms.

 

[Steel]

Steal~ "canning" is using a jar, I think it's the same thing just different terms.

Awh, thanks for telling me!

I had visions of you guys with canning equipment and little pinchers or rollers to seal the seams and wondered if you used standard lids or perhaps the fancy ones with ring pulls. hahhahhahah Silly!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

My mom and I canned applesauce this fall. It was so much fun and man alive, the homemade stuff is so much better than the stuff from the store with all those preservatives and sugars.

 

[Sha]

***threadjack alert***

Hi fisher,
Not sure you'll check this thread again, and I don't know how to PM users.., but just wanted to say . How are you? I think about you often, and always remember your warm and positive spirit. It's good to 'see' you again. I hope that you and the DH are doing well.

***threadjack over***

 

[dragonfly411]

Steal~ "canning" is using a jar, I think it's the same thing just different terms.

Awh, thanks for telling me!

I had visions of you guys with canning equipment and little pinchers or rollers to seal the seams and wondered if you used standard lids or perhaps the fancy ones with ring pulls. hahhahhahah Silly!

Steal - Yes Canning = Jarring hehe. I could never accomplish real cans... I'd probably shoot myself first. I think it is going to turn into something that I truly love, and I like the idea of it helping us to be more self sufficient.

Sometime you must tell me what all you are doing to become so. Also any research aids would be great. I'm planning on getting us going with a garden.

 

[Steel]

Steal~ "canning" is using a jar, I think it's the same thing just different terms.

Awh, thanks for telling me!

I had visions of you guys with canning equipment and little pinchers or rollers to seal the seams and wondered if you used standard lids or perhaps the fancy ones with ring pulls. hahhahhahah Silly!

Steal - Yes Canning = Jarring hehe. I could never accomplish real cans... I'd probably shoot myself first. I think it is going to turn into something that I truly love, and I like the idea of it helping us to be more self sufficient.

Sometime you must tell me what all you are doing to become so. Also any research aids would be great. I'm planning on getting us going with a garden.

Will do, next year will be an amazing year for us- becoming self sufficient I mean. Watch out for my updates.