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This is just a portion of the 200 or so cans of jam, relish, salsa tomatoes, pickles & such we put away last year. It has been so wonderful to have all these items on hand that plus we know exactly what went into them. Do you know how hard it is to find jam without HFC in it?! And we've all been reading about the danger of eating tomatoes in metal cans, I haven't had to buy one can of tomatoes since last summer & have plenty to last until we can this year's batch.
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We also had fun with making labels for our jars to turn them into pretty gifts.
So many of you have commented to me that you'd love to do some canning but are intimidated by the process. Well, I'm here to tell you if I can do it so can you! We only do hot water bath canning (pressure cookers still scare me) which is really as easy as boiling water & making sure to keep things hot & clean. Hot water canning is good for jams, jellies, pickles, salsas, relishes, salsas, sauces & condiments that have some acid content to them. This is not the method for canning things like your fresh beans from the garden, that is where the pressure cooker comes in.
The initial investment for supplies is really not that much. I thought today I'd give you a little guide to the equipment you need & what we use plus some other tips.
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The rest of the items needed you probably already have around the kitchen; a cooling rack, dish towels, a ladle & a strainer. Sure there are other things you can get like special tools to measure the headspace (yeah, I can eye 1/4-inch, thank you) or to get the air bubbles out (I just use a clean knife or spoon) but really, the items above are what we've found we truly use. I've given Amazon links to everything but we picked most of ours at the local Ace Hardware. We've also noticed Target has started to carry some canning supplies as well as most larger grocery stores.
Finally, I'd like to suggest books about preserving....
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If you don't want to invest in a book right away or can't find one of these at your local library, we've found that the package of pectin contains basic directions for making fruit jams.
Now that you've got your supplies search click the "preserving" label in our left sidebar for some recipes to get you started. We'll also we share some new things we're canning this summer starting with homemade mustard.
If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski
17 comments:
Great tips. I've wanted to try canning but am one of the people who are intimidated by it. I was a lucky recipient of some of your canned goods last year. I need to give it a go! Also, what is hfc?
Rose - You do need to try it. HFC is high fructose corn syrup.
Your collection of preserves is so beautiful! This is my first summer that I'll be canning, so I can only hope I'll put up a fraction of what you did!
Thanks for a recap of all of your previous tips in one post, especially those adorable labels. I'm not committing to canning, just yet, but I'm definitely saving a link to this post when I muster up the courage (and supplies).
Thanks for the tips. I really want to can something one of these days, but I've always thought that it was really complicated. Perhaps I'll try some strawberry jam this year. Thanks for sharing,
Stacy
i love the labels and gift idea! thanks for the tips :)
I'm definitely going to can more this year. My problem is that when I do, I never end up using it all. I guess I need to make some pretty labels, too, and give it away as gifts!
I am so impressed over all of your canning - more than 200 jars! I guess it simply takes a bit of dedication and some boiling water, as the rewards are apparent. Kudos! And thanks for the encouragement to each of us to become better canners. :)
Wow, you all should be so proud of your canning! I just love your labels too. So nice for gifts.
Thanks so much for this post. This will be my first year canning. My mom did it when I was growing up so I've been around it, but still find it intimidating. This helps a lot!
ooh, cool labels! i know some people think of canning as a chore, but i don't mind it. i can tolerate the heat and long process and i LOVE the results. :)
I sterilise the jars in the baby steriliser!! Love the labels - perfct presents
Here is to hoping that this is a great year for tomatoes. I need to can a lot of them. My Mom always has told me you should can enough for two years in case of draught or whatever. I am nearly depleted.
Thanks for the tips! I'd like to try doing some canning this summer.
I've been doing BWB canning for about 12 or 13 years now, but just bought a pressure canner for low acid/low sugar items. I'm a little freaked out, but excited that we can can beans, potatoes, etc. without making pickles or preserves.
We aspire to doing lots of canning one of these years! UP until this point, we've mostly been freezing up our stores of veg. But, this is definitely inspiring. Thanks for all the great tips!
Do you do large batch canning? or mostly small runs?
Kat,
This is a great tutorial.
I am ready to can my cherry chutney with the 5 lbs of freshly picked bing cherries.....I am still intimidated, but you made it sound easy.
Thanks!
This post really was helpful. My husband and I have 250 cherry trees, which are being picked as I type. I will be trying your Cherry jam from last year for sure. Thanks again!
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