Adventures in Home Canning

A few months ago I saw an article in my Body and Soul magazine about home canning and was intrigued. If you’re like me, canning probably brings to mind thoughts of a simpler time. I can recall shelves of chow chow and pickles lining my grandmother’s basement walls. It may seem like an outdated practice, but there are several reasons why canning your own fresh produce makes sense in today’s world. My favorite reason is that you get to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables at their peak and are able to enjoy them all year long. Another plus is the money you’ll save since you won’t have to buy the canned or frozen version when you want to use them in a recipe (especially if you grow your own produce). Other perks include the fact that canned produce makes beautiful and meaningful gifts for birthdays and holidays and you get to control the amount of salt/sugar that goes into each item, which is usually much less than you’ll find in grocery store versions. Since the article gave simple instructions and a few recipes to get started, I decided to give it a try.

During our regular trip to the farmer’s market I picked up some delicious peaches and splurged on a case of beautiful tomatoes. I had already purchased a home canning starter kit, a canning recipe book and a case of jars. The next day, with my mom’s help, the canning adventure began. We started by cleaning the jars and lids and preparing them by placing them in a large stockpot of slightly boiling water. We also prepared another stock pot of simmering water to process the newly packed jars. While the jars and lids simmered we prepped the tomatoes. This was probably the most time consuming part of the whole operation. We first had to blanch the tomatoes, then peel and cut them. Now it was time to pack the jars. This part can get tricky. You have to be extra careful when packing to follow the recipe instructions. Getting all the air bubbles out of the jars and leaving enough headspace is critical to ensure the quality of the food. Once the jars were packed correctly and the lids were on, we carefully placed them in the stock pot of simmering water to process for the allotted amount of time. After about 40 minutes of processing, we removed the jars and sat them on a dish towel on the table to cool for 24 hours.

It may sound simple, but canning tomatoes is a long, slow process that takes lots of preparing and patience. Since we were amateurs we used stock pots instead of an actual canning pot. I didn’t think there was much of a difference at first but now I know better. The jars I used were quart sized and my stockpots were barely tall enough to hold the amount of water needed to cover the tops of them for processing. We had a few episodes of the water boiling over and dousing the stove’s flame. Another issue was that my pot only held about 4 jars at a time, so we could only work in batches of four, slowing the process down even more. We also ended up using regular tongs and oven mitts to remove the jars from the boiling water. Luckily none were dropped, but we came awful close. Without my mother’s help, the tomato canning would have been a disaster. Even with the proper equipment, it’s at least a two person job. My brother ended up stopping by in the afternoon and his assistance really helped to finish things out. All in all it took us about seven hours to complete the canning process. It was exhausting and a learning experience, but totally worth it in the end.

Since canning the tomatoes took all day, we didn’t even get to the peaches. I ended up making peach jam the following day and canning it by myself, which was much easier considering I had less peaches and smaller jars. That process took me about three hours total. I’ve since discovered a canning utensil kit that contains special jar gripping tongs, a magnetic tool to remove the jar lids, a transparent funnel and a tool that doubles as a bubble remover and headspace measurer and I can tell you it was well worth the $7 it cost. After our first adventure a few weeks ago I’ve become a pro. My mother and I canned strawberry and blueberry jam this past Monday as well as peach halves in light syrup and it went much more smoothly this time around. As with anything, the more you practice, the easier it gets. The next item on my canning list is green beans; however they require a special pressure processer that I have yet to purchase. I’m leaning towards one I found online that can be used as a pressure or boiling processer.

If you’re considering canning I highly recommend it, but I do have a few tips to ease you into the process:

~ Always follow a trusted recipe. Home canning requires processing foods a certain way to eliminate any bacteria, etc. If you don’t follow a trusted recipe, your food could go bad and your family could get seriously ill! I found a great canning recipe book at Wal-Mart for $6 that was full of recipes for fruit, vegetables, jams, pickled foods and meats (yes, you CAN can meats! Who knew?). It also had great instructions for prepping the jars, choosing produce, storage guidelines and trouble shooting. For me, having this book before you get started is a must.

~ Read all instructions prior to beginning and have all of your items out and ready to go. You can’t decide to can strawberry jelly with the strawberries in your fridge. You have to start with the amount of fruit or vegetable that the recipe calls for and purchase the correct size and amount of jars and lids. It wouldn’t be fun to get started only to discover that you have the wrong size jars or not enough fruit. AND – once you begin the process, you cannot stop or the end product will be ruined. You must be fully prepared when you begin.

~ Follow all instructions carefully. The idea is to create the best product possible. The recipes were created with the right amount of ingredients to preserve the freshness and taste of your produce. If you alter the amount of sugar or salt that a recipe calls for, the end result could be spoiled. There are sugar-free and sugar-less recipes if you’d like to lessen your intake, also included in the book I purchased.

~ I think stockpots are fine to use the first time around. They work well, especially with smaller jars. If you’re like me and you discover that you really love canning and plan on doing it often, I’d recommend splurging on the professional canner. It’s made especially for this purpose, and is taller and wider to accommodate the jars.

~ Enlist the help of family and friends. Canning was a great way to spend time with my mom and brother and we got to create something together. It also really helps, especially if you’re canning tomatoes, to have an extra hand or two. It’s a great way to save money too! Go in together on the fruits/vegetables and supplies and then split the finished product.

~ Start early. We began with the tomatoes around 10am and didn’t finish until around 5pm. Plan accordingly so that you have plenty of time to devote to the process.

~ Remember to have fun! I truly enjoyed the whole experience, even if it was a bit tedious at times, and I kept reminding myself of the awesome items I would have in the end.

In the end, I was surprised to discover just how much I enjoyed the canning process. There’s something intensely gratifying about making something yourself. The bold colors of the tomatoes and peach jam look so pleasing in my cabinet and it feels great to know exactly what’s in them. I can’t wait to enjoy the taste of summer this fall and winter. And learning something new, that I actually enjoy, sure does feel great!