Canning and preserving...

[Joie DeVive]

This should have read: The one on the left.

The one on the left is what I use for crab apple jelly. Sorry:eusa_doh:

No worries. I think I had it figured out from your original answer anyway.
Guess who has real crab apples??
My local library! I may have to go on a "midnight raid"... lol

 

[rumblefish]

I may have to go on a "midnight raid"... lol

shhhhhhhh ...

They've spotted you! Serpentine, serpentine!!!
lol

Just put away a gallon jar of cold pack marketmore cuke pickles.

 

[Josephine]

Just put away a gallon jar of cold pack marketmore cuke pickles.

Pickles are cucumbers soaked in PURE EVIL!!! lol

 

[olive bleu]

I have ,but not for the past couple of years and i have to say, i really miss it. I just can't seem to get my act together. I make fabulous Dill pickles and delicious peach preserves.I really love making enough to give away as presents for christmas, it is always a huge hit. The thing is, I always spend a fortune on the produce., which really defeats the purpose,( well at least one of them anyway) If i lived in a rural area where i could buy fruit cheaply, i would probably go crazy. But even if i don't save money, it is pretty satisfying to pop open a jar of your very own jam...on a slice of home made bread..mmmmmmmmm.

 

[Real Swell Gal]

Pickles are cucumbers soaked in PURE EVIL!!! lol

Pure delicious evil.

The thing is, I always spend a fortune on the produce., which really defeats the purpose,( well at least one of them anyway) If i lived in a rural area where i could buy fruit cheaply, i would probably go crazy. But even if i don't save money, it is pretty satisfying to pop open a jar of your very own jam...on a slice of home made bread..mmmmmmmmm.

And to give away at holidays.

 

[Rachael]

Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are canning with my sisters, mom, and my Gram Driver.

She would always come down for Labor Day, to see us girls off to school and to celebrate her birthday. We would put away enough for our very large family and for Gram to take home with her. There were peaches, pears (mom would tint some of them green and red for Christmas), applesauce and apple pie filling. The jams and jellies we did separately since berries come in so much sooner than the other fruits here.

I can remember Gram giving us slices of peaches sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg like her older sister had given her. She was the baby of 15 children, and was raised on her older sister's farm after their mother passed.

It's things like that which made me appreciate and seek out things vintage; the passing on of an art from one generation to the next. The things we miss by not doing this is sharing experiences and family histories. The stories that I have now told my children would have been lost to time if we had wasted those September afternoons.

To answer the question, you bet I still put things away each fall. If I didn't, it would seem like I was letting her down. Besides, it just tastes better than processed food!

 

[Foofoogal]

Can that Victory Garden

Can anyone suggest best veggies for canning?

missvickie.com

http://www.freshpreserving.com

Pressure cookers now do not have the risk of blowing up your kitchen as they have redesigned fail-safe self locking lids and automatic pressure release setting as well.
When you do up that fab garden send me some. lol

seems canning is back in fashion. You can also freeze most veggies by blanching first. It is easy.

 

[ValEag]

My wife and I have canned for years. For us it is a summer ritual. We have now down sized our garden to about 20' x 40'. Last year we canned about 120 quarts of Blue Lake beans, about 24 quarts of Momma Mia tomatoes and we also made about 24 pints of salsa, 12 mild and 12 hot (well, a 'hot mild' for us).

We have canned up to 225 quarts of beans in the past, but decided for a number of reasons that we should cut back on that. I've tried a number of varieties of beans, and have settled on the Blue Lake variety for taste, hardiness and disease resistance. I've grown both bush and vine types. The Momma Mia and Roma tomatoes are good for paste, but we find they work great in chili and soups as well. They are large enough to be meaty, but small enough to can whole and have a flavor we enjoy. In fact even though I grow a couple of other varieties for eating fresh (like BrandyWine), we also enjoy eating the Momma Mias fresh.

For us, when the canning begins we try to dedicate an entire Saturday on the day we can. I usually have the picking done early, and by that I mean as soon as it is light enough to see, I'm in the garden. We both break the beans (Blue Lake beans are stringless also) while we watch a couple of movies. As we can, we use two canners, so while one is set off to cool, another one can be in use. That saves a lot of time when you have a lot to do. Last year, we also did a few canner loads in the evening, but only one canner load each evening. That helped free up some of our Saturdays for other things.

This year will be our 3rd garden at this house, and this year my strawberries and blackberries will also begin to produce, they were set out last year. I also have a small orchard with 2 peach trees and 4 apple trees, but they are about two years away from producing.

We always give a lot away to our children and other relatives, and at the monthly carry in where I work our beans are always a hit.

Gardening is good!

 

[FountainPenGirl]

That time of the year again

Ah yes I've carried the pressure canner upstairs and have already put up some applesauce, green beans and cauliflower. I was going to do up some more beans and some corn tonight but I had forgotten that I was out of regular lids. So I just blanched the beans and got the jars ready.
Lets hear some more about you home canners out there. I've been around it all my life. My grandmas and my ma all canned. It's always been just part of life. In last few years I've done more myself. I keep trying to expand on what I've done.
Well anyway lets hear about it.

 

[Puzzicato]

I think the expression "putting up" for preserving is one of the most charming Americanisms!

Yesterday I bottled some cherry tomato sauce and pomodorini pelati. Just one jar of each!

 

[Land-O-LakesGal]

My mom didn't can. I don't think either of my grandmothers did much more than refrigerator pickles at least since I was around. I have always wanted to can but have been a big chicken. I asked a friend to call me when she did her pickles this year but she never did. I have been tempted to try some refrigerator pickles this year. Any advice or recipes? I was think more a dill variety than a sweet pickle.

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Dill pickles are great to try. They're not to difficult and you can do them without a pressure canner. The real trick this year is if you can find some small to medium size cucumbers. Ones the fit the jars well. When I only had larger ones I have canned them sliced or you can make larger chunks. It's nice to get them before they get lots of seeds. Dill you can probably get at a farmers market or maybe you regular market. If you know people that grow it they usualy have more than they can use. If you're interested I have the recipe from my Grandma that ma and I have used through the years.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

My son's dog Maverick played with my cucumbers too hard last year, so I don't plant them anymore. I miss those, but the dog is too much fun to get rid of. I caught him running around the back yard with one in his mouth and the whole vine trailing behind him. lol

Later

 

[Land-O-LakesGal]

Dill pickles are great to try. They're not to difficult and you can do them without a pressure canner. The real trick this year is if you can find some small to medium size cucumbers. Ones the fit the jars well. When I only had larger ones I have canned them sliced or you can make larger chunks. It's nice to get them before they get lots of seeds. Dill you can probably get at a farmers market or maybe you regular market. If you know people that grow it they usualy have more than they can use. If you're interested I have the recipe from my Grandma that ma and I have used through the years.

I have seen small cukes and dill at the farmers market well last weekend at least. I know running out of time to get over my fear. I also remember my grandmother making refrigerator pickled carrots that might be easier with the limited time in the cucumber market right now have you tried them?

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Things are actually early this year. Now is usually when we would start thinking about canning. If you get the cukes its not too late yet. My Ma has a recipe for the refrigerator pickles. I've made them myself and aren't difficult at all. There's room to improvise for your own taste also. They are the sweeter kind which I don't like as well but my hubby likes them so I usually mix some up. I think between Ma and I we could find some more recipes. Between the two of us we have some old canning books.

 

[PrairieSunrise]

My Mom has put up different foods ever since I can remember. I've helped with it since I was about 7-8 and allowed to help prepare the foods.

Now day's, I do most of our canning since I enjoy the kitchen so much! So far I've only put up 29 pints of pickled beets (from our garden) and 7 quarts of tomato sauce and a small batch of blueberry/pineapple conserve.

I'm hoping to make more dilly beans, salsa and pickles before it's all over with.

 

[rumblefish]

cherry tomato sauce

That must be awesome.
I always wanted to do that, but never put enough aside- away from the cherry tomato fiends.

 

[Puzzicato]

That must be awesome.
I always wanted to do that, but never put enough aside- away from the cherry tomato fiends.

I was lucky - my husband was working out of town and it was raining, so I had to pick the tomatoes before they split. If he'd been home we never would have had enough to bottle!

 

[Fedoration]

I was taught how to preserve by my father. I especially like to make red fruit jelly from things like strawberries, cherries, blackberries and the lot. Another thing I happen to like is making rumtopf. As the name suggest it includes rum. Basically you can take any type of fruit you like as long as it goes together in flavour with all the other fruit you choose. As the name suggest this is made from rum. You can build up layers of fruit depending on what's in season. Let everything soak in the rum for three months after adding your last fruit and you have yourself summer flavours with a kick in mid winter. Should anyone be interested I'll put up some different base recipes and reading materials.

 

[Mav]

Just started playing with canning this year, anticipating a huge garden yield that unfortunately won't happen, due to weather.

Canned a few lbs, of jalapenos (pickled), and they ended up extremely mushy, so I'm thinking about abandoning the attempt. Anybody know how to keep stuff crispy?