Home Canning is Making a Comeback

Having been raised in rural Alabama, I must confess, I'm a bit domesticated. Growing up on my Grandmother's farm, I spent many a summer shelling peas and canning them in her kitchen. As I got older, we moved away from near my Grandmother, and my canning days were ended.

About 20 years ago, I got the wild idea to try home canning again, after finding a pressure canner in a catalog. I bought two and I have been canning ever since. Every year at Christmas my husband and I can about 75 quarts of pasta sauce and give them out as gifts. All of my friends and family look forward to it. I love to can and have been collecting canning recipes for years.

Home canning is a great way to save Summer's bounty, and shopping for fruits and vegetables at local farmer's markets can save you money. Using local farmer's markets also help the environment because the food is locally grown, and therefore no shipping is involved.

For those of you who are new to canning, or those who need a refresher, get the Ball Blue Book of Home Canning, or go to the USDA website and download their Complete Guide to Home Canning. Both of these are great resources.

To a lot of people, home canning can be intimidating, but if you plan your steps well, and gather all of your equipment before starting it can be a fun job for the whole family. You will also need some good recipes to follow. Always double check your recipes and read the manufacturers directions on your canners. This will help to avoid mistakes.

Why Do Your Own Home Canning

Disregard the value of your time, canning homegrown or locally produced food can save you half of the cost of purchased canned food. Canning favorite and special products to be enjoyed by your friends and family can be very rewarding. Home canning has changed greatly in the 170 odd years since it was first introduced.

New developments in technology have resulted in safer, higher quality products. Home canning is a great way to take advantage of a great harvest, and preserve all of those fresh vegetables and fruits.

What Kind Of Equipment Do I Need

I would invest in a good quality pressure canner. You will need this to can low acid foods like vegetables, and meats. It can also be used as a water bath canner. I would advise that you purchase a 16-17 quart canner with a good pressure gauge, and petcock.

Use only standard Mason, Kerr or Ball type home canning jars and two piece self-sealing lids. Mayonnaise jars are not recommended for canning. The jars that you get from the Classico spaghetti sauce are good because they are Mason jars. Canning jars are available in a variety of sizes including 1/2 pints, pints, and quarts. Pint and quart jars are most commonly used, but some foods like crab meat and mushrooms should only be canned in 1/2 pint jars. Wide mouth jars are more easily filled and emptied, but they cost more than standard jars.

You will also need a good timer, an open mouth funnel, to fill jars with, a jar lifter, and tongs. And of course pot holders and baking racks or towels to set the hot jars on after canning. Other items that you will need are, a ladle with a lip, a sieve, a colander, a food mill, and sharp knives. Some of these items you will only need if making jams and jellies.

Home canning can be one of the most enjoyable experiences that you will ever have. Get the whole family involved. It will make many great, lasting memories that your family will always have. You'll find pleasure in the canning process, and pride in your home canned jars of food. Remember, they also make great gifts!

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The Great American Tradition of Canning: How Do I Do It?

What Is Canning Fruit and Vegetables All About?

Canning fruit and vegetables is one of those great traditions that has entered the memories of generations of families. There is something so rustic and enjoyable about those hours spent canning vegetable juice or canning fruit juices, and it's not just the knowledge that you will have the finest canned fruits and vegetables without the chemicals, preservatives and additives of commercial canning. And there is so much that can be canned, with asparagus, beans, carrots, peas, pumpkin and tomatoes being amongst the most popular. Plus, if you are canning juices, you do not need a special tomatoe canning juicer, a fresh fruit canner or canning juice extractors: you can use your current juicer, juice extractor or juice steamer (like the Mehu-Liisa juice steamer.)

What Canning Supplies Do I Need?

Canning is very easy and requires few canner supplies (check http://juicers.organic-knowledge.com/juicer-store.htm for great canning supplies). The two main items are the jars with lids and the canner. There are two types of canner: a Pressure Canner and a Water Bath Canner. Pressure Canners work at a higher heat are therefore better when used for low acid foods such as meat and poultry and vegetables like beans, corn and carrots. Water Bath Canners work at the boiling point of water and are good for high acid foods such as jellies and fruits. Canning is the process in which foods are placed in jars or cans and heated to a temperature that destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes.

How Do I Can Tomatoes, Fruits and Vegetables?

Prepare the food you are going to can by washing it first. Then peel, slice, pit or blend it as per your recipe. Remove skins, such as tomato skin, as the skins can become tough. Scalding should do the job. You can then make a choice of whether to hot pack or cold pack, again depending on the recipe. Hot packing is when the food is placed into the jar hot. The jar is then placed into the canner with boiling water to prevent the glass from breaking. With cold packing, the raw food is placed in the jar before being put into hot water in the canner. The water is then boiled. The jars are kept in the canner for the required amount of time, and that's it!

Canning Sounds Great Fun!

So, to recap, canning is a fun, safe method of food preservation that is even more enjoyable when done with friends or family. Canning is a bit more work than freezing, but once done, all you need to do is store it. And it doesn't need thawing and cooking to eat. The equipment is cheap to buy and operate, and you really don't need much in the way of supplies. Home canning is a healthy way to fill your pantry with home cooked, preservative-free recipes such as soups, vegetables, baby food and so much.

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