Canning and preserving...

Real Swell Gal · Aug 8, 2008

So I haven't been on much but I have a good excuse.
produce is starting to come in fast around these parts and I have started my annual canning rituals.

I have in the last three weeks put up strawberry rhubarb,blueberry and ginger paech jam.
Dill as well as sweet pickles and zucchini relish.

Soon the tomoatoes will be comming in heavy and I'll do juice, whole tomatoes as well as salsa and speghetti sauce.

Does anyone else around h ere still can? I'm finding it's a dying art. Not too many people my age do it anymore.
What kinds of things do you can?

If this is in the wrong place please move it.

J. M. Stovall · Aug 8, 2008

We made about twelve jars of fig preserves last month. Our neighbor has a couple of fig trees and gave us a bucket full!

Joie DeVive · Aug 8, 2008

I've dabbled in it. I haven't had a chance to can the last few years; too many other things going on. So far, I've made orange marmalade, and plum jam. Yum!
Our new house has a apple tree. One of our friends suspects it's a Golden Delicious. I'm looking forward to being able to make fruit butter with the harvest. (Won't be this year though. The poor thing was neglected before we bought, and it didn't make much fruit this year.

)

Foofoogal · Aug 8, 2008

You brave girl you. :eusa_clap
I even took canning lessons at the county extension but always chicken out as I am afraid I will poison my family. I always just blanche and freeze stuff.
Roma tomatoes are meaty so great to freeze whole for stews and such.

I went to my sisters one summer on vacation I thought. All week long I shucked, shelled, cooked, you name it. we must of canned a store as she had a huge garden. I never worked so hard in my life. I have tons of canning jars also for some reason. I always think I will give it a go.
Very smart as you can get alot of food out of a small garden if done right.
I love figs...

dhermann1 · Aug 8, 2008

Fond memories

The year my family moved upstate, fall 1955, my brother (age 6) and I (age 8) and our neighbor down the street (a big boy of 14) found a couple of derelict apple trees that were heavily laden with ripe fruit. We picked about 3 or 4 overflowing bushel baskets of apples. Our mothers spent about three days boiling them up and making so much apple sauce that we were literally eating it for several years after. And of course it was the best apple sauce I ever had.

Minerva · Aug 8, 2008

I wish I canned, does that count? I'm hoping to be set up for it next year, if we can move and have more than a postage-stamp pantry. There's enough things going on in the kitchen right now that we don't have space for preserves and such.

I do have a cupboard of things fermenting, though. Two vinegars, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and the buttermilk culture if I've run low.

rumblefish · Aug 8, 2008

Yes Ma'am,

I have an old International Pressure Cooker that I break out every September (I'll try and post a photo). I start with crab apple jelly in mid-August (no pressure cooker needed), and make variations like crab apple/ mint, hotpepper, raspberry, or mustard seed. Then with the cooker, go to; eggplant caponata, borscht, chicken and escarole soup, and applesauce. While this is going on, I cold-pack one half gallon jar each of pickled; peppers, green tomatoes, and cucumber.

Ball, the mason jar maker, has a great guide book I usually follow. I believe it's called "The Blue Book"

Funny thing is, I never can tomatoes. I always cook the plum tomatoes to a puree then bag and freeze. I don't no why.[huh] Maybe because I feel my Ball jars are well over worked.

Oh, in December I fish for Herring. They get pickled and jarred, and horseradish in the late winter/early spring gets prepared and cold packed.

I have in the last three weeks put up strawberry rhubarb,blueberry and ginger paech jam.
Dill as well as sweet pickles and zucchini relish.

Bravo RSG, sounds great! You start real early.:eusa_clap

Joie DeVive · Aug 8, 2008

rumblefish said:
I start with crab apple jelly in mid-August

Ooh! Maybe you are the person to ask then!! I'm new to Colorado where there are crab apple trees. I have what my neighbors call a "flowering crab apple tree" (as well as my regular one). Someone told me that the fruit from this cannot be used to make crab apple jelly and the like. Do you know if there is a difference between crab apple and flowering crab apple? Was my friend right?

Funny thing is, I never can tomatoes. I always cook the plum tomatoes to a puree then bag and freeze. I don't no why.[huh] Maybe because I feel my Ball jars are well over worked.

I always tended to freeze my tomato sauce too. It keeps really well in the freezer.

Oh, and for those of you in high elevation, I have also heard that there are things that just won't can properly in high elevation. They say that the seal just isn't strong enough here for non-acidic vegetable creations, and meat products. Check with your county extension to be sure!

rumblefish · Aug 8, 2008

Hi Joie,

The one on the right is what, I guess, you'd call a flowering crab apple. The tree it comes from is smallish, has red flowers, and reddish leaves. I wouldn't use this one for jelly. I've tasted the fruit at all different stages and it never tastes good.

The one on the right is from a larger tree with green leaves and a very light pink flower. It's fruit, although always sour, tastes as you would want you're jelly to taste like when they are deep red (about four more days).

The nice thing about crab apple jelly is it requires no added pectin, because the fruit never really converts it even when it's completely ripe.

I'll bet your jelly will be awesome.

sixsexsix · Aug 8, 2008

The pickling cucumbers came in early this year so I did some dill pickles in mason jars for the first time (ever) about 3 weeks ago. I should know in about a month if they turned out!

...fingers crossed.

Joie DeVive · Aug 8, 2008

rumblefish said:
The one on the right is what, I guess, you'd call a flowering crab apple. The tree it comes from is smallish, has red flowers, and reddish leaves. I wouldn't use this one for jelly. I've tasted the fruit at all different stages and it never tastes good.

Awww! Sounds like I have a flowering crab, so no crab apple jelly from it!

Ah well, I still have the regular apple tree. And I bet I can find someone with a crab apple tree who'll share!

Thanks so much for explaining the difference, Rumblefish! I'd have hated to have experimented and wasted a bunch of sugar!

Joie

rumblefish · Aug 9, 2008

Joie DeVive said:
Awww! Sounds like I have a flowering crab, so no crab apple jelly from it!
Ah well, I still have the regular apple tree. And I bet I can find someone with a crab apple tree who'll share!

Thanks so much for explaining the difference, Rumblefish! I'd have hated to have experimented and wasted a bunch of sugar!

Joie

Whoops!

The one on the right is from a larger tree with green leaves and a very light pink flower. It's fruit, although always sour, tastes as you would want you're jelly to taste like when they are deep red (about four more days).

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:

Obob · Aug 9, 2008

Jelly Grapes

When my mom was a kid/teenager (50's) there was a community cannery; people brought in their produce, even meat, and, for a small fee per can, got it canned, literally in metal cans.

When we moved into this place, 1990, there was a jelly grape arbor out back. My mom suggested that if "you pick me some grapes, and I might make some jelly". Later that day, after I'd dragged down a couple of running wild 20' vines, I had her about 2 bushel of grapes; I believe she canned them in the dishwasher.

We're still eating that grape jelly today!lol

Obob

Real Swell Gal · Aug 9, 2008

sixsexsix said:
The pickling cucumbers came in early this year so I did some dill pickles in mason jars for the first time (ever) about 3 weeks ago. I should know in about a month if they turned out!

...fingers crossed.

Yeah I know the longer they sit the better but I can never wait.
I always have at least one jar that doesn't seal and I use it to "test" them.
Yeah.....that's what I do......I test em....

You buyin that?

The sweets are still my favorite and they are soooo good with pork BBQ sandwiches.

Someone said something about a Ball Blue Book. That is my Bible.

Someone else said something about higher elevations. This is true but you should be able to adjust certain things to make it work. I belong to a canning forum that I go to from time to time for advice and I know the ladies there would be able to help. It's called Canning and Preserving the Harvest.
My user name is Wide Mouth Mama (go figure) LOL!

I have an old National #7 pressure canner that was my mothers but I've not used it. I think I need a new seal and have found an online place to order one from. But I don't can anything with meat. I usually just stick to veggies or maybe a soup starter at most. I would like to try some meaty things sometime.

I've heard of people canning in the dishwasher. It's kinda like using an "open kettle method". Where you depend on the heat of the food,jars and lids to make themselves seal. I have done this with things I know we are going to eat very soon but it can be dangerous and I don't reccomend it.

Obob · Aug 9, 2008

Further Word From Mom

Well, Real Swell Gal, I just asked my mom about this subject. What she recalls is that she only "thought out loud" about actually doing the canning in the dishwasher. She actually cooked the jelly on the stove, and washed the jars in the dishwasher. Hot jelly+ hot jars+ hot lids= canned jelly.

There's not a lot more to it than that, except to have a memory for what actually happens versus the BS that sticks in your mind about it!

Obob

Real Swell Gal · Aug 10, 2008

Obob said:
Well, Real Swell Gal, I just asked my mom about this subject. What she recalls is that she only "thought out loud" about actually doing the canning in the dishwasher. She actually cooked the jelly on the stove, and washed the jars in the dishwasher. Hot jelly+ hot jars+ hot lids= canned jelly.

There's not a lot more to it than that, except to have a memory for what actually happens versus the BS that sticks in your mind about it!

Obob

Yup. That's what they call open kettle.
Lots of people use the dishwasher to sanitize everything,including me.
But I use a hot water bath method to get the seals down.
You never know with an open kettle method because sometimes they suck down sometimes they don't. Pluse when you process in a canner it helps kill any bacteria that might still be in the jars or food.
I just feel better about what i can when I use a canner.

Obob · Aug 10, 2008

More Canning Recollections

Oh yeah, my mom, when she did substantial canning, used a pretty good sized, heavy duty pressure canner.

Now, my paternal grandmother...heh. She'd can green beans using a washtub over an open fire; you could can a lot of produce that way, but it really is rather risky. That's the way she'd learned to do it, what they could afford when she learned how, so that's the way she was gonna do it, period.

Of course, I can't knock it too much; she's well on her way to the age of 93; tough is the older generation.

As for the beans themselves, well, she liked to can those old big green beans (I don't recall their name, but they've got a relatively large bean in a fairly tough hull; some old-timers used to dry 'em, string them together and call the strings "leather britches"); they grew well, and were good producers, but, jeez, they tasted lousy! Store-bought beans are a hundred times better, IMO!

Just because it's canned, doesn't always make it good...lol

Obob

arthur · Aug 10, 2008

Wife and I planted our first garden this year and the veggies are coming in fast and heavy,just canned 12 pints each of beets and green beans.Should have enough pickles soon for several quarts.Good old fashioned fun.It just feels good to grow and can your own produce.

Real Swell Gal · Aug 11, 2008

arthur said:
Wife and I planted our first garden this year and the veggies are coming in fast and heavy,just canned 12 pints each of beets and green beans.Should have enough pickles soon for several quarts.Good old fashioned fun.It just feels good to grow and can your own produce.

I don't get to grow my own,my yard is too small.
I do have some generous friends and i take advantage of famers markets.

Foofoogal · Aug 11, 2008

an old lady I used to know would take pears and can them with red hot candies. You talk about delicious..

Canning and preserving...

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