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Anybody canning this fall?


jwagnerdsm

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Every time I go to the grocery store to load up on canning jars, the manager gives me a little laugh. He told me a few weeks ago that "nobody" cans anymore. We are in the process of a year eating nothing but locally-grown food. So, I've spent a lot of time this year putting food by. Anybody out there still can? What are you canning? I've done a couple kinds of pickles, whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, apple rings, apples for pies, pear sauce, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, pickled beets, cherry sauce and pickled jalapenos

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The hardware stores in this area (Milwaukee) have very sad canning supply sections. Farm and Fleet (or Fleet Farm) has been reasonably reliable.

I usually can (jar, actually) about a 50lbs of tomatoes every summer. A couple of years ago I invested in a single gas (propane) burner with a nice cast iron grate that I can set up outside and avoid overheating the kitchen at the end of August when the tomatoes are at their peak. This year I didn't can because I currently have enough to get me through winter and I'm expecting to move next summer.

I received about 15lbs of fresh red currants this year at the height of summer goodness this year and put it up as jelly. I had never made jelly. Looked for a jelly bag and couldn't find one so I had to make due with cheesecloth.

All of the pickles from the garden this summer ended up as refrigerator pickles and they didn't last more than a few days.

Depending on where I end up next year, I have three things on my short list of things to try to put up out of the garden next summer: dill pickles, sauerkraut (guajolote has a really great thread about his sauerkraut-making experience), and horseradish.

Stephen Bunge

St Paul, MN

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Not sure where you are, but where I am in Vermont, folks are a little more canning-friendly. And jars are available at every hardware store and most grocery stores. I haven't been canning for long-keeping of vegetables, but so far this year I've put up rhubarb jam, mango butter, strawberry conserve, dulce de leche and sweet chunk pickles. Yet to come: apple butter and hot pepper jelly. The mango butter is just deadly on buttered white toast...even better on brioche or croissants.

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I always get an odd look when I buy canning jars. Must not be the only one around doing it, since there is a pretty good selection of jars, lids, pectin, paraffin, etc. in the spice aisle of our local supermarket. Didn't have time to can peaches and tomatoes this summer (is there anything better than home canned peaches? Mmmmmm...), but I did make up some mango chutney and also chili sauce from an old family recipe. I think next on my list is some apple butter and maybe some preserves or jam, along with some pickled garlic and peppers.

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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Every time I go to the grocery store to load up on canning jars, the manager gives me a little laugh. He told me a few weeks ago that "nobody" cans anymore. We are in the process of a year eating nothing but locally-grown food. So, I've spent a lot of time this year putting food by. Anybody out there still can? What are you canning? I've done a couple kinds of pickles, whole tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, apple rings, apples for pies, pear sauce, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, pickled beets, cherry sauce and pickled jalapenos

Up here in Montana, canning supplies can be gotten at Wally World, as well as eveywhere else (but what did I expect, huh?). Ditto nearly an identical list to yours with the exceptions of peach halves,peach pickles, pear pickles, rhubarb, chow chow that's so hot it's marvelous, garlic dill beans, huckleberries, corn relish, and salsa. It was real nasty to process stuff this year, because beside the drought & heat, we had the forest fires making the air so foul you had to have the house closed up, and a/c on. :shock:

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I started canning by making multiple batches of jam this summer. I am considering asking for a pressure cooker for Hanukkah so I can can (heh) tomatoes and such next season. I haven't been stared at that much even though I live in a big urban area. But then I don't get stared at when I buy 10lbs of Plugra at Trader Joe's or several bricks of tofu at the natural foods co-op either.

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My SO is of Scots descent and right now I'm baking his grandfather's shortbread recipe after much wheedling on his part after his dentistry the other day (it's the 20 minute's kneading that puts me off). But I started reading this and Walker's shortbread, Nillas (mostly in the nanna puddin), Archway Dutch Windmills,molasses, and gingersnaps....mmmm....but one I've recently found and like is a kosher macaroon that comes in a cardboard can-thing that's like a shoestring can. I got some of those on a whim and had them on a cold day by nuking them and having a cold glass of milk alongside. Now I'm gonna have to go get some today, I reckon. :unsure:

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I grew up with a canning friendly family. This year I'm only doing a few jellies and jams. Blackberry, raspberry and I'm going to attempt some crabapple jelly. This weekend I'm going to make pumpkin butter. I really want to get into doing tomatoes and more pickles.

What is everyone's choice of jars? I've always wanted to try some of those Weck's but can't find them easily without mail ordering. Ball are everywhere, K-mart, grocery and hardward stores all stock them. I've always felt if the cashier or any other person at the store gives ya a funny look, it is only because they don't know the joys of the process nor the rewards in taste and flavour. Deeply satisfying.

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What is everyone's choice of jars?

I'd always used Ball, and still will for the hum-drum, but back in the spring I ordered up a dozen cases of 9-oz. hex jars from Specialty Bottle (specialtybottles.com). Price per jar worked out to $0.69, including silver-toned lid. Makes for really lovely jams and stuff for gifting. Only problem is -- and I would caution anyone buying non-standard canning jars, even some of the Wecks -- the opening is smaller than the mass-produced jars for which most home canning funnels are designed. Thus, my canning funnel doesn't fit & I've had to improvise with a sawed-off conventional funnel. Big PITA. I did, however, shell out for a stainless canning funnel that I came across, and as soon as my local sheet-metal shop reopens after remodeling, I'll take the funnel in to be crimped down to size.

I'm totally over the "quilted" jelly jar look.

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Oh I love the Quilted Crystal jars ... hope they never change 'em. The little 4-ouncers are so cute. I also like the Kerr 8 ouncers with the fruit embossment.

GGMora, a dozen cases of jars! What will you be making?

I'll be putting up some green tomato chutney right quick here ... possibly something of pumpkin too.

Looking forward to learning about trad mincemeat!

Priscilla

Writer, cook, & c. ●  Twitter

 

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I use the wide mouth ball. Almost always can in quarts. My tomato plants are blooming again, thanks to a warm spell. Don't know if it will last but if it does I want to do some green tomato pickles. I would love the pumpkin butter recipe.

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This summer we put up a good bit of stuff, particularly pickles as we had a bumper crop of cukes.

Dill Pickles

Bread and Butter Pickles

Green Tomato Relish (alot, great on peas)

Stewed Tomatoes

Okra and Tomatoes

Spaghetti Sauce

Mayhaw Jelly (8 oz jars, bought the juice at the farmers market) :raz:

Pickled yellow squash

Pickled green beans (rattlesnakes and kentucky wonder bush)

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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GGMora, a dozen cases of jars!  What will you be making?

A dozen cases of jars isn't nearly as much as it sounds. I've already gone through half of them, putting up (as noted earlier in the thread) strawberry conserve, rhubarb jam, mango butter and dulce de leche. I'm a jam-making junkie, and I've gotten my family hooked on the bounty. When I make biscuits for breakfast on weekends, there are no less than 6 jars of goods on the table, everybody passing and sampling. Two summers ago, I made ground cherry (husk tomato) jam. We're down to the last jar and I'm cussing myself out for not growing them again this year.

As to references for canning, the book I learned from is "The Giant Handbook of Food Preserving Basics"; once you get the hang of it, all you really need are recipes. For those I turn again and again to "Preserving the Taste" by Eden Waycott and "Sensational Preserves" by Hillaire Walden. Both full of excellent stuff.

BTW, the best tip I've come across re: sterilizing the jars is to wash them well and dry them and then put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 250° (I stand them upright on a sheet pan). If you wash and rinse with very hot water, you can let them drip dry while you're doing something else...cuts down on labor.

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BTW, the best tip I've come across re: sterilizing the jars is to wash them well and dry them and then put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 250° (I stand them upright on a sheet pan). If you wash and rinse with very hot water, you can let them drip dry while you're doing something else...cuts down on labor.

That's really good. Boiling the cans is just no fun.

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