Canning Experience this weekend
 

Hello Gentlemen and Ladies,

Over the weekend I dove into canning. My girlfriend's mom was in town from Madison, WI and she offered to teach us.

We started with the pint mason jars, although there are quart jars available as well.

We went to a farmer's market in California, purchased 10 lbs. Pears, 10 lbs. apples, and a flat of overripe tomatoes. This was just a "learning" session

We skinned the apples, soaked them in water & lemon bath. Halved then quartered. Moved them into a boiling pot of water with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Salt, Sugar. Once they were soft we used a potato masher to mash.

Moved them into mason jars using a canning funnel. Sterilized the lids and then sealed them up. Used the canning seat (a wire basket to hold the jars underwater) and boiled them for 20 minutes.

Home-made applesauce came out great!
Same procedure for the pears. Ginger-Pears came out great!
Tomatoes were equally easy. Cut an X in the bottom (just through the skin) and boil for 30-120 seconds. The skin will slide right off. Quartered them and put them in jars, boiled them in the hot water bath for 40 minutes.

All in all we produced 12 pints of canned food. All of our seals "Stuck" and we had no mishaps. At one point we did tip over the canning basket while trying to remove it from the hot water bath - someone remarked that it was an exceptionally thin guage of basket comapred to what they were used to - But I was able to recover the jars quickly with tongs and this didn't affect the product.

All in all - canning is EASY and I am looking forward to doing more on my own. I know it can seem daunting just by reading about it, I felt the same way. But once you see someone do it in person, you'll realize like I did that you can do 3 seperate sessions in only a sunday afternoon. If I went all day I'd bet I could pump out a LOT more food!

Learn to can, it is EASY and WORTH IT!

P.S. The applesauce is delicious.

Re: Canning Experience this weekend
 

Cngratulations on your first session turning out edible!

Thanks for sharing your success.

Re: Canning Experience this weekend
 

Congrats! it will get addicting. I have 4 qts homemade chicken soup in the pressure canner (A.A 921) now, only 18 min of processing left. :565:

Re: Canning Experience this weekend
 

Thanks for the report NE , it's great to have a pro like your GFs mom to guide you. Now you have a skill that only a small minority in CA. can claim. :applause_ I have a few flats of quart jars and lids ...... gonna hafta get my feet wet.

Re: Canning Experience this weekend
 

ShortyH., I love your idea of making a couple gallons of chicken noodle soup and canning that off.

I think I mentioned that I was also looking forward to brandy peaches, and mint-blackberries.

My original intention with this post was to encourage anybody who was on the fence - it's not that hard, and we did it on the cheap, too....the food cost more than our equipment...

Re: Canning Experience this weekend
 

Yeah, nothing like fresh chicken soup that's for sure. Although, if you want the chicken noodle you have to add the noodles when you go to warm it up to eat it as you can't can the soup with it in. We either add noddles or rice to it as we heat it.

Re: Canning Experience this weekend
 

Good job. Started my first ever session this morning with 14 qts of beef stew. 25 minutes left to go, and the back porch is still connected to the house. I hope it turns out well 'cause this is kinda fun.