Canning Pics, Feel free to post yours!

[Patty Smyth]

Have something to add to this thread I love canning, wish I had time to do more.

I have pickled beets, dill pickle, bread and butter pickles(not pictured), red pepper relish, tomatoes (200 jars), cherry, peach and strawberry jam and this year we got a dehydrator and I made spices, jalapeno, onion, ginger and red pepper spice. Use the ginger for tea, it's amazing.

eta - the pictures came out in the wrong order again, BOO FIX THIS PROBLEM lol

[Patty Smyth]

What is the advantage of this over buying cans of stuff? I'm guessing less preservatives etc.... because I cannot see it being that much cheaper to justify the labour involved.

For me the most important thing is I know exactly what is going in to it. Canning at the right time of year, picking the best fruits, veggies available. The taste cannot be compared.

[cheekysaver]

What is the advantage of this over buying cans of stuff? I'm guessing less preservatives etc.... because I cannot see it being that much cheaper to justify the labour involved.

That is a very fair question and everyone has different awnsers depending on their situation. For those that have the ability to grow things like apples and pears and peaches it means year round free fruit and veggies when they are canned. For me ... I can for several reasons... the first one is I love it... the second is the flavor is taylored to my personal tastes... the third is I have a few vicious allergies... the 4th is cost, I can buy items at the lowest prices of the year and can it and know it is good up to 3 years on the shelf. If I had put it in the freezer it takes up less time... but go through your freezer to the bottom and find something 3 years old that is still good... chances are you can't... and you paid to keep it cold for that long too. Canning is certainly not for the faint of heart... it is work and learning how to do it safely is a process for certain. One last reason I can (lord I hope your not a vegitarian here) BACON! Yup really really for real I canned bacon and It comes out just like you cooked it from fresh. I did have to use a pressure canner to get this done but it is so wonderful when there are expected bacon shortages coming up and I know I have 30 cans set aside for sunday breakfasts.

[cheekysaver]

Have something to add to this thread I love canning, wish I had time to do more.

I have pickled beets, dill pickle, bread and butter pickles(not pictured), red pepper relish, tomatoes (200 jars), cherry, peach and strawberry jam and this year we got a dehydrator and I made spices, jalapeno, onion, ginger and red pepper spice. Use the ginger for tea, it's amazing.

eta - the pictures came out in the wrong order again, BOO FIX THIS PROBLEM lol

OH Patty the spices look fantastic!!! I have dehydrated some things... onions, peppers, celery, carrots, really ripe bananas ground into powder for banana bread! Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

[rigatti]

My mom, grandmother and I have been canning for ever. We have canned mostly fruit and veggies and I love the flavor!!!
The strangest thing I have ever seen canned though is rabbit. Your canned bacon brought back memories. Lol.
Never heard of canned bacon. I only thought you could buy it in the store. Do you but a portion of the pig and slice the meat yourself? Great idea, probably cuts down on the salt normally found in packaged bacon.

That is a very fair question and everyone has different awnsers depending on their situation. For those that have the ability to grow things like apples and pears and peaches it means year round free fruit and veggies when they are canned. For me ... I can for several reasons... the first one is I love it... the second is the flavor is taylored to my personal tastes... the third is I have a few vicious allergies... the 4th is cost, I can buy items at the lowest prices of the year and can it and know it is good up to 3 years on the shelf. If I had put it in the freezer it takes up less time... but go through your freezer to the bottom and find something 3 years old that is still good... chances are you can't... and you paid to keep it cold for that long too. Canning is certainly not for the faint of heart... it is work and learning how to do it safely is a process for certain. One last reason I can (lord I hope your not a vegitarian here) BACON! Yup really really for real I canned bacon and It comes out just like you cooked it from fresh. I did have to use a pressure canner to get this done but it is so wonderful when there are expected bacon shortages coming up and I know I have 30 cans set aside for sunday breakfasts.

[Patty Smyth]

OH Patty the spices look fantastic!!! I have dehydrated some things... onions, peppers, celery, carrots, really ripe bananas ground into powder for banana bread! Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

We did banana chips and apple chips they are to die for

[dutchmama]

I don't have any pictures, but I'll 'brag' a bit....because this is the bragging section

This year, I canned:
36 pints spagetti sauce
12 quarts spagetti sauce
6 pints stewed tomatoes
12 pints salsa
24 pints various pickles (B & B, Mustard, dill)
18 pints jam (almost gone already!! )

I also froze:
52 bags of beans (1 bag/meal)
48 bags of sweet corn
38 bags of applesauce
2 quarts of chopped peppers
2 quarts of roasted cherry tomatoes

...and 6 quarts of refridgerator dills!

We've moved a bit in the last years, so I haven't been able to grow/preserve as much as I'd like, but after this year, I have a much better idea of what to grow next year.

I LOVE doing this. Yes, it is ALOT of work, but I feel great sitting down to a meal with food from our own garden, and my 5 & 3 year old understand where food comes from! I am a stay-at-home mom, so although it is alot of time & effort, it is a way of 'stretching' our income. We also 'gleaned' fields around our house (with permission from farmers) and were able to collect lots of apples & turnips. We have family that grown potatoes, so we get all of our potatoes free, and just bought a pig, so we are set for meat for the next 6 months!

About 50-65% of our food is totally from sources within 20 kms of home, and produced & grown by family & friends, or from our own garden!

LOVE seeing all your goods!!!

[dutchmama]

We did banana chips and apple chips they are to die for

A dehydrator is on my wishlist!! We made alot of jerky & dried fruit growing up!

[hopesdreams]

I use to do Salsa, dills , garlic & pears. Each summer. Most of the fruit I got given to us from family grown gardens. Or purchased very low cost at local farms. Now I find it harder to get low priced home grown. No pictures this year as I did not do any canning due to lack of funds.
Our daughter picked up my craft. She lives in another town and grows and cans beets, pumpkin, watermelon, tomatoes. I will try to find a photo to post soon.

[2010ontest]

cheekysaver you started a wonderfull brag, this is so a good idea!

Before starting couponing I was (and I'm still) a homecanning lover. I have many, many reason for that. Couponing have just increase my love for my jars of canning goods Couponing have change my mind in the way to get my raw stuff for canning and now I said I can my "freebies" when I go picking berries in the wood!!! So by the end I stay myself after starting couponing, I just change some buying habit to lower even more my production cost when I do my jars.

For the year 2012, I will have canned around 2000 jars with many different stuff. I have done several recipes of many different thing. Of course I have a pressure canner at home for the meat and veggies (I don't have one I have 2 pressure canner! And I've got a 3rd used one this fall and I have a special project for that one). I take some pic from my blog and put it here. (maybe I will go in my file, I have so many other that I never put in my blog yet!)

wild blueberry, fall raspberry and ginger jam



Raspberry curd



Pâtisson, garlic, sweet red pepper fermented



The kitchen counter was looking like this all summer long!!!





sweet red pepper paste



nasturtium jelly



Cherry sauce before I put it in the jar



Daisy button fermented (kind of capper)



3 kind of rhubarb sauce



And like Patty I do some dehydratation. This year I have dehydrate fall raspberry, wild blueberry, strawberry and sweet red pepper (ground in powder to do paprika).

sweet red pepper spice





monarda flower spice



dry fall rapsberry (this pic is not from this year, but I have done a gallon of that also this year)

[cheekysaver]

My mom, grandmother and I have been canning for ever. We have canned mostly fruit and veggies and I love the flavor!!!
The strangest thing I have ever seen canned though is rabbit. Your canned bacon brought back memories. Lol.
Never heard of canned bacon. I only thought you could buy it in the store. Do you but a portion of the pig and slice the meat yourself? Great idea, probably cuts down on the salt normally found in packaged bacon.

I purchase the bacon in the store... I am a city girl with a big ole case of country envy! I found 4 different youtubes with ladies with over 20 years experience canning each that showed how to do it... then I found out my Mom already had been canning bacon for months! I found bacon on sale over a month ago at real canadian wholesale for 1.89 lb and it was a wonderful maple bacon... I lucked out... and proceeded to can it all up. I would smoke and slice up then can my own bacon if i had some piggies even if they are smellie critters LOL... I would love a chicken coop and to be able to get milk to make fresh cheese as well. I love all of this kind of stuff.

[cheekysaver]

cheekysaver you started a wonderfull brag, this is so a good idea!

Before starting couponing I was (and I'm still) a homecanning lover. I have many, many reason for that. Couponing have just increase my love for my jars of canning goods Couponing have change my mind in the way to get my raw stuff for canning and now I said I can my "freebies" when I go picking berries in the wood!!! So by the end I stay myself after starting couponing, I just change some buying habit to lower even more my production cost when I do my jars.

For the year 2012, I will have canned around 2000 jars with many different stuff. I have done several recipe of many different thing. Of course I have a pressure canner at home for the meat and veggies (I don't have one I have 2 pressure canner! And I've got a 3rd used one this fall and I have a special project for that one). I put some pic from my blog and put it here. (maybe I will go in my file, I have so many other that I never put in my blog yet!)

wild blueberry, fall raspberry and ginger jam



Rasppberry curd



Pâtisson, garlic, sweet red pepper fermented



The kitchen counter was looking like this all summer long!!!





sweet red pepper paste



nasturtium jelly



Cherry sauce before I put it in the jar



Daisy button fermented (kind of capper)



3 kind of rhubard sauce



And like Patty I do some dehydratation. This year I have dehydrate fall raspberry, wild blueberry, strawberry and sweet red pepper (ground in powder to do paprika).

sweet red pepper spice





monarda flower spice



dry fall rapsberry (this pic is not from this year, but I have done a gallon of that also this year)

Wholey! You have been very busy! I can understand why you would need 2 canners to handle that amount. We were doing our prep work for canning and tossing it in that day ... but we changed how we are doing it because it was hard to get everything done we wanted to get done. Now as often as possible we are peeling in front of the tv relaxed at night... when we do stuff that way we can do 2 -3 times the amount of canning or just less on a much shorter time span. As long as we can have the prep work done everything else seems to just flow.

[rigatti]

A cow would be nice...I would definately save on milk. I hear you about the city girl wishing to be in the country. I would own my own farm and live off the land if I could.
Thanks for sharing!

I purchase the bacon in the store... I am a city girl with a big ole case of country envy! I found 4 different youtubes with ladies with over 20 years experience canning each that showed how to do it... then I found out my Mom already had been canning bacon for months! I found bacon on sale over a month ago at real canadian wholesale for 1.89 lb and it was a wonderful maple bacon... I lucked out... and proceeded to can it all up. I would smoke and slice up then can my own bacon if i had some piggies even if they are smellie critters LOL... I would love a chicken coop and to be able to get milk to make fresh cheese as well. I love all of this kind of stuff.

[coley3]

Thanks for the tips on grape jelly. I can lots of things and have never had trouble making jam or jelly except for this year when I tried grape. I'll try more pectin next time around. Thinking of using the runny "jelly" as flavouring in punch etc. Usually we make bowls of punch for the holiday season often with Mccain frozen juice and pop. Maybe this will taste just as good.
The canning bacon sounds interesting. Not sure if I am ready to try that or not. I love everyones pics. Gives me lots of new ideas

[Kitty77]

Great work Ladies!! This year canned:

Rhubarb jam
Rhubarb chutney
Pickled beets
Bread & butter pickles
Dill pickles
Hot pepper sauce
Green Cucumber relish
Mustard Relish
Cranberry sauce

Was fun, am going to try making grape jam from Welch's juice, see how it turns out.