Canning Pics, Feel free to post yours!

[Kitty77]

Making Rhubarb jam tomorrow, and some grape jelly, using Welch's grape juice and cranberry jelly again with Cranberry juice. Need to make more corn relish, Grandson really likes it, so will make another batch to send home with him.
Washing jars, need more metal lids and jar rings, so one more thing on the shopping list. Trying to get organized for the coming season.
Have used a dehydrator for herbs, green onion tops and rose petals. Soak the rose petals in some baby oil, smells so nice when you put in on, just make small batches and keep the rose oil in the fridge. Chives need to be picked and dried, so will be busy this week.
Have fun everyone playing with all your canning jars!

[Kitty77]

Cheekysaver, also have to make a list of a years canning, how many jars of each type of preserve needed.
Found a list in my ancient cookbook circa 1942:

Preserving and Canning Budget for a Family of Five for 1 Year
(now this would be a good list for small families and allows for entertaining)

Jelly-- 135 4 oz jars mixed variety of fruits
Preserves-- 55 Pint jars (jams, marmalades, fruit butters)
Pickles-- 30 Pint jars
Tomatoes-- 60 Quart jars
Tomato Juice-- 100 Quart Jars
Cherries-- 20 Quart jars
Grape Juice-- 30 Quart jars
Peaches-- 45 Quart jars
Pears-- 35 Quart jars
Plums-- 20 Quart jars

Have a similar list in another old cookbook for vegetables, but since we moved can't find the darn thing. For our house we need at least 365 jars of vegetables, per year. Wow, lots of work!!

[cheekysaver]

Is that ever a cool list! I know it sounds like a lot but for a family of 5 it really isn't. That was back in a time when there were root cellars and ice boxes. They could keep apples in a cellar for a few months but through the winter months and spring until fruits came ripe then it was all canned goods. This is how their eating seasons went back in the day. Summer time you canned and ate fresh items. Fall you eat the last of the late harvest crops and put every thing you could in terms of root cellar crops up for the winter... you ate off these types of crops first. In the winter and spring it is time to live off the canned goods until summer starts up again. The canned fruit was especially important to ward off stuff like scurvy. Their pantry was their grocery store back in the day and the only way to not go hungry was to fill it up.

[cheekysaver]

Back in the day they were so happy to have a pantry full after the 30's and the wars! We often say my grandma would have loved canning with all the gadgets and doodads we have now. This is not my granny

[harbie]

We'll finally sometime in the next week or so my MIL is going to school me in the way of all things canned!!! Yay! I think we are going to start off easy and do apricots and jam and maybe some other berry jams. I can't wait!!!

any suggestions on the best brand and size of jars to use??? I'm such a newb

[emg]

Hello everyone I am new to this thread and starting reading it, what amazing pictures. I would really love to can fruits and veggies but don't know how. I'm trying to eat healthier and I love to know that I can control what it is in my food. Does someone has a website or hints where can a newbie like me get information? Thanks in advance and happy canning.

[cheekysaver]

http://www.bernardin.ca/ This is canada's ball devision except our is better. They give us instructions and recipes on the site. You can also look up canning items on youtube but you do need to follow good canning practices no matter what a vid shows you.

[Kitty77]

Emg, start canning by making some freezer jams, follow the recipes in the Certo box exactly as written. Making freezer jams will give you the idea of how to start canning. There is an investment of time and money when starting to can, with the canning pots, jars, etc. Bernardin has a small canner set, includes pot, lid lifter, cookbook etc., were available at Walmart.
Happy Canning!

[Kitty77]

Cheekysaver, awesome picture of the ladies and all their jars of canned goods! Have some Canning cookbooks from the War years and advertised growing a Victory Garden, because of all the shortages during the War. Was given all my Grandmother's jars, awesome to read the dates on the bottom of the jar, lots from the 1930's. Have a couple of bars of Canning wax used for sealing jellies in their jars, boy what a job that must have been, messing with all that hot wax.

[Kitty77]

Harbie, look for some of the smaller jam jars and pint jars, for your fruits and jams. Sometimes you can find jars at yard sales and thrift stores. Have some 2 Quart jars, they must have been for meat, mostly store dry goods in them, cereals, rice, etc.
Happy Canning Everyone!!

[cheekysaver]

Kitty when I first started canning I used the wax method... I didn't know there was another way because that was how my grandma did it. I repurposed baby food jars to hold jams. (if you use the wax on the top method you can do that because the wax gives you the seal) When it comes to jars it really depends on the size of your family, what your canning and how much company you have. If you have a family of 4 a standard 250 ml jelly jar might not be big enough... then a 500 ml is better. If you have a small family and your canning things like pickles a 500ml might be the right size.... unless you get lots of company then a 1L size might be better. When it comes to canning things like chili in my house a 500ml is a massive amount of chili for me... my daughter who is 18 and thin eats it by the liter. I have made some wrong choices when it comes to jar size... when it came to peaches I should have used 250 ml and 500ml and i used gem quart jars... it is just too big for us. So gauge jar size by what you normally eat and go through. If you buy pickles in 1L jars that is probably what you need. If you buy jams and jellies in a 250 size then get that size. In my house (just me and my daughter) 500ml jars are the most used. I am going to be picking up some more 500ml and 250 ml size jars... I want to branch off into some single serve sizes so the 250's are great for that.To get a deal.... sometimes a deal is not a deal. At my local goodwill stores big canning jars go for $1 each with a used ring and lid. Every time you can you have to replace the lid with a new one so that shoots the cost up over the cost of brand new jars. The ring and lid can be covering a chipped edge on the top of the jar making them no good for canning. You can get brand new bernardin wide mouth jars for about $13. If you can find used jars on kijiji make sure they are regular mouth size or wide mouth and try and stay away from gem jars. Gem jars are a size in between and you have to buy special rings to make them fit with snap rings and the overall investment costs go up because if it.... and almost every seal failure i have had has been on a gem jar. The rule of thumb is $5 for clearance prices or used and check over the jars really well on the used jars. The 500ml jars are 6-$8 for a regular mouth jar so don't let a seller con you into paying more or full price.FYI Walmart has some vintage green canning jars in stock atm

[Kitty77]

Cheekysaver, great advice on the purchase of jars!!! So right, you have to gauge the serving size of a jar by what your family uses.
Last year my Daughter was given a jar of Saskatoon jam and the lady that made it sealed the jam with wax and the screw band metal lid, so double sealed, that is the way their family does the canning.
Think will make some pancake syrup next. Easy recipe.

Pancake Syrup

3 c. water
3 c. white sugar
3 c. brown sugar
1 c. Corn syrup
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
1 Tbsp. Maple Flavoring

Mix first 4 ingredients in large pot. Stir over medium-high heat until it boils.
Add lemon juice, vanilla and maple flavoring. Stir. Fill hot jars, seal. Makes 3 1/2 pints.

Still sorting and washing jars. Happy canning!!

[cheekysaver]

That is kind of a hybrid syrup... it is like they mixed in the golden syrup recipe and the maple flavored syrup recipe... kind of cool! Let us know how it turns out Kitty!

[cheekysaver]

For All you canners out there and to be canners here is a deal. When I bought my pressure canner I was on such a tight budget that it was the pressure canner or a water bath canner ... not both... so i got the pressure canner because I knew I could do water bath canning inside of it by putting on a normal pot lid and that I would just wait for a sale to get what I wanted. The sale day has arrived! For under $22 you can get a 20 L pot at xs cargo this week. I already have 2 racks to keep the jars off the bottom... if you want to get started on a budget this is a good way to go... if needed you can line the bottom of the pot with a round cake cooling rack... you can use spare rings from jars ect. I like that it will be big enough to handle the 1L jars. Good luck and I hope this helps someone!

[emg]

http://www.bernardin.ca/ This is canada's ball devision except our is better. They give us instructions and recipes on the site. You can also look up canning items on youtube but you do need to follow good canning practices no matter what a vid shows you.

Thank you so much