2013 Puttin' Up Thread

[bwframe]

The gardening thread had a mention of canning.( https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...6-gardeners_how_are_your_gardens_doing-2.html )
I canned last year for the first time in many years with happy results. I'm sure it will be a regular summer harvest routine. After this past year, I cannot imagine being without my own large supply of salsa, pickled hot peppers, pasta and chili tomato sauces.

In recent years I have frozen a lot of the harvest. Never been hit with long term power outage, but I'd like to keep diversified. Maybe this will be the year to spring for the dehydrator?

What are everyone's routines and hopes for putting up the harvest this year?

 

[CountryBoy19]

Several items I'd like to hit.

#1 Does anybody have a good canned salse recipe? I've tried canned salse 2 years in a row now and both were miserable failures. They came out tasting more like slightly spicy ketchup. I realize there is no way to get fresh salse taste/texture when canning, but can I get close? I'm also not afraid to freeze things. Anybody tried freezing fresh salsa? I make a killer fresh salsa but just can't figure out the canning part...

#2 Any good pasta sauce or ketchup recipes? I like a good spicy ketchup and thought about canning some this year. In the absence of a good salsa recipe I will have a LOT of tomatoes that will need used up so ketchup & pasta sauce is my next item on the list.

What else do you do with your produce?

I want to try making hot-pepper jam this year. Never have tried making it, just love the taste of it. I have hundreds of pounds of white sugar from Aldi's 29 cents/bag (4lb bag) sales so bonus points for hot-pepper jam recipes that use white sugar... (do all jam recipes use white sugar?)

 

[eldirector]

I'll be running a few batches of pickles again this year. Used a real basic recipe from the Ball Canning book. Also trying sauerkraut (need a recipe, if anyone has one). My wife does tomato sauce and canned tomatoes every year, and I'll see if I can get her recipe for sauce. She is growing almost 100% of the ingredients (herbs and spices) this year, too.

I used a Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix last year. Turned out awesome! I'll can a bunch more this time around.

My wife also makes something called Halushka (cabbage and noodles). I may can a bunch w/o the noodles for her, or just can the cabbage.

Corn, peppers, and green beans usually get frozen. I may can some for variety.

I need better way to store onions. I don't have a cellar/basement, so they go bad pretty quick if left to dry. We freeze a bunch. Maybe can them, too?

My sister made Quince Jam for me last year, from the Quince bush in our front yard. Turned out pretty darn good. Hope I get enough fruit to do it again.

A dehydrator is high on my list. I want to make jerky and fruit snacks.

 

[CountryBoy19]

My wife does tomato sauce and canned tomatoes every year, and I'll see if I can get her recipe for sauce. She is growing almost 100% of the ingredients (herbs and spices) this year, too.

I grow it all too (mostly)...

I've already put up 3 pounds of dried, crushed oregano this year... if you've never seen what 3 pounds of dried oregano looks like it's a lot more than you're thinking... I quit putting it in quart storage bags after I had 3 full... I moved up to gallon bags then got tired of messing with it and gave up on keeping my oregano patch in-check. I'm sure a casual observer would think I had a drug growing operation going on because I have so much bagged up green leafy looking stuff... And this is from a patch of organo about 2 feet wide X 6 feet long. It's on a slope that was prone to washing out so I wanted a thick, hearty grower to keep erosion down... I sure got it... it's like a weed.

I also have basil but it's an annual so I haven't put much up yet. Just been using fresh basil out of my early start potted plants until my bigger planting of basil comes full production.

And can't forget garlic... got that too...

 

[indychad]

I hope to learn how to can this yr. I learn and retain much better by doing vs. reading. Anyone know of a canning class I could take? My wife is Leary of me using a pressure cooker and would prefer I had someone that was competent show me before I set out on my own.

 

[sbrville]

I started canning a few years ago, planning on doing a lot this year. Corn turned out great last year. I also want to find some good recipes to use up the tomatoes(ketchup, salsa, sauce). Canned meat for the first time this year and wow was it good. Next time we butcher I'm going to can a ton of it. Also want to can potatoes this year.
Indychad, there are a lot of books and YouTube videos on canning. Balls blue book is a great book to start with.

 

[eldirector]

Yep. Get the Ball book. All the "training" you need. Unless your grandma is around, then she can likely fill in all the little details.

Canning isn't all that hard to do "technically". Getting the food right takes some practice. Not like you will blow up the house! Start with simple water bath canning, if the pressure stuff worries you.

 

[TheRude1]

Not trying to

Indiana Self Defense has a canning class set for July,25 6 to 8pm

Plan on doing some sampling so bring in a creation and we can all learn from each other

 

[bwframe]

...I used a Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix last year. Turned out awesome! I'll can a bunch more this time around...

I'm very happy with Mrs. Wages Salsa Mix. It seems to be the perfect mix. The only problem is that everything is already there except for tomatoes and vinegar. I'd almost hate to mess with it by adding my own peppers. I did mix it up a bit by using Bragg's cider vinegar in some batches though.

 

[88GT]

I'll be canning sauce, tomatoes, salsa, jap peppers, green beans, applesauce, beef stew, chili, and chicken noodles. (The last 3 are done in the winter and relatively independent of the garden harvest, but I thought I'd throw them in anyway). I want to can more fruit items, but I just planted the raspberries and grapes this year. And my strawberries seem to be good for looking at but not so much for getting fruit. Oh, well, it's fun to pick the occasional berry off and eat right there in garden.

I want to try a pepper jelly too as I always have more peppers than I know what to do with.

I freeze the sweet peppers and peas.

I'm still trying to perfect storage for the onions and potatoes and sweet potatoes. I can get temp right or humidity right, but not both together. If we were staying in this house, I'd build a root cellar in the basement, but the only feasible way would be a put-off to buyers from an aesthetic stand point so it's not gonna happen.

I hope to learn how to can this yr. I learn and retain much better by doing vs. reading. Anyone know of a canning class I could take? My wife is Leary of me using a pressure cooker and would prefer I had someone that was competent show me before I set out on my own.

Modern pressure cookers are much safer than Grandma's third generation-use model. Get one with a weight instead of a dial. Starting with stuff you can process in a water bath canner. It isn't pressurized and provides the experience of the process without the risk of exploding your goods across the kitchen walls. And Ball has two resources that are all you'll really need.

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: Judi Kingry, Lauren Devine: 9780778801313: Amazon.com: Books

Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving: Altrista Consumr Products: 0797190001428: Amazon.com: Books

I have both. You can get by with either one alone. But the first is also a compilation of a lot more recipes.

You don't need a class.

Several items I'd like to hit.

#1 Does anybody have a good canned salse recipe? I've tried canned salse 2 years in a row now and both were miserable failures. They came out tasting more like slightly spicy ketchup. I realize there is no way to get fresh salse taste/texture when canning, but can I get close? I'm also not afraid to freeze things. Anybody tried freezing fresh salsa? I make a killer fresh salsa but just can't figure out the canning part...

I use one of the Ball recipes and I love everything about it except for the sweet aftertaste. I'm still trouble-shooting the source of this sweetness. No luck yet.

#2 Any good pasta sauce or ketchup recipes? I like a good spicy ketchup and thought about canning some this year. In the absence of a good salsa recipe I will have a LOT of tomatoes that will need used up so ketchup & pasta sauce is my next item on the list.

Do you have the Ball book? It has a lot of variations for salsa and sauces. And if it's a matter of taste, you could alter as necessary.

What else do you do with your produce?

Give it away! Or freeze it. I wish there was a better way to preserve eggplant and zukes. And I wish I had a bona fide root cellar. It's on my list of must-haves when we buy and build. A sufficient slope for a root cellar.

 

[Zoub]

The gardening thread had a mention of canning.( https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...6-gardeners_how_are_your_gardens_doing-2.html )
Maybe this will be the year to spring for the dehydrator?

All of the obvious reasons aside, here is a good reason to own one. This "treat" came from a friend in England who also spent many years in the African Bush (while you and I were in our youth. ). Fill a tall jar with sun dried tomato slices and then fill with olive oil. They are great for cooking and keep a long time since they are in oil. You can also use the flavored oil for cooking. I buy tomatoes, slice, dehydrate and stuff in a jar. They don't ever go bad because they are a great snack!

Another thing I do is keep tall beer bottles with the reusable tops that lock tight. Stuff a bottle full of hot peppers (i like to wash and cut tops off first) then fill with vinegar. You will end up with seasoned vinegar. Whenever you use it, just top it off with more vinegar. Sometimes I get those decorative small pepper plants for this. Like a small bush, get both red and yellow ones, they look good in the bottles and easy to stuff in them too.

 

[smokingman]

Three years ago we had never canned anything.We took the basic class that every anex office in the state offers(in Indiana).I actually set up the class back then as an INGO event and I think it was 12-15 people showed up,then we had dinner after.

We went canning crazy...just a little bit.The first year we tried everything we could.Our jelly still has not turned out well(crosses fingers for this year).My wife makes some spectacular spaghetti from just our own herbs and the garden(two versions,one with some kick for ravioli).

We also pick up things at farmers markets to can.Corn,potatoes,green beans and some other things.50lb bags of red potatoes are great for canning.The potatoes are still a little on the crunchy side,even after a year and make the most amazing mashed potatoes ever.

Our garden is not all that large this year,but it is the first year at our new property.It will grow every year.

Canning food you grew yourself is a great feeling.I do not know why as a society we do not push more people to garden and preserve food.

 

[bwframe]

I bread and butter pickled Hungarian and jalapeno peppers this last year. Seeded and ran through the Vidalia onion chopper, the processing went pretty quick. I didn't do near enough, they ran out too early. My sandwiches and nachos have been missing these for a few months now.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

My wife and I have been canning for many years. She's at the point with salsa that she doesn't follow a recipe. She makes it up a little different each year, mostly based on what we have a lot of. It gets like a good wine, when one year's salsa is particularly good, it's nice to find a forgotten jar in the back of the pantry when you thought it was all gone. But any time she cans, she consults a well-worn Ball Blue Book that she got from her mother.

The only real way to learn how to can stuff is to do it. Some things that you can don't really develop their character for some months. You learn as you go, and try to make your adjustments based on past results. We've never turned anything out that was to funky to eat, but we do end up emptying jars into the compost each fall to make room for new stuff. The jars that get emptied are all still good, just the older stuff that we didn't eat, especially if newer batches of the same stuff was just better tasting.

With our kids grown, and just the two of us at home, I converted the coat closet in the front hallway into another pantry with heavy wood shelves spaced just right for quart jars (and one for half-gallons). By September that pantry will be totally full and we'll have several other "stashes" of jars in boxes in other closets.

 

[bwframe]

Oops

 

[eldirector]

Oops

Been there, done that!

Cold jar into hot water, I assume? Or was it already cracked?

I busted a couple of really old jars (my grandmother's), but then started taking them straight from the dishwasher (I do a hot rinse to clean/sterilize) to the counter to pack, and into the canner.

 

[bwframe]

Cold jar into hot water, I assume? Or was it already cracked?

I didn't think it was that cold, but all my Google-fu points to this. I broke two this weekend.

 

[bwframe]

Been canning pickles this year. So far a good moisture has kept away the bitter ends of the past.

I'm thinking of doing a batch or two of strawberry/rhubarb jam.

You folks got any good storage ideas for cases of canning jars?

 

[CountryBoy19]

Canned my first 7 qt canner load of green beans yesterday with enough beans leftover for dinner ... I must be a bit rusty, 2 lids didn't seal...

Been picking and eating a few bell peppers...

 

[88GT]

I'm so jealous of everybody getting stuff already. I was so late getting the garden planted this year. Everything is doing great, but just not ready yet.