Canning Green Beans

(originally posted Aug 19, 09)Here's a post I wrote about canning green beans out of our garden. If you are new to canning, this post will give you a good idea about the process involved in SAFELY home canning vegetables.




Vegetables vary in time and amount of pressure - be sure to consult a canning book to ensure you are using the correct times and weights. Because we live at almost 3000 feet, we need to add 5 minutes of processing time to each canning batch.

A few days ago, I did the first picking of green beans. Got quite the basketful! Got the pressure canner out and got started putting up some jars for the winter....

Sat on the porch, snap snap went the ends....snap snapped the beans....

Put some pint jars into nice hot soapy water. Tossed the snapped beans in the other sink, and gave them a quick cleaning.

 

I used a quart canning jar and put 2 and 1/2 jars of water into the pressure canner.

 

Grabbed the seals and rings I needed out of the pantry. I put some water in the kettle to boil. The seals went into a bowl and I added boiling water, to soften up the seals in preparation for going onto the jars.

 

I raw packed the cleaned beans into the clean and rinsed jars....meanwhile, I boiled a large saucepan of water on the stove. Once it was ready, I added the liquid to each of the canning jars.

 

 

 

I also added a teaspoon of salt to each of the jars (optional).

 

 

Then, I cleaned around the rim of each jar, using a paper towel.

 

 

Put on the seal....added the ring....

 

and put the jars into the canner.

 

 

Locked the top on (read your manual for instructions, this HAS to be done properly)....set it on the propane burner out on the deck and fired the burner up.

A few minutes later, steam started coming out the top vent. At this point, I set the timer for 10 minutes and just let the canner keep venting. Once the timer sounded, I added the weight (15 lbs) and sat back to watch.

A couple of minutes later, the weight started to jiggle. Once that happened, I set the timer for 20 minutes.

Once the timer went, I shut off the burner and left the canner alone. It's important to just let it relieve pressure on its own. It can take awhile, but if you start fiddling with the pressure release valve, in an attempt to hurry along the cool down, it can interrupt the sealing of the jars.

When the canner has cooled down, you can unlock the top, remove the jars to a counter and then Leave Them Alone for 24 hours. Check each seal by doing the tap tap or listening to the pings (when they first come out of the canner)

I ended up with 14 pints, which is pretty good for a first picking!

Oh, once you put the weight on, you may find you need to turn your burner down a bit....every stove/burner is a bit different. You want to be careful to NOT change the amount of heat to much too quick....turning the stove up and down a lot can easily lead to jars not sealing, liquid coming out of jars etc., while in the canner.

It took me a while to get used to the pressure canner....I read and reread the instructions, and kept my eye on the canner pretty closely the first year I used it. But I did get used to it. And now, every year, we put up hundreds of jars of our own home grown, naturally grown veggies!

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How to Make Salsa

(originally posted Sept 2, 2010)

We've been making up batches of salsa, using some of those fantastic tomatoes we got last weekend....pick up the recipe over here.....it is Worth making, it is so good!

I think we've done about 30 half pints and will probably do another 20.

 We love a good snack of Salsa and chips!

I don't know why I have never grown my own Cilantro....I should tho as I need it for our Salsa.

I always get it from my Valley friend, who has lots of it at her place.

Here's a batch of Salsa, simmering away....

And, when we're not doing Salsa, we seem to be canning up lots and lots of Tomato Sauce....

It's a busy time doing all this preserving, but it is certainly worth it. We'll be able to eat year round out of garden this way....and we like knowing what we eat!

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Tattler Canning Lids and Rings

Have you heard of Tattler Canning Lids and Rings?

I read about them on a homesteading site I follow....

They're great! They are BPA free and completely reusable....

You just scald the lids and the rubber rings the same way you would with the metal ones.

According to their literature, they can be used with either boiling water bath canning or

pressure canning.  They are dishwasher safe and approved by the FDA.

We gave them a try and so far we are Very Happy with the results!

 Every jar sealed with no problems, which is exactly what we want with home canning!

Check out their website for yourself...

maybe you will order some and give them a try yourself!

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A Flurry of Canning

Seems that all we have been doing since coming home from Vancouver is canning, canning and more canning.

And...I haven't even done any cooking of all those tomatoes yet!

We needed to start emptying the freezers, in order to make room for this year's meat.

So, we canned up a good whack of Beef Stew. Here's the recipe - this makes a delicious and easy lunch in the winter time.

The Gman loves it, he takes it to work for his lunch.

It tastes wayyy better than it looks!!

We thinned the beets again and this time got enough to make 4 pints of pickled beets.

And since we are over run with eggs right now, I pickled 2 dozen of those as well!

These taste great with a mug of beer, here's the recipe ....

And we took what was left of last year's beef organs and made dog food from it. We will be getting another side of beef this Fall, so we have to make room for the fresh stuff!

We'll finish making up all the stew later today. I guess that means tomorrow I start with all the tomatoes!

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Zuccini Butter

Another recipe I got from Homesteading Today earlier this season....we were inundated with zuccini all summer. Of course, that is our own fault, as we always want to grow lots for the pigs and hens.

I think all livestock love zuccini.....anyway, I would take the odd one, grate it up, toss it in the freezer in 2 cup baggies.

Then I read this recipe and thought it sounded pretty good:

Zucchini (apple) Butter

Peel, seed and grate 12 cups zucchini. Put in large crockpot with 3/4 c. lemon juice, 6 c. sugar, l T. cinnamon and 1/8 t. ground cloves.

Stir well, set on high, cover and forget about it over night. Stir well next morning.

EDIT: I turned the crockpot down to Low for overnight, then gave it a good stir in the morning and turned it back on High.

Use a potato masher to mash it down. Stir again. Continue cooking until it reaches the consistency you want.

Put in jars and waterbath for 15 minutes.This makes the most beautiful brown butter and nobody has a clue that there are no apples in it!!

It has a really dark colour when it is ready for processing! We liked it....and it wasn't long till we started thinking of other ways to use it. Maybe we will try it on top of barbequed chicken.

(Note to Self: Don't be a Lazy Butt! See what happens when you don't use the canning funnel......)

So today I got it all canned up. Ended up with 3 half pints and 9 little half of a half-pints (what's the proper name for that, someone out there has to know!)

After I got that done, I canned up the Pizza Sauce! 14 half-pints and 6 pint jars of Pizza Sauce now sitting on the counter!

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Pizza Sauce

I took the last batch of tomatoes out of the freezer and am going to make Pizza Sauce out of them!

We heated up the 'maters and once warm and soft, mashed them. Then we ran them thru the food mill....put all the pureed sauce back on the stove.

And there it has sat....I think it's been 3 days now. I just left it on Low all the time, and we'd stir it each time we walked by and remembered it was on there.

Here's what it looked like last night....thick enuf that the wooden spoon stands up own its own!

You can see from the sides of the pot that the sauce has reduced quite a bit.

The recipe: (which I got from Homesteading Today) The "I" below is the poster who gave out the recipe.

pureed tomatoes (about 6 – 7 pounds)

2 large finely minced onions

4 minced garlic cloves

3 TB olive oil

2 TB lemon juice

1 teaspoon cracked pepper

1 TB sugar

2 TB fresh chopped parsley

1 TB dry oregano or 3 TB fresh

1 TB dry basil or 3 fresh

1 tsp celery seed

2 tsp salt

You want to mix all this together and cook until it decreases by half. I put mine in a roaster and bake it in the oven overnight at about 200 degrees.

To make it "super spicy" (how I like it,) just DOUBLE all the spices not the salt and sugar though.Substitute brown sugar or honey for white, for a different taste. You can cook a bay leaf in with it too. Also try some sweet red peppers finely chopped.

Process in a water bath canner 25 minutes for pints. Start timing after the water starts boiling. Makes about 5 pints.

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A Good Day's Work (I Guess)

Yesterday I made up my mind about a couple of things I Really Wanted to get done today.....

We have quite a few packages of last year's pork fat sitting in the freezers.....the idea was to cut them and feed off to the hens over winter.

Since, we have to Really concentrate now on emptying the freezers NOW (We're gonna have fresh Pork and Beef going in there soon), I am taking out a few packages at a time and getting them ready for the girls.

Also, picked the tomatoes that were ripening.....seems late this year, but I dunno. I'll probably have to do the paper bag routine again this year, I think....

The other day the Gman pulled all the Onions and hung them up at the barn...here they are hanging out with the garlic!

I got all the kidney beans pulled and hung up in the greenhouse. I was gonna tie them up, but they decided they didn't mind just being sprawled over the ropes....I don't think they will fall down.

The tomatoes.....

the Cherrys have been doing really well....I wish the larger tomatoes would get going!

And.....part of an order that is going out this afternoon.....just have to add some eggs and several pounds of potatoes and it will be done!

I'm Happy with what I have got done so far...I just pitter patter putter all over....but it is amazing to me how much energy I have lost already. Guess chemo's not for wimps.....

When I was in the freezer earlier, I noticed my 12 cups of grated zuccini sitting there patiently waiting for me. If I feel up to it, I'll make up the Zuccini Butter recipe I have....maybe later this week.

As it is, the Gman has had the pressure canner going again. Remember when we parted out 5 of our meat birds? We just tossed their carcasses into the freezers for the time being. Well, now they have been pulled out and he has made a quarts and quarts and quarts of canned chicken broth!

We aren't going to starve this winter, that's for sure! What a fantastic feeling to see all those filled jars on our shelves.....

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Salsa and Sauce

We made a double batch of salsa the other night....used the recipe from last year. It tasted so good, everyone loved it!

Mixed up all the veggies and let them sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, we added the vinegar and spices and processed them in the water bath.

Looks great! And tastes even better!

Tonight, we've got another batch of tomato sauce in the canner. Think we have done almost 40 pints now. We're going to do a few quarts and then we'll be done with sauce.

Onemore double batch of salsa is next on the list....

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'Maters....and Making Sauce

We stopped at a Garden Market along the way to grab tomatoes....I already knew from last year that we didn't have even half of what we could go thru in a year.

So we spent a couple of hours picking both Romas and Beefsteaks. We got a total of 225 pounds, which we split with a neighbour.

Today, we started washing and sorting out the Beefstakes. We washed them, cut them into small pieces and set them on the stove to boil for a while.

Once they heated up and softened some, we mashed them with a potato masher.

Then we put them through the mill we have. It takes the seeds and skins away, leaving just the juice!

Then we put all the sauce into the large stockpot and set it on the stove to heat up....

Here is the sauce bubbling away....it has to reduce by a lot.

After a couple of hours....

Later on, we emptied the smaller pot into the larger one. We left it on low all night last night.

It smells wonderful in the house this morning!!!

We'll probably just let it continue until later this afternoon. Then we can start canning! We'll add some parsley, lovage, cilantro and some lemon juice. Then we'll put the jars in the boiling water bath.

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What To Try if Your Jar Didn't Seal

This happened to us yesterday, and I thought maybe if someone reads this blog, who is new to canning, the info may help them....so thought I would post about it.

Yesterday, after the canned apricots came out and sat on the counter, one of the seals did not seal. How could we tell?

Hard to tell from the pics, but I'll try to explain. When you take the jars out, it's important to Leave them Alone on your counter for 24 hours. Sometimes it takes awhile to hear the tell tale ping of the jar sealing.

Who has time to sit there and listen for 7 or 8 jars to ping? Not me....so I just leave them alone for one day and then check them.

You can tap on the lids....you'll hear the different hollow sound of a seal that didn't seal, if ya know what I mean. It sounds....well, hollow.

You can also give each seal a bit of a press down....if it doesn't move, it is sealed. If it moves, then give it the tapping test....

So there's the one jar that didn't seal (on the far left) .Because I moved on to pickling beets today, I added it to that canner full.

Now, this is important. The beets have to be in the hot water bath for 35 minutes. The apricots had to be in for 25 minutes.

So, when there was 10 minutes left on the timer, I knew that that one jar of apricots had been in there for 25 minutes, so I took it out. Then I let the beets continue for another 10....right?

In this case, the jar of apricots still did not seal. OK...well, now I'm going to just stick it in the fridge and we will eat it up within 2 weeks. If it had sealed, then it should sit on the counter for 24 hours, then get put in the pantry.

It is Really Important to let those jars sit undisturbed...don't be tempted to move them, tip them, push on the seals...nothing! Don't do it - you could disturb a seal in the midst of sealing itself down on the lid of the jar.

EDITED: Ooops, thank you Anon for pointing out a crucial detail I hadn't put in the original post!

In order to re-seal a jar, you need to remove the lid and clean the rim of the jar very well. Place a new lid on the jar, tighten down the ring like usual, then process.

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It's All About Apricots!!

A friend of ours was on a road trip the other day, and she picked up 40 lbs of apricots for us....

So yesterday, Gman's Mama and the Gman started with making some jam....

The recipe:

1 kg apricots (around 25 medium)

1 1/2 cups water

5 cups sugar, approx.

Halve apricots and discard the stones. Combine apricots and water in large saucepan, bring to boil. Simmer, covered for about 15 minutes or until apricots are soft.

Measure fruit mixture, and allow 1 cup sugar for each cup of fruit mixture.

Return fruit mixture and sugar to pan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved.

Then bring to boil, boil uncovered, without stirring for 15 minutes or until the jam sets. Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.

Makes about 5 cups.

While the mixture is boiling, it's important to discuss how many batches to do! What other possibilities are there for using some of the fruit?

Ladle the jam into the hot sterilized jars (canning funnels are the cat's meow!!).

Wipe the rim of each jar with a paper towel, then put the seal on top. Add a ring.

Let the jars sit, Undisturbed, for 24 hours.


Add to your pantry and feel satisfied!

(That one that is half full? It's going into the fridge for fresh eating)

So today, Gman's Mama and I did another batch of jam, plus 7 jars of apricots sliced into quarters, to have for desserts.

Gman made a sugar syrup, and placed the apricot pieces in the syrup to simmer for 2 minutes. Then he filled the jars, topped them up with the sugar syrup, leaving half an inch headroom.

We processed them in the water bath canner for 25 minutes (25 instead of 20, because of our altitude. If you are more than 1000 feet above sea level, you will have to make altitude adjustments!)

After that, Gman and his Papa got started on a batch of apricot wine. They removed the pits, and dropped the apricots into a primary fermenter. The Gman will add cold water, and sprinkle 1 pkg of wine yeast on top. Then it will get set aside for a few days to start working.

This will use up all the apricots we have left...except just a few for fresh eating!

It's been All About Apricots around this place!!!

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