Growing your own food and preserving it go hand-in-hand in history, though many of us nowadays start with one or the other. If you're a canner looking to expand your homesteading skills to the garden, or are a gardener who wants to apply your green thumb to goods that are best for canning, here are 7 must-haves for the canner's garden.
• Cucumbers. Many people's first entry into preserving is making their own pickled cucumbers. Classic for a reason.
• Tomatoes. Few things are sadder than a winter supermarket tomato. Make some sauce, paste, and jam to give you the taste of August in January. You can oven dry any extras and preserve those as well.
• Berries. You gotta have something to spread on your toast. There are so many berry options, common and not, and all can be made into preserves. Grow a variety and create a mixed berry jam that fits your tastes.
• Peppers. From bell peppers to chillies, there are tons of varieties and a ton of ways to save them. Canning my own roasted reds and making my own chili oil are high on my list.
• Herbs. Many herbs grow fast and in abundance, so use that to your advantage. Make pesto, dry them, or add them to pickles and jams for additional flavor.
• Cabbage. We had someone bring one jar of sauerkraut to a food swap once, and it was highly bid for! If a swapper brought homemade kimchi, I would snap it up so fast.
• Beans. Did you know you can make your own canned beans with a pressure canner? The ultimate convenience food, no supermarket required!
What's your favorite produce to can? Do you have any to add to the list?
(Image: Shutterstock)
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This is why I belong to a CSA. All the organic goodness to 'put by' and none of the trouble of gardening.
Don't forget okra! I dabble in canning, but most of any excess I have ends up frozen (e.g., pesto, berries, plus tomato sauce is easier to freeze than can). Even fresh beans and peppers can be frozen if not dried.
I just made strawberry-rhubarb jam with local (and homegrown) fruit I washed, cut and froze last June.
The last thing I want to do on a hot summer day is stand over a boiling pot of fruit, so I save it for these days when it's not so hot and the fresh taste of the berries is really appreciated.
I have a question about canning. The purpose of sterilizing the jars is . . . because the preserved food items are meant to be left out in the cupboard or pantry, no refrigeration? What if I wanted to make jam but didn't want to go through the whole sterilizing process? Couldn't I just wash the jars before use and leave the jam in the fridge? I actually prefer my jam cold. The jam would be cooked, so there's no reason why it should go bad right away. Right?
I've tried searching for these answers, but have had no luck. I hope someone here can be of help!
Hi Anita! I'm a total newbie at canning but I think I know the answer to your question. If you're going to process something that spends more than 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner or is going to be pressure canned, then it's not necessary to sanitize your jars first. If they're going to be in a boiling water bath canner for less than 10 minutes then they need sanitized first. It doesn't have so much to do with the method of storing it after the canning as it does the amount of time the jar will spend in the boiling water being canned.
I hope that makes sense! Like I said, I'm pretty new at this but I've done a bunch of research and I'm pretty sure I've got my facts straight! :)
I always sterilize my jars prior to canning for everything.... one reason among many is if you put hot food in a cold jar you just might break then jar. I also believe that Ball recommends to to sterilize jars prior to canning anything, regardless of processing method. If you wanted to skip the jars Ball makes plastic jars for your fridge/freezer. They also sell pectin specific to freezing your jam too.
Also, once you open your jar of goodies you should keep it in the fridge not on the counter top.
Lemons to make preserved lemons, candied lemon peel, chilli's to make harissa a Moroccan paste usually served with tajines, bread & olives or anything you want a hit of heat with. Oh & Chutney too, we are loving a cheese & chutney sandwich at the moment.
The boiling or heating of jars is to sterilise them to ensure they're free from anything that may cause your preserves to go off. You could keep it in the fridge, but that will only work for so long, you still need to sterilise your jars which you can also do in an oven, you need to ensure that the jars seal as well, if they have a little pop button in the lid that clicks when you push it then that needs to be down and once you've added jam etc into a hot jar and put the lid on as the jar cools that button should suck in and you should hear a click when that happens, if you can push it down and it stays that's good too, if that doesn't happen then you need to re heat the jar & contents (microwave for a minute will do the trick).
If your lids don't have that clicky button then when you tap them they need to sound hollow - tap another jar that you have perhaps purchased (unopened) and you will get an idea of the sound you need to hear.
Pickled Beets! Cylindrical beets like the variety Taunus make it really easy to get uniform slices (they are shaped like carrots, but thicker!)
@anita83 - yes, you can just make jam and put it in jars in the fridge. It won't keep as long as jam that's been canned, but if you're only making small quantities it will be fine. The purpose of canning is to make a shelf-stable product, but jam certainly doesn't have to be canned if you're just going to put it in the fridge.