Step By Step Making Tomato Sauce The Easy Way

August 30, 2012 by Mamma 7 Comments

When I first started making tomato sauce I wondered frequently if it was really worth all of that hard work. A can of tomato sauce back then anyway was 50 cents and it seemed like a lot of effort to go to just to make a can of sauce I could buy for so little. I have learned a lot since then, not only about the benefits of making my own food but also that making tomato sauce does not have to be so hard.

Back then I would quarter my tomatoes, cook them down a bit and run them through a hand crank food mill. Don’t get me wrong I am all for hand tools and I don’t mind a bit of hard work, but making tomato sauce should not be a two day affair, and I just have better things to do with my time. I tried to recruit people to help with all of that cranking but after a while they wised up and made themselves scarce when it was time to make tomato sauce.

The Easy Way

Ok so I cheat, but it allows me to do more sauces in a much shorter period of time and gives me time for other important tasks I need to do. Now my tomato sauce involves an extra step but it is worth it for how much time and effort it saves me.

I also use the food mill attachment for my kitchenaid, If you have a kitchenaid mixer I strongly recommend this attachment especially if you will be making a lot of sauces from your tomatoes. It saves a tremendous amount of time and effort and does a really nice job of extracting the sauce. If you do not have a kitchenaid mixer a hand food mill will still work fine, but it will just take you a bit longer. When I use the kitchenaid and process my tomatoes with the following method I can have my sauce ready to go back on in about 15 or 20 minutes.

Tomato Sauce

1) Wash, core and quarter tomatoes putting them in a stock pot. (I usually fill the pot close to the top for me this makes 5 quarts of tomato sauce) Approximately 25 pounds of tomatoes.

2) Cook tomatoes on medium, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, until the tomatoes are soft.

3) Ladle tomatoes into a blender a bit at a time and blend until there are no big pieces of tomatoes left.

4) Pour the blended tomatoes through the food mill, you will find that they go through the mill much faster, even if you are using a hand crank food mill.

5) Once you have processed all of your tomatoes, return the sauce to your stockpot. Cook at a simmer for 4 to 6 hours or until the sauce has reduced by about half and is at the desired thickness. Be sure to stir frequently as tomato sauce will scorch easily. Turn burner down if the sauce begins to burn or is boiling too much. It is better to cook it a bit slower and take more time than to burn the sauce making it useless for canning.

When you are ready to can your tomato sauce you have a couple of choices, you can use either a water bath canning method or you can pressure can the sauce, I have done both.

Water Bath Canning

1) Prepare your jars, lids and ring by washing them all in hot soapy water, fill your jars with hot water until you are ready to fill them and place your lids in a pan of boiling water. (you can use pints or quarts for this recipe)

2) Fill your canning kettle with water and bring it to a full boil. I also put a tea kettle on to boil at the same time, in case I do not have enough water to go over the top of the jars, you want to make sure that the water is about 1 to 2 inches over the top of your jars. For Tomato sauce you will also want to keep your tea kettle filled with boiling water in case the water boils down to far, it will allow you to recover the jars without interrupting the boiling.

3) Place 2 tablespoons of lemon Juice in each quart jar, or 1 tablespoon for pints, then fill the jars with your tomato sauce, leaving 1/2 inch head space in each jar.

4) Wipe the rims of the jars, and put hot lids and rings on the jars and tighten just slightly without over tightening the rings.

5) Place jars in the boiling water bath for 40 minutes for quarts and 35 minutes for pints, remove from hot water and check lids after they have cooled to ensure a good seal. If your jars do not seal then refrigerate contents.

Pressure Canning Method

Pressure canning offers a higher quality and more nutritious canned tomato product and it also takes less time than using a water bath canner, so I normally use this method.

Everything is done exactly the same in the pressure canning method except that you will process the tomato sauce in a pressure canner. Process Pints or quarts for 15 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure or 15 pounds of pressure for high altitudes.

Filed Under: Putting Food Up Tagged With: canner, canning, canning tomato sauce, homemade tomato sauce, making tomato sauce, water bath canning

Weekend Homestead Windup – School is In!

August 27, 2012 by Mamma 1 Comment

School starts tomorrow and with it a lot of thoughts about this past season and plans for the days ahead. School starting means fall is on its way and that leaves time for new projects.

It has been a while since I have done a homestead update, and a couple of weeks ago I decided that I need to try to make weekly updates as long as there was something for me to say each week. To that end I have decided to do a weekend homestead windup which will encompass all of my thoughts for the week as well as anything that is going on around our homestead. I will also toss out some links from time to time for recipes, blogs and other things that I have found interesting when appropriate. In short this post is my opportunity to ramble a bit about our family and our life as well as anything else interesting to report. Obviously this update is late this week; I will be trying to put these out on Saturday or Sunday of each week.

I have not done an update on our progress for months, for that I am sorry; to say that it has been an incredibly rough summer in many ways is an understatement and I just have not felt like putting that out for everyone to see. My husbands and my business went under in June, when our largest client terminated our services. Through no fault of our own, we went from a comfortable salary each month to next to nothing. We have struggled through the summer on almost no income something that would not have been possible if not for our gardens.

As with most everyone else find a job is difficult at best and those jobs out there do not often pay very well. So our dreams of prosperity turned into simple survival.

Don’t get me wrong we have a lot to be grateful for, we have food, which is something we would not have if we had not done everything we have done. But much of our plans came to an abrupt halt this spring when all of this happened and life has revolved around getting money into the house to pay our bills.

We are still in limbo, but I am learning to keep my focus on the goal and not worry so much about the way we get there right now.

I am grateful for the chickens we raised, we now boast a freezer full of them, and we also have 4 turkeys that are growing rapidly and that we expect to have ready for holiday dinners this winter. Our meat freezer is so full we are not sure where we will put them just yet, but we will cross that bridge when we get there. We have talked about keeping two of them and raising our own turkeys but this is more just a thought than any real plan.

We pared down our chickens; we were getting way too many eggs, and despite all my efforts to sell them we just did not live in a good place for it. It was getting too hard to feed them all, just to give the eggs away. We now have 6 hens and a rooster, as well as our ducks. We have talked about putting some of those in the freezer as well but I am beginning to think my husband and daughter are just too attached to them to consider it.

The garden was a success this year, in as much as any garden could be with the heat that we had. I am still picking tomatoes, green peppers, beans and squash with a lot more to go. We are still eating potatoes and onions out of the garden, because of the heat they were small and did not produce as much as expected but we have been eating them steady since the end of July so I am not complaining. The corn was our biggest success, we have a beautiful crop of corn that we ate on for about 2 weeks then I put close to 30 quarts in the freezer for use this winter.

The only problem I face is that my produce freezer is also full and I am almost out of jars. That is not a bad problem to have, but I will have figure out what to do with the rest of the harvest that comes in. Some of it may end up in the dehydrator, or maybe by the time it gets here we will have eaten enough to find room for it.

We have been eating heavily from the garden all summer, salads, stir fries, and veggie plates have been our mainstay, and I am pretty sure all of us have been enjoying the gorgeous beefsteak tomatoes and peppers that we have grown ourselves. Grocery bills have been almost nonexistent, and consist of staples such as flour, sugar, dairy and anything else we are not currently producing for ourselves.

I have planted a fall crop, with a number of different vegetables, I am gambling on an Indian summer, and while I know that this might be a gamble I will lose, I also planted several vegetables that will withstand a cool fall as well. I have beans that were planted about 3 weeks ago, another crop of peas, zucchini and cukes that are already getting ready to set fruit and an assortment of greens, and root crops such as radishes and beets. I also picked up broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants in hopes of squeezing just a bit more food out of our garden this year.

I have been canning mostly tomatoes for the past couple of weeks and have finished off Spaghetti sauce and salsa and now I will be canning tomato sauce for most of the rest of the tomato season. Our tomato crop like so many others was not fantastic, so I will likely have to settle for those three things in our pantry this year.

I still have a lot of dehydrating I want to do, I plant to dehydrate my kale to put in soups and others dishes during the winter when greens are expensive and I have herbs I want to dry for the winter as well.

I am also dabbling a bit in seed saving this year, I am letting the rest of my pole beans go to seed and I plan to save some seeds from some of my tomatoes as well. I have a few other crops I will try as well, but I plan to keep this project as simple as possible with the idea that if it is successful for next year we will try a few more crops.

My husband has been busying himself when not working or trying to find better work, trying to get the garage roof on before winter. There is also a new porch in front, as the old one was rotten and not safe to walk on.

Plans for the future include trying to get our online business back up and running again, with a different focus this time, as well as not working for anyone else that can suddenly pull the rug out from under us. We still want to add some animals to our menagerie, a couple of goats for sure and we have talked a lot about raising pigs but talking is about as far as we got with it.

Next spring I want to expand gardens, I really enjoyed the fruit I got from our berries this year, but I want to have enough to freeze for winter use and I would like to have fruit trees and some blueberry plants as well.

All and all even with the all the problems this year has been a success and has surpassed the expectations I had, which I kept purposely small. We will get about 40%-50% of our food from our land this year, not bad considering it was our first year, I am looking forward to increasing that number significantly for next year.

Filed Under: Homesteading Tales Tagged With: canning, gardening, homesteading, planting

Part 3 Basic Canning Series – Step by Step Guide to Using a Pressure Canner For the First time Canning Potatoes

August 23, 2012 by Mamma 2 Comments

In the last two articles in this series(Part 1, Part 2) we have talked about choosing a pressure canner as well as many of the safety guidelines you should use when canning your produce. This article will take you through the steps of canning one at a time. In this example I am going to be canning potatoes. Potatoes are easy to can much like any other vegetable, and make a fast easy addition to soups and stews.

There are two different types of “packs” that you are likely to see when canning anything, a hot pack or a cold or raw pack. These are just two different methods, both are completely safe, and work just as well as the other although like in the case of potatoes the raw pack gives a better end product. You may have a personal preference when it comes to taste, but you can figure that over time. I prefer to do a raw pack whenever possible that is just my personal preference for ease and flavor, but there are going to be certain instances where you cannot use a raw pack or are better off doing a hot pack. Experiment and see which works better for you. Most books contain instructions for both if both are possible.

In this example we are going to use a raw pack and you do not need to cook your potatoes before canning.

Start by going through all of your canning equipment and making sure it is ready to go if you have not already. Get it all laid out where it is easy to access as you want to keep the process fairly quick once you get started canning. I also like to make sure I have plenty of clean dry towels.

This is also a good time to inspect the rubber seal to make sure it is in good condition, and always check vents every time you use your pressure canner, it could save you blowing a safety plug later and spoiling the food you were trying to process.

Scrub your potatoes and peel, then quarter potatoes, you can leave small potatoes whole. If you want the size smaller by all means do so, but do not cut them too small or they will over cook in the canner. You will need 2 to 3 pounds of potatoes for each quart jar you plan to can.

Potatoes do best as a raw pack, while you can do a hot pack on them they tend to overcook, making them too soft for use in soups or stews. While you do not need to sterilize jars like you would for a water bath canning session you do need to wash them and leave hot water in them until they are ready to use. I also put the rings and lids in a pan of boiled water and leave them until they are needed this keeps the rubber seals soft and ensures a good seal.

Pack potatoes in pint or quart jars, add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart if desired, this is optional and I rarely do it. You will need boiling water to pour over your potatoes once your jar is packed, some people like to use chicken stock I prefer to use just water. Make sure that the potatoes are covered and that you have a 1 inch headspace or gap between the water in the jars and the top of the jars.

Use a canning spatula to slide down the sides of the jars; this will remove any trapped air from the jars.

Take a clean damp cloth and clean the rims of the jars to ensure a good seal, then take lids and rings from the hot water and place them on the jars. You want the rings to be snug but do not over tighten as this can affect the lids ability to seal your jars.

Follow manufacturer’s instructions about the amount of water to place in your canner, normally about 2 to 3 quarts. I like to get my canner on the burner and heating before I place the jars of food in it, to ensure that the jars do not have too much of a chance to cool off. The water is not usually boiling yet but it is hot when I put the jars in the canner.

Put the lid on your canner and seal, your heat should be on high. Do not put the steam vent or jiggler on your canner yet, the canner needs to come to a boil and vent for 10 minutes before you do.

Once the canner has vented steam at a full boil for 10 minutes it is time to put your vent on, at this point the canner will begin to build up pressure.

Be on the lookout for leaks from the seal, a bit of moisture escaping from the vents is normal but you should not have anything coming from the canning seal between the lid and the canner.

When your canner comes up to pressure according to your manufacturer’s instruction and the type of pressure regulator you have, it is time to start timing.

How your pressure regulator works depends on the canner you have, dials will give you the exact pounds whereas weighted pressure regulators also referred to as jigglers by some will jiggle or spin a certain number of times. Check your canners instruction booklet to get exact directions on how your canner and regulator work.

For pints I process my potatoes at 35 minutes and quarts take 40 minutes at 10 pounds pressure at normal altitude and 15 for high altitudes.

These instructions are basic and can be applied to other foods, with adjustments in preparing the food and the processing time. I highly recommend the Ball Blue Book as it will serve as a reliable guide as you get started in the world of pressure canning and has times and prep instructions for most vegetables and meats.

I hope you have enjoyed my mini tutorials on pressure canning. Over the weeks I will try to add more recipes out of my collection that are tried and true for you to experiment with as well. Soon you will be building a pantry full of healthy foods to tide your family through the winter and high food prices.

Filed Under: Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, canning jars, canning potatoes, Pressure canner, pressure canning, tattler reusable lids

Pressure Canning Basics Part 1 – Choosing a Canner

August 18, 2012 by Mamma Leave a Comment

Once you have decide to give pressure canning a try there comes the question of what equipment you will need as well as what to do. While most canners come with instructions, many of the instruction booklets are not very clear, especially if you are a beginning canner who has never done any canning before. This article is intended for beginners and is a step by step tutorial on choosing a canner, getting ready to can and canning for your first time.

What You Use a Pressure Canner For

Since this article is written for beginners I think it is important to take a moment to explain what you would need a pressure canner for and what types of foods it is used for. There is some confusion and misinformation on the internet about using the right type of canner, which can result in unsafe food.

Pressure canning is a method of preserving food that uses a higher heat than boiling water, which is what water bath canning methods use. While water bath canning is safe for certain high acid foods such as fruits and pickling, certain foods such as vegetables and meats are lower in acid and need a high temperature that can only be achieve with a pressure canner, in order to make them safe. Pressure canning also removes excess air that bacteria need in order to grow.

Without using a pressure canner you can risk food born bacteria such as botulism, making your foods unsafe to use.

Be sure to check a reliable source to see whether the food that you are processing should be processed in a water bath or in a pressure canner. As a safety precaution if I am ever in doubt I will pressure can something at the time listed for the ingredient that takes the longest in the food I am processing.

Choosing the Right Pressure Canner

Taking the steps to choose the best canner can make all the difference in how your canning will go. Canners start at around $60 and can go to $500 or more for a large home pressure canner. If you have been canning for some time, and are making the step to pressure can knowing that you will be using your canner on a regular basis, then it definitely makes sense to invest in a good quality canner now, for a variety of reasons. A bigger canner will allow you to can more at one time and a good quality canner will take much of the guess work out of pressure canning and leave you feeling more confident about food and pressure canning safety, as well as leave you with fewer parts that can break or cause problems with your canning.

If you are just starting out you may be unwilling to spend that much money on a canner, and you may not be canning enough to justify spending that much. There are good canners that can suit your needs for under $100 if that is the case. All canners must meet certain standards for safety and if used properly will work just fine for the small amounts of canning you are going to do. Should you decided later to move up to a better canner then you will be able to do so and pass your canner on to someone else that needs it.

Brands vary in what they offer, the All American at the top of the scale offers 4 sizes of canners, with their largest canner having enough room for 19 quarts or 32 pints of food, making it ideal for those that have a large garden. The All American has several Features that make it the canner of choice, from the lack of a rubber seal to a geared pressure system. This canner uses a metal to metal seal that is more consistent and does not require the need to replace the seal every few years like other canners do. This ensures consistent sealing which means better safety for your canned goods. The geared pressure system, has an automatic overpressure release which allows you to walk away while your canner is cooking secure in the knowledge that it will keep consistent pressure. While canners should never be left completely unattended, this allows you to be doing other things and not requiring you to watch your canner at every second to ensure it is maintaining the proper pressure.

Presto and Mirro canners offer 2 models, the 21 quart model which holds 7 quarts or 14 pints or the 16 quart model that holds 7 quarts or 7 pints. These smaller models are the most budget friendly canners on the market; you can get a Presto or Mirro 16 quart canner for under 75 dollars. Both of these canners have weights for the pressure regulators, so you won’t have to get them checked every year, but they still have rubber seals which need to be inspected every so often and replaced when they become rigid, damaged or brittle.

The 21 quart models offer more room, and if you prefer you can get a Presto that has a dial pressure regulator, but it is important to keep in mind that these regulators much be taken someplace to be tested every year. They do offer a more precise measurement of pressure which some people prefer, but they must be watched more carefully. The weighted pressure regulators on the other hand release excess pressure so simply placing the right weight on your canner and adjusting the heat so they jiggle at a certain interval is all you need to do.

In the end when it comes to choosing a canner, choose the one that best suits what you will use it for, as well as the one that best suits your comfort level. I find the All American is well worth the extra money spent to ensure consistent pressure canning without a lot of extra effort on your part.

I hope this helps you to make a decision on which pressure canner is right for you, if you are still on the fence about whether you want to try pressure canning please take a look at my article 10 Reasons to Give Pressure Canning a Try.

On Monday I will have part 2 of Pressure Canning Basics, which will include safety tips for safe canning, then part 3 of this series will offer a step by step overview of your first canning session.

Filed Under: Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, canning jars, Pressure canner, pressure canning, tattler reusable lids

10 Reasons to Give Pressure Canning a Try

August 17, 2012 by Mamma 4 Comments

Ten Reasons to Give Pressure Canning a Try

One thing I hear more than anything else is new canners talking about being afraid of using a pressure canner, this fear while understandable is unfounded in that the concerns they may have regarding these canners have long since been addressed.

I cannot encourage new canners enough to give this process a try once you do you will never look back.

Canners are much safer than they have ever been, and the chance of an accident when canning jars of food is extremely low. All canners have safety mechanisms that are designed to release any excess pressure as well as valves that will release at a certain pressure, to keep pressure from building up dangerously high.

The type of canner you buy will also offer you even more assurance of safe canning, not only from the standpoint of not having an accident but also from the standpoint of making sure that your food has been properly heated for safety. Canners such as the All American Canner offer several features that cheaper models do not, such as metal to metal seal, which means that there are no rubber seals to wear out. A geared steam gauge ensures that the pressure stays consistent, to ensure safe canning.

There are a Lot of Reasons to Try Pressure Canning

With canning being a lot safer these days, there are a lot of good reasons to try canning your own food and it won’t take long to become comfortable with the process.

1) Use a Pressure Canner to Preserve Home Grown Foods – One of the best reasons to can is that you preserve the harvest from your gardens and keep it for times when gardening is not possible because of the weather. Canning offers one of the longest lasting methods of preserving your food, and allows you to enjoy your own harvest year around.

2) Pressure Canning Lets You Buy in Season Locally – A lot has been said about buying your produce in season and locally as a way to help the environment and to ensure that your family is getting the best quality food. Buy your food in season, then can it so you can enjoy local foods year around. Local foods are picked ripe rather than being picked before they are ready as many farmers must do to ensure their crop makes it to market in peak condition.

3) Canned foods are Budget Friendly for Those that are On limited incomes - Once you have your canner and jars, (which can be found at yard sales and sometimes even given away by neighbors and those through your church) canning what you grow can be a cost effective way to feed your family. A 400 sq. foot garden can produce much of what your family will eat for a year, depending of course on the size of your family. Of course you can also tuck that 400 square feet in where ever you have room for it, it does not have to be all in one place. Urban gardening and edible landscapes are catching on even in the larger cities as a way to feed your family.

4) Using a Pressure Canner Gives You options in What You Feed Your Family - Not just budget friendly, using a pressure canner offers you more control over what you will feed your family. You might not be able to afford local fresh produce in the middle of the winter, but if you can grow and can or even buy your produce locally, it puts you more in control of what your family is eating.

5) Canned Goods Are not Affected by Power Outages - One of the more compelling reasons to use a pressure canner is that foods that are stored in a freezer are vulnerable in the event of long term power outages. Even if you are able to keep your food in your freezers safe, you won’t want to be opening them during the power outage so canned foods offer a ready and easy source of foods.

6) In The Event of a Disaster your Canned Foods Will be Safe to Eat - Canned foods are sealed, making them less vulnerable to damage than foods that are in your freezer or are packaged differently. In the event of a disaster you will need a readily available and easy to access and fix food source, canning offers all of that.

7) Canned Foods Last a Long Time - Stored properly you can get a shelf life of at least 2 to 3 years from your canned goods, and many people feel you can go much longer than that. Much depends on how your canned goods are stored, cool dry storage with minimal light can offer you a better shelf life for your canned goods.

8) Canned Goods Can be Stored Anywhere - Unlike a freezer that requires a place to sit and electricity, once canned, your food can be put anywhere where it is cool, dry and dark. This could include tucking a shelf in a closet, stashing jars under a bed, or using up that basement you have no other use for.

9) Then Energy and Resources Used to Store Canned Goods Are Far Less Than Frozen - Think about it, not only do you need to have a bag or container to put your food in but then you must pay for the electricity to store it for months at a time. Once you have a canner and jars, you will only be paying for the lids and the electricity to can your food, then you only need to find a place to store it.

10) Jars Can Be Reused - if you are concerned about waste, jars can be re-used provided they have no cracks or nicks in them. You can also buy the Tattler reusable lids rather than disposable lids for less waste and ultimately less cost. They are expensive but eliminate the need to buy new lids every year.

I tend to split my harvest between jars and freezer, canning gives me the peace of mind of knowing that my family will always have food regardless of the circumstances. While canning is a bit more labor intensive, it stores longer, and offers you more storage options as well as the ability to keep a larger inventory than a freezer can hold.

If you are interested in pressure canning there are many resources that can help you get started down the road to safe and cost effective food storage using a pressure canner. Once you take the leap you will never go back and you will find tremendous satisfaction in growing your own food and preserving it.

Filed Under: Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, canning jars, Pressure canner, pressure canning, tattler reusable lids

Sweet and Spicy Pickled Beets

July 26, 2012 by Mamma 2 Comments

I have been working madly to keep up with all of our harvest lately, with the worst yet to come, I am still doing a pretty good job of getting everything done. A lot of our harvest has been going into the freezer, due to cost issues, and not having enough canning jars for this big of a harvest, but I decided to make some sweet and spicy pickled beets for my daughter and mother in law these are one of their favorites and they look forward to them every year.

These beets offer a bit more than the average pickled beet, and are a condiment that even I (who does not generally like anything pickled) will eat from time to time.

When you are done with eating a jar of beets, save the liquid, this recipe makes the best pickled eggs ever.

Getting the Beets Ready

I started out with 4lbs of beets, you want to choose fairly small beets for this recipe, you can use either whole beets that are about an inch in diameter, or you can do like I did and used 2 inch beets and slice them. I used a postal scale to weigh my beets; you can get one of these or a food scale relatively inexpensively at Amazon or your local stores.

Before you slice your beets you will need to cook them first, I normally scrub my beets with a green scrubby pad and take off the beet greens. You do not want to take off the crown of the beet so cut the greens of the beet just above that.

Put your beets in a pot of water and cook until the beets are tender about 15 to 20 minutes, the skin should slip right off and the beets should be easy to cut.

Prepare your Canning Equipment

While waiting for the beets to cook it is a good time to get the rest of your equipment ready, you will need 5 to 6 pint jars, rings and lids and a water bath canner. You need to wash and sterilize your jars, lids and rings as well as get your canner filled and ready to start heating, you water should be at a simmer when it is time to put your filled jars into the water bath.

Making your Spicy Pickled Beets

Cool beets in ice water for a few minutes until they are cool enough to handle. Skins should slip off easily and now you can take off top and bottom of the beet.

While the beets are cooling you can combine all the other ingredients into a pot and bring them to a boil, when the pot comes to a boil turn it down to low and let cook for about 6 minutes.

Slice beets 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick if you are not using them whole and add them to the pot with your liquid and seasonings. Heat the mixture until the beets are hot, then fill clean sterilized jars with beets and liquid. Leave a head space of 1/4″ clean rim of jars and put lids and rings on.

Place jars in water bath canner of simmering water and bring to boil, process jars for 30 minutes. Leave beets on shelf for at least 2 weeks before opening for the best flavor.

Sweet and Spicy Pickled Beets

Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 45 mins

Recipe type: Preserving

Ingredients

4 pounds Medium sized beets
3 cups Onions sliced into thin rounds
2 cups of sugar
2 Sticks of cinnamon broke into 2 pieces each
1Tbsp mustard seed
1tsp allspice whole
1tsp cloves whole
1tsp salt
2½ cups apple cider vinegar
1½ cups of water

Instructions

Scrub and rinse beets well, leave part of stem and do not cut the root from your beets. Doing this avoids loosing too much of the beet juice before you are ready to can them.
Fill large pot with beets and water and bring to boil, cook beets until fork tender and skin slips off easily.
Drain beets and cool enough to be able to handle them, slip skins off beets, remove root and tops and slice beets ⅛” – ¼”.
Add onions, sugar, cinnamon stick, mustard seed, allspice, cloves, salt, vinegar and water to a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low and cook for 6 minutes.
Add beets to the pot and cook until beets are hot.
Pour beets and liquid into the hot sterilized jars, be sure to remove the cinnamon stick before doing so.
Wipe rims of the jar and put lids and rings on the jars snuggly.
Process your pickled beets for 30 minutes in a water bath canner.
Wait at least 2 weeks to open.

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Filed Under: Preserving Recipes, Putting Food Up Tagged With: beets canning, canning, pickled beets, spicy pickled beets

Should I Can or Freeze my Garden Harvest?

July 20, 2012 by Mamma 2 Comments

One of the most common questions asked at harvest time is whether to put produce in the freezer or to can it. The answer to this question will vary depending on who you ask, preppers like to can most of their produce because it keeps without the need for electricity, while those who are more concerned about nutrition often say it is better to freeze it since it goes through much less heat and cook time, and preserves nutrients better.

In addition to freezing and canning you can also dry your foods, while this is a great way to preserve nutrients and provide a shelf stable product a dehydrator may not be something you have access to.

Most anything can be canned, frozen or dried with only a few exceptions, how you choose preserve your harvest will depend on things such as goals, taste and storage.

There are a lot of different things to consider when deciding whether to freeze or can, some of those considerations may affect you while others may not.

Choosing the Right Method

Goals - Are you raising food to stockpile or are you just trying to have enough healthy organic food for the winter? Many people who are stockpiling are concerned about power outages and the possibility that electricity may not be available at some point, because of that, they choose to store as much of their shelf stable as possible. This includes canning, a method called dry canning and dehydrating.

Those that are concerned with healthy organic food often freeze their food, the taste is often better, and freezing is gentler on your food than a pressure canner is.

Storage - How much freezer space you have versus space to store jars. I have 2 full freezers and 2 small ones; this gives me a lot of latitude in how much I am able to freeze. Currently I have one full with chicken for winter and one freezer I am loading up with vegetables.

Pantry space is more problematic for me, as our basement leaks; I have no root cellar currently and am storing my pantry in my bedroom at the moment. I try to spread my harvest out to utilize the storage space I have.

Which method will provide the best product – Some products simply do better when either canned or frozen. Carrots hold their texture and flavor better when frozen as do peas and zucchini. Canning is a great way to put up corns and green beans that can stand up to the extra heat a bit better than other vegetables.

Taste - A lot will depend personal preferences, for instance, I prefer a canned peach to a frozen peach but would much rather freeze strawberries than have them canned. I like canned green beans but don’t really care for frozen. It does no good to can or freeze something if it is not going to get eaten so you need to use the method that provides a better tasting product for your household.

How your Food will Be Used – If you are going to use potatoes in soups or stews then canning it is a better way to go, if you want to make hash browns or French fries then you will want to freeze them. How you process your produce should be aligned with the way you plan to use it. A Frozen peach is great for making smoothies or ice cream but you may find canned peaches are better for eating or using in a pie for instance.

Onions can be dried, frozen or canned, but will be used much differently depending on how you process them. Dried onions are great for seasoning recipes of all kinds, frozen are perfect to add to soups, casseroles and other recipes, whereas canned onions are typically pickled and are best eaten out of the jar.

Tomatoes are best canned, and certainly more convenient, frozen tomatoes are fine for throwing into pots for soups and stews, but tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce will all need to be canned.

Budget - In the end a lot will also depend on your budget, we knew this year we would need two freezers because we had both a garden and chickens to process, so we put a new freezer into our budget early on. I would not even mind having a third freezer as it allows to bake and cook while things are fresh and put them in for use later in the winter, but then I worry about the possibility of having outages.

Jars can add up in price as can the cost of a good quality pressure canner, add the cost of building somewhere to store it all and it adds up fast. Canning however can be affordable once you have a canner and the jars, since all you will need to buy is lids and pay for the power usage. Another alternative is to buy reusable lids, expensive, but so is repeatedly buying lids each year for your jars. Jars of food can be stored anywhere that is not too hot or too cold.

A quality dehydrator is also expensive but is well worth adding to your collection of preserving equipment. The finished product if sealed correctly is shelf stable and takes up less space than canning jars do, and can be used in a variety of cooking techniques.

Keep in mind when freezing or dehydrating, how you package your produce matters, the use of quality sealing devices and the right pouches is essential if you want your food to last. This all costs money as well, and should be considered in your budget.

In the End

I chose my preserving methods based on what was most affordable for me this year, we have a generator so on the short term if the power goes out our freezers and produce will be protected. I have freezer space and limited jars, so I am saving my jars for those things that are not easily frozen, such as chicken and vegetable stock as well as tomato and spaghetti sauce. I plan to use my dehydrator a fair amount as well, especially for herbs, onions and garlic, but also for other food items that can be used in soups and stews.

Filed Under: Old Fashioned Living, Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, dehydrating, dehydrator, freezing

How Much Canning Do You Need For a Full Year?

February 26, 2012 by Mamma Leave a Comment

Canning and preserving can go a long ways to making sure that your family’s needs are taken care of over the long winter months. With the rapidly rising costs of food and the gas needed to transport it, it is becoming more and more of a necessity to do everything you can to make sure that you have plenty of food you have grown or have been able to get in season.

Start with a Plan

Get a Good Idea of What Your Family Will Eat

One of the biggest mistakes that new and seasoned gardeners and canners alike make is growing or canning food they are not even sure that their family will eat. Another mistake is to preserve far more of one time than you are likely to get your family to consume in a years’ time. To the best thing that you can do is to start with a plan.

What does you family really love from the garden
What did You use the Most of last winter
What are the items you are most quickly refilling from Your Pantry?
what sits on your Shelves and does not get eaten?

TIP – If you have an inventory list, take a close look at it and find the items that are most popular, many things on your list can be preserved if you are not doing it already. Aside from plant based foods, meats can also be canned, as well as complete meals.

Make a List of the Items You know Your Family Will Eat

Start by making a list of the items you know your family will eat, and make an approximate list of how many jars, or other units that your family will eat in a year. Keep in mind that you can dry, freeze and can just about anything providing you have the materials and the storage space for it.

HINT : Canning is just one way to keep your food, You can also dry, freeze and smoke foods.

Make a list of things you ran out of last year and how soon in the year you ran out, this will give you an basic idea of how much you should can this year.

Drop Anything from your list that is still sitting on the shelf, there is a reason why it is not getting eaten, If you just canned too much of it, keep in mind that many can goods can last longer than a year if properly stored, so You can easily finish up and then add it to your list next year.

Make a list based on what you find from the notes you have taken. Prioritize your list by what you know will be of the most use to your family and what you can grow yourself.

Use Your List to Plan Your Garden and Buying

Most of us do not grow enough to feed our family, but if we have a list of what we Want to can this year, we can watch for sales, search for bargains or jump on freebies when our neighbors have more than they can use. A well planned list will keep you in the know and help you to organize your canning year accordingly.

Figuring out How Much to Plant

Figuring out how to plan your garden to feed your whole family is not an exact science, It depends on a lot of factors such as:

How many People in your family
How good your growing Year is
How much of an item You will be using.
Your growing Conditions

The best thing to do is to figure out the approximate yield in pounds for your garden, then calculate how many pounds per quart jar. The links below will give you some starter numbers to work with, but don’t forget that these numbers are just approximates.

Yields From Fresh Vegetables and fruits – This link will tell you how many pounds you will need per quart jar of food, the list is short but you should be able to approximate other foods using this list.

Pounds Per Row – This PDF was written for Virginia but it will give you a basic idea of the yield in pounds per 10 ft. row for a wide range of crops while this yield is approximate depending on your location and growing conditions it serves as a good guide for planning how much to plant to get the desired harvest.

A Final note

Make sure to keep good gardening records, you can keep them in a notebook or on your computer, but make sure to note what type of harvest you got, the crop you planted, how much you planted and how many jars you got from your harvest. Also note what your family ate over the year, so you can keep track for next year and have a much more accurate idea of what to grow.

Filed Under: Old Fashioned Living, Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, preserviing

Preparing for the Upcoming Canning Season

June 24, 2011 by Mamma 31 Comments

Preparing for the Upcoming Canning Season

If you love to do jams and jellies then most likely you have already started on your canning for the year. I honestly intended to do jams this year but with the arrival of a new grandchild, and a father in Law having a triple bypass time just got away from me. Still it is time to start taking stock and getting ready for the new Canning season. If you have never canned before you might want to pick up a book as your first expense, not only will it show you all the right equipment that you should get for your canning but it will also give you a nice list of starter recipes to get going with. Alternatively you can visit a few of the more reliable sites online to get the facts you need. I have been canning for a lot of years, but I still love browsing recipes and getting new ideas, I have a few websites I really like to follow and will visit them year after year.

Make a List of Canning Supplies

As I am thinking about canning this year, I am making a mental list of all of the things that I will need to make sure I have, any extra canning jars I need, canning lids, pectin and the spices that I use in pickling. All these things add up fast, so making a list will make sure I don’t have to go out and buy it all at once. Fortunately I have plenty of jars, but will need to pick up a lot of lids; I find that the earlier in the year I do it the easier they are to find and the cheaper I can get them. If I wait too long the discount stores run out and I have to go to the more expensive grocery stores to buy them. If you go shopping early enough in the year you can get canning jars from yard sales, thrift stores and even ask around with neighbors, this will save you a lot of money and allow you to get really stocked up on canning jars.

Make Another List of Things you Plan to Can

You might even want to plan this list before you do your supply list, or at least do both at the same time. This way you can make sure you have everything on hand, and you won’t have to go running out to the store for sugar, salt or spices at the last minute. Canning is hard enough work when the season is in full swing without having to worry about running back and forth to the store. What I usually do is make a list of things I know I am going to or have to can from the garden. Things like tomato sauce, green beans, salsa, and relish are always at the top of my list. I try to add a few new things to make the list a bit more robust, this year I think I am going to do what I have been thinking about for the past couple of years and try some new picked vegetables. With a hubby that grew up in England anything pickled is always a popular choice. I make a final list of things I would like to can if I can get the stuff together for it. These items would include stuff like canned peaches, apple sauce, canned corn, things I don’t grow but will be on the lookout for all year at prices I can’t turn down. If I have a list then when the deals show up I know what to do with them.

Getting all my Equipment in Order

Finally I make sure I have everything I need and it is all cleaned up and ready to go, nothing is worse than pulling out the tomato mill only to find out a piece walked off in the middle of the winter and you have to find it or order another one with 50lbs of tomatoes sitting on your counter. Make sure that your pressure canner is all tuned up and checked out, that you have all the utensils you need, and your jars have all been inspected for nicks or other problems. I keep mine in the boxes they came in but invariably there are always jars that got damaged along the way. Dig up your recipes and get them ready to go as well, I have a problem with losing recipes from one year to the next, a common problem when you only use them once a year, this year I am going to solve that problem by getting a notebook that is just for canning recipes. Once you have all of your supplies in order and your lists made, know where everything is, you will find that your canning adventures will go much more smoothly

If you need help with learning how to can there are several great books on Amazon that can help you get started.

Canning

Enjoy your Season of canning make sure to let us know what you canned this year by leaving a comment below!

Filed Under: Old Fashioned Living, Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, canning season, how to can

Long Term Food Storage Methods

November 11, 2010 by prairiemaid Leave a Comment

Today we have many options for long term food storage, as long as all of our appliances are operating properly. There are several techniques used to preserve fresh foods for extended periods of time under normal conditions, including freezing, canning, dehydrating, and freeze-drying.

Freezing

Archaeologists have found evidence that man started freezing meats thousands of years ago. At first, freezing was only possible during winter months in temperate climates.

Before electricity became common in homes, there was the ice box in the city and the dairy in the country. Dairies were basically underground rooms where temperatures were cooler.

Ice boxes varied in design, but they made use of large blocks of ice to keep milk, dairy products and other foods from spoiling. The first refrigerators were not that different from the iceboxes.

Deep freezers became popular in the 1950s for several reasons. Concerns over previous wars and poor relationships with foreign countries were among them; people were motivated to have extra food on hand “just in case.”

Practically all foods can be frozen. Although the taste can be negatively affected in some cases, the foods are safe to eat for months. It is a common practice among hunters to store wild game in the freezer during the hunting season and use it throughout the year. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Putting Food Up Tagged With: canning, dehydration, freezing, long term food storage methods, preserving