The Awesome Girl's Guide to Easy Canning

While fresh food from the garden is delicious and great, it unfortunately does not last forever.  Thankfully, someone in the 1800's put his brain to use and discovered canning!  Even though food preservation has been around for years and years (just ask your grandma), many younger people are showing an interest in it.  This might be tied into the organic trend or because it is simply awesome! 

The canning process is relatively easy and uniform with just a few tweaks depending on what you are actually preserving.  So get yourself a big ol' pot and can something by using the steps below!

1. No matter what you are canning, you will need some basic supplies.  Large stock pot, glass mason jars, lids and rings, tongs, and a glass of wine (to sip while you wait for the water to boil).  Also, a sweet polka dot apron might come in handy.
2. Fill the stock pot with water and get it on the burner.  While you are waiting for the water to boil, prepare your food (tomatoes, apples, or what have you).  Because you are dealing with food, you will need to sterilize your jars and lids.  I usually put them in the boiling water for about five minutes.  Putting the lids in the boiling water will also help to make the rubber portion a little tacky, which helps the lid to seal onto the jar.
3. Take the jars out and put in your food.  You want to get a good seal between the jar and lid, so be sure to wipe off the rim of the jar.  Set the lid on the jar and screw on a ring. 
4. Some stock pots come with a metal rack that is used to lower the filled jars into the boiling water.  Don't fret if you don't have this.  You can use tongs!  Either way, lower the jars into the boiling water.  Be sure that there is at least one inch of water covering the jars. 
5. Now, sit back with your glass of wine for about ten minutes while the water boils.  Depending on what you are canning, this time may be different.  Once the time is up, remove the jars from the water and set them on a counter at room temperature.  The urge will be there to touch them, but leave the jars alone! 
6. The best part is yet to come.  As the jars and their contents cool, the change in temperature creates a vacuum, which pulls the center of the lid in, sealing the jar.  If you listen, you can hear a distinct "POP!" when the lid indents.  This tells you that the jar has sealed and is safe to move to it's storage location.  If you press on the center of the lid and it presses in, the jar has not sealed and you will need to boil it again. 

Look for more posts on canning specific foods! 

Tomatotopia

I might be deconstructing my house little by little, but the garden lives on!  The zucchini production has slowed down, but I am still harvesting one or two a week and just as many yellow squash.  Unfortunately, squash bugs invaded, and only a few brave plants were able to withstand their attacks. 

Tomatoes, however, are another story.  For approximately three weeks, the tomato plants were only producing one tomato a week.  I was certain that I had done something wrong, and that they were a lost cause.  I did not factor in that it was very early for tomatoes to even begin to ripen.  And then it happened...Tomatotopia.  I quickly realized that my wimpy mixing bowl was not going to suffice.  I went back into the house, picked up a laundry basket, and went back out to the garden.  Keep in mind that my neighbors are already not particularly fond of me and my garden endeavors, but on this occassion, they seemed especially confused and concerned. 

I started harvesting tomatoes, and by the time I was done, I had picked 68.  In one day!  Over the course of the next week, I went out to the garden four more times and ended up with a grand total of 236 tomatoes in a one week period.  Instantly, a new rule was instituted in my house: Everyone must eat at least one tomato at every meal. 

Right now, when I open my refrigerator, all I see are tomatoes.  I have been slowly working on turning some of them into sauce and other various creations, but I think that this coming weekend will be full of canning tomatoes!  Keep an eye out for more posts on that...and perhaps even a video if you're lucky.