Canning/Preserving

[DorieTesla'sMom]

I started canning a couple of years ago. My inspiration came from an Amish lady, Elizabeth Coblentz. She's passed away, but about 10 years ago, she had a column syndicated in several newspapers called "The Amish Cook" She'd write out her columns by hand always including news of her family, a bit about the old days and finishing up with a recipe. Her summer columns were always full of news about harvests and many jars of food being "put by" for Winter.
I started thinking that if Elizabeth could can food on the woodstove without electricity, I ought to be able to do it with all my modern conveniences.

I've had a couple of flops- some way too salty, kinda mushy pickles and some "jam" that ended up being syrup for ice cream, but I've made all kinds of good things.
Preserves are just great- strawberry jam made with sugar instead of corn syrup tastes so much better. Couple of years ago, we were blessed with more corn than we could eat fresh, so I made batches of great corn relish.
The salsa is great!

I don't have a big pressure canner, so I only do things that can be done with "water bath", not green beans, etc.
My mother and grandmother both had canners and would put up green beans, potatoes, the things that have to be pressure canned-
Once my Dad went deep sea fishing and caught a couple of big tuna. My mom put up and processed that smelly old fish- the smell was godawful!!!!! But the tuna was good.!

[Divinorumus]

Both my grandmothers, long since passed away, use to do a lot of canning. They both lived in a small town up north where large gardens and canning were just part of normal life if you wanted to eat, especially during the winter. And they were both great cooks. What I most miss about them were their canned jams and their baked chocolate chip cookies. I've yet to find anything commercially available that compares to their jams and cookies. Their cellars would be filled with hundreds and hundreds of jars of canned foods by the time fall was about over. I miss those early years.

[Alpha]

I do water canning as well DTM. Every fall I'll put up home made tomato sauce and salsa. Last year I ended up with over 40 large jars....pepper sauce as well.

I'd love see some of your other recipes...please do post them here.

Here's mine for the tomato sauce that I do every year.....

Tomatoes

[Mcnowhere]

For the past 30 odd years I have canned 5 doz. pints of Sockeye Salmon, fresh from the ocean. This is the first year that I haven't as there is no more salmon to catch. The commercial industry has gone under and sports fishing is heavily restricted. I will miss my canned salmon and fresh ones on the barbecue.

[Biker]

Now that's a damn shame. As I recall, you were gonna send me some salmon.

Biker

[Mcnowhere]

Now that's a damn shame. As I recall, you were gonna send me some salmon.

Biker

Gee, I must have said that over at that "other place" where everybody lies!

[Hadriana]

I do a bit of canning now and then, mainly jams and preserves, but I'm mostly into drying. Drying is a great way to stretch your food budget and get some good stuff too.

I dry tomatoes - sun dried tomatoes are SO expensive, why? Just dry you some of your own! Jerky. left over veggies, mushrooms....if i cut an onion and use 1/2, I dry the rest. If I have a carton of mushrooms, and use 1/2, the other half gets dried for later use in soups or whatever.

I highly recommend it.

[Alpha]

I hear you Had.

I do a lot of drying as well..herbs, peppers, fruit.....make my own "sun dried tomatoes"

I've never done any meat though or mushrooms which I could have.

Do you have a "de-dehydrator" or what specifically do you do with your stuff?

For herbs, I often just harvest them, bunch them up and turn them upside down until they dry.

[Judee]

I do a bit of canning now and then, mainly jams and preserves, but I'm mostly into drying. Drying is a great way to stretch your food budget and get some good stuff too.

I dry tomatoes - sun dried tomatoes are SO expensive, why? Just dry you some of your own! Jerky. left over veggies, mushrooms....if i cut an onion and use 1/2, I dry the rest. If I have a carton of mushrooms, and use 1/2, the other half gets dried for later use in soups or whatever.

I highly recommend it.

Hadriana, when you dry say - mushrooms. Do you just dry them, or do you have to put anything on them to keep them long term? I have a wonderful dehydrator, but I'm ashamed to say I don't use it as much as I should. This post however, has hit me on the head to start doing so. There are so many fruits and vegetables we can get very cheaply in the summer right from the farmers. Thanks Had!

[Hadriana]

With mushrooms? No, I just clean em, slice em, and dry em. I put all my dried stuff in the freezer for 24 hours before storing it.

Some vegies need lemon juice on them to keep them from browning. Grapes you can just dry - make raisins, tomatoes, I core and quarter. I scoop out the seeds. onions, just wash em and throw em on the rack....carrots, broccoli, okra...(I blanch okra first.)

Get you a good book on drying and go at it. It is easy.

[Hadriana]

I've never done any meat though or mushrooms which I could have.

Do you have a "de-dehydrator" or what specifically do you do with your stuff?

For herbs, I often just harvest them, bunch them up and turn them upside down until they dry.

I dry jerky and also the organ meats from turkey/chicken. The dog loves the organ meats. I put some soy * garlic powder on them for him. lol
Those are the only meats I do. I have thrown some sandwich meat on there that was about to go bad that I didn't want to make treats for the dog too. (so they last longer and he likes the chewy stuff best.) The cats get these tuna treats I make for them, those are dried as well. They are a mixture of tuna in water, garlic, parmesan and cornmeal that are shaped and dried. They love them.

I use a dehydrator, regular round kind, costs about 19 bucks at wal-mart.

I have bunched the herbs up too like that but this house is dusty no matter what I do, especially with the drought. I'd rather just wash and then dry the ones I am going to eat, get them put up quickly. If I am going to be making incense or use them for spellwork, then I hang them, I just don't want to eat house dust or fragrance spray or whatever.

Another great use of the dehydrator is bread crumbs and croutons. To make bread crumbs, just dry bread and crush it. To do the croutons, cut the bread into squares, sprinkle a bit of water on them, season them with onion powder, garlic powder, chives or whatever you like, and then dry them. It is very easy to make good croutons that are not super high in calories.