Canning - Or at least thinking about it

A few years ago I made about 24 half-pint jars of blueberry jam with locally-grown blueberries.  It was a fairly simply process, and it was just delicious; it tasted a lot more like blueberries and less like sugar than commercial jam does.  It didn’t last as long as I had hoped, though, as we gave a lot of it away as gifts and tended to heap it on toast and bagels ourselves.

Jams, jellies, preserves, pickles and tomatoes are quite easy to can because they have a high acid content and can be processed with a minimum of equipment, trouble, or worry. But, except for the tomatoes, the end products aren't particularly nutritious.  I’ve always wanted to learn to can other foods we grow in abundance here during certain seasons: greens, corn, field peas, butter beans, green beans, sweet potatoes, etc. 

In order to can these low-acid vegetables, the USDA says (very adamantly) that one must use an expensive pressure canner. This is the first hurdle.  When I went to a canning workshop at the county extension office earlier this week, I learned of another: accurately calibrated pressure gauges are vital, and pressure gauges can lose their accuracy over time.  Apparently, the manufacturer’s instruction booklets advise bringing them in yearly to the local county extension office to be checked. But due to cost and liability our extension office does not provide that service. And neither does anyone else according to the extension agent. 

In addition, the instructor said that canned goods should be stored in a cool, dry place at a temperature between 60 and 70 degrees.  Obviously, this too is a problem here…  There is no place in or near my home that remains at that temperature range for more than a few weeks in the dead of winter.   

So, what to do?  Our instructor suggested that we should use the cans within one year, rather than the two-five recommended by the USDA, which seems do-able.  And there is an alternative type of pressure canner that uses weights instead of a dial gauge as a measure of pressure that I would like to look into. 

Although this part of the country does not have the ideal weather for storing preserved foods, it does offer the possibility of nearly year-round fruit and vegetable production. So preservation is not nearly as crucial as it would be if we lived further north. 

So, as appealing as the vision of rows of canned vegetables lining my pantry shelves is (I admit in a kind of Walton-esque way), it doesn't seem to make that much sense for this locale. I do plan on canning tomatoes this year – for year-round soup base and sauce. And I may, if I can get my hands on an affordable weight gauge pressure canner, try canning early-summer field peas and butter beans, since they would be a good source of year-round protein. We'll store them in our dark-ish pantry for less than a year. Other than that, we'll count ourselves lucky to live in a place where there is fresh stuff available so much of the time.    

Comments

[becky]

my daughter's home on spring break and with her usual cheer and adventurous spirit for support i just made MY first batch of strawberry jam. it was fun and the results,well, like you said, strawberry-flavor-packed- delicious! the experiment has made me think about tomatoes also. we didn't have a pot large enough to cover and boil all the jars so we just inverted them on the counter to cool. they'll never last more than 6 months so i don't think we'll have to worry about shelf life. can you use the same inversion method for tomatoes, or will i need to invest in that huge canning pot with the rack for holding the jars?
i enjoy reading your blog very much as our family too embarks on a more sustainable path.

[whatweneed]

Thanks for writing. From what I understand, the inversion method is not as fool-proof as the hot water bath method for canning high-acid produce (some fruits, pickles, chutnies, and tomatoes). And since tomatoes are more likely to grow bacteria than jellies, jams, and pickles, it's not recommended for tomatoes. The water bath method is pretty simple if you have a large enough pot to cover the jars(even I could do it with no problem). There need be nothing else special about the pot except its size - and any kind of "rack" to keep the jars from sitting on the bottom is fine. I found a big pot at a thrift store for $2 and put a wire trivet on the bottom. I hope to be canning tomatoes again soon here. Let us know how it works out for you!

[becky]

thanks for answering my question! mental note to self- start looking for a REALLY big pot!