Canning, Freezing, and Dehydrating 2013

[Michelle_Nelson]

So who else on here over plants there garden or buys produce in bulk to Preserve for when things are out of season or more expensive?  My Grandma and Mom canned for as long as I can remember.  I didn't get into it until about 5 years ago. 

I've tried several different things.  *Peaches, *Tuna, *Bear cubes, *Beef cubes, *Pineapple, *Fruit Cocktail, *Strawberry Jam, *Peach Jam, *Blackberry Jam, *Corn, *Pickled Beets, and *Bread and Butter Pickles, *Tomato's, *Spaghetti Sauce, and *Cherries. 

I thought that for those of us who are into Preserving this would be a good spot to share ideas, recipes, and ask questions.

 


 

[Michelle_Nelson]

Here is some Pineapple that I canned on 6/8/2013.  Fred Meyer had Pineapple on sale for $1 each.  Normally $3.79 each.  I ended up with 25 Pints and 11 Half Pints. 

[Sumpnneedskillin]

I froze 12 cups of rhubarb that I harvested from the garden.  Rhubarb crisp in winter is great!

[Fl0und3rz]

I like making spaghetti sauce and soups in huge batches and canning for quick and easy home cooked meals.

[NRA4LIFE]

One thing I did last year by necessity was to freeze onions.  I had a bumper crop of them last year but for some reason they weren't keeping well and starting to get rotten.  I chopped them up and vacuum sealed them and then in the freezer.  That turned out to be real handy when making dishes that use cooked onions.  Open up a bag, dump them in and your done.

Michelle,

Try dehydrating some pineapple next time.  Slice about 3/8" thick into bite sized nuggets and dry.  It takes a while but the result is like eating candy.

[nocklehead]

Hey Bearpaw, wheres this DIY forum weve heard about?


I can all kinds of stuff, 2 years ago I got a pressure canner and have even done some meat canning!
Next project on the list is to go to the U-pick farm and get 20lbs of strawberries soon for jam canning!

[Michelle_Nelson]

I picked Strawberries this pasr Friday.  Make sure you can your strawberries the same day you pick.  I put mine in the frig over night and the next day when I made jam I had to throw out 1/3 of them.

[SCRUBS]

Wish I wouldn`t have missed the Pineapples for $1. They are awesome dehydrated.

[sirmissalot]

Canned pineapple is a great idea, I also love them dehydrated.

I didn't know you could freeze onions I have been wanting to figure out a way to preserve walla walla sweet onions.

[robodad]

I picked Strawberries this pasr Friday.  Make sure you can your strawberries the same day you pick.  I put mine in the frig over night and the next day when I made jam I had to throw out 1/3 of them.

At least clean, slice and mix with some of the sugar the same day then refrigerate overnite to mascerate. IMO it makes better jam, also don't use the lemon zest if your recipe calls for it unless you like the tart flavor in your jam !!

Also...if anyone is looking for quart size jars, someone thought I needed 14 boxes of them so come and get some, I'll never use that many !!!

[hoyt5199]

  We do applesauce, and blackberry jam. This year we plan on doing strawberry and raspberry jam, freeze corn and maybe do applesauce again. Also may can some pink salmon.

[pope]

I feel sorry for anybody who has never had home-canned foods. The taste is out of this world, compared to what can be bought off the shelf. My wife is working on strawberry jam right now; my parents are growing black raspberries which aren't ready yet but make the best tasting jelly on the planet. My personal favorite is peaches, canned with the pit. My gosh, they are like nectar from Heaven!

[Southpole]

We're big on canned green beans, stewed tomatoes, sauerkraut and some wild game. Last year I took the peelings from the tomatoes (there is a lot of juice left on those things), ran them through the juicer along with celery, onions, carrots, parsley, garlic, cilantro, jalapenos, salt and lemon juice. Put it all in a big pot on the stove, brought it up to almost a boil, fill up jam jars and processed in the pressure cooker. V-8 and Snap-e-tom has nothing on me! That was the best tomato/vegetable juice ever! We serve the best red beers and bloody marys in the valley.

[Michelle_Nelson]

I canned some Mixed Fruit Cocktail last week.

Mixed Fruit Cocktail (makes about 6 Pint Jars)

3lbs Peaches
3lbs Pears
1.5lbs slightly underripe seedless Green Grapes
10oz Jar Maraschino Cherries
3 Cups Sugar
4 Cups Water


Stem and wash grapes and put in an anti-darkening solution.  Dip Ripe but firm Peaches, a few at a time, in boiling water for 60 to 90 seconds to loosen skins.  Dip in cold water and slip off skins.  Cut into 1/2'' pieces and place in anti-darkening solution with grapes.  Peel, halve, and core pears.  Cut into 1/2" pieces and place in solution with peaches and grapes.

Combine sugar and water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Remove fruit from anti-darkening solution and drain well.  Add 1/2 cup of hot syrup to each hot jar.  Then fill each jar 1/2" from the top with a few cherries and fruit mix.  Fill jars with remaining syrup leaving 1/2" head space.  Remove air bubbles.  Wipe Jar Rims.  Adjust Lids. 

Process in a Boiling Water Bath canner for 20 minutes

The Jar on the left has Cherries in it.  Thats why it is a light pink.  The one on the let does not have Cherries in it.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Homemade Low Sugar Strawberry Jam.     Went to Spooners and picked them.  Nothing better than hamemade strawberry jam made from fresh picked strawberries.

[doyourtime89]

I got my first pressure cook/canner the beginning of this year.  I have been wanting to can salmon for awhile.  I looked online and talked to a bunch of people that have done it.  Got different ideas on different flavors.  I did a batch of 13 jars each jar is a different flavor.  I plan on having some of my family over to do a salmon tasting and figure out what flavors we like the best and stick with those.  Then I wanted to try some jam so about 3 weeks ago I did some strawberry, it turned out great.  This past weekend I did blueberry jam and some other jam that was made from half blackberries and half raspberries.  Both of those are great too.  Next I want to do dill pickles and dill green beans. 

[Southpole]

I got my first pressure cook/canner the beginning of this year.  I have been wanting to can salmon for awhile.  I looked online and talked to a bunch of people that have done it.  Got different ideas on different flavors.  I did a batch of 13 jars each jar is a different flavor.  I plan on having some of my family over to do a salmon tasting and figure out what flavors we like the best and stick with those.  Then I wanted to try some jam so about 3 weeks ago I did some strawberry, it turned out great.  This past weekend I did blueberry jam and some other jam that was made from half blackberries and half raspberries.  Both of those are great too.  Next I want to do dill pickles and dill green beans. 

The next salmon I catch is going in some jars. What did you use for flavor?

[doyourtime89]

I got my first pressure cook/canner the beginning of this year.  I have been wanting to can salmon for awhile.  I looked online and talked to a bunch of people that have done it.  Got different ideas on different flavors.  I did a batch of 13 jars each jar is a different flavor.  I plan on having some of my family over to do a salmon tasting and figure out what flavors we like the best and stick with those.  Then I wanted to try some jam so about 3 weeks ago I did some strawberry, it turned out great.  This past weekend I did blueberry jam and some other jam that was made from half blackberries and half raspberries.  Both of those are great too.  Next I want to do dill pickles and dill green beans. 

The next salmon I catch is going in some jars. What did you use for flavor?

Each jar was different...I am trying to figure out what we might like. 

[DoubleJ]

We do blackberry jam every year.  I've done tomatoes and sauce in the past too.  I need a pressure cooker so I can really get into it.  Water bath is all I can do at the moment

[Whitpirate]

We put up jam, syrup, beans, salsa, blueberries, strawberries and I've got a hankering to do some canned salmon and maybe head out to Westport for a tuna. 

Smoker will work overtime this fall. 

[206]

Dehydrating salmon?  Smoked fish is getting old, can dehydrating salmon be the next cave man wannabe staple?  hmmmmmmmmmm

[Michelle_Nelson]

I'll be heading over to the Coast to pick up some Tuna this year.  I'll get atleast 75 lbs of Tuna for me.  I'll probably pick up tuna for several other people when I go over to.  There are several other families in my area that can too.  They help with the gas and pick the tuna up at my house the day I pick it up.   

[lokidog]

Wish I had time to can more....  We do pickled green beans and carrots.  I've also done kelp pickles, both sweet and savory.  Two years ago, I took all of my meat scraps that were too small for burger, or too thin to strip the silverskin easily, and tossed it in the stock pot for a while.  I made a bunch of stock by tossing a quarter of an onion in each pint jar with a little salt and pepper.  I used a jar of it for gravy last night to go with my Swiss moose steak.  My son said it was the "best gravy ever."   

[KFhunter]

for you canners..


I've been switching to these

http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/

haven't canned anything with them as of yet, but I've used the seal a meal on them and they are holding tight. 

[Michelle_Nelson]

Interesting KFhunter.  Let us know how they work out. . . .

[steeleywhopper]

Im canning up a bunch of Kokanee tomorrow.

[Southpole]

Dehydrating salmon?  Smoked fish is getting old, can dehydrating salmon be the next cave man wannabe staple?  hmmmmmmmmmm

You make some first and let us know how it is.

[Axle]

I'll be heading over to the Coast to pick up some Tuna this year.

I've done that a few times. Best tuna I've ever had! 
I love canning and dehydtrating 

[doyourtime89]

I'll be heading over to the Coast to pick up some Tuna this year.  I'll get atleast 75 lbs of Tuna for me.  I'll probably pick up tuna for several other people when I go over to.  There are several other families in my area that can too.  They help with the gas and pick the tuna up at my house the day I pick it up.

I would love to do some tuna.  When do you do that, what time of the year?  Where do you go?  How much does it end up costing?  I am guessing the more you buy the better price you get?

[steen]

I can a lot but probably a lot less now that the kids are all moved out.  I do beans, pickled beets, reg. beets, fruit cocktail, peaches and pears (with a very light syrup), red cabbage, various jams, tomato sauces, carrots, pickles, bread and butter pickles, freezer corn, and I make wine occasionally.  Hoping for a good crop of grapes this year.  I also make my own soaps.  My husband does a lot of different sausages in his smoke house/butcher room.  I think cancer is rampant because of what we eat more than anything.  It's all the pesticides and weed killers that have a part in it.  I like my garden produce!

[Axle]

I can a lot but probably a lot less now that the kids are all moved out.  I do beans, pickled beets, reg. beets, fruit cocktail, peaches and pears (with a very light syrup), red cabbage, various jams, tomato sauces, carrots, pickles, bread and butter pickles, freezer corn, and I make wine occasionally.  Hoping for a good crop of grapes this year.  I also make my own soaps.  My husband does a lot of different sausages in his smoke house/butcher room.  I think cancer is rampant because of what we eat more than anything.  It's all the pesticides and weed killers that have a part in it.  I like my garden produce!

When I went to Australia a few years ago, they served pickled beets with lunch and dinner. Everybody did. This year, I am going to pickle some.
Let me know when the wine is ready 
As far as cancer, I agree with you. Our diets here in the states are pretty bad! I've been saying for years that I think skin cancer is being caused by commercial soaps. If you search the ingredients, you would stop eating many of the things you normally eat. Commercial chemicals are going into our foods and most don't even care. 

[grundy53]

I'm going to give this old thread a bump. I came across it while looking for a bread and butter beets recipe. I think this a great thread with a bunch of good ideas.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

[Widgeondeke]

Totally agree Grundy.   We made dill pickles and strawberry jam last year.   
Oh and made spaghetti sauce.  Marginal result. 

Want to make salsa and can salmon this year, maybe some green beans