User post: Preserving Your Harvest; Successful Canning Tips

Grow

ing up on the family farm we had a wonderful garden.  My favorite thing was to walk through the rows eating the sun ripened tomatoes.  The juicy, sweet taste was unforgettable.  We had rows and rows of all different colors and sizes, but when they all ripened at once we had to many to eat before they spoiled.  That is when the huge, speckled canning pot would come out of storage.  Jars of canned tomatoes only meant one thing in our house, spaghetti sauce, one of my favorite foods.  To this day my Mom still makes it from scratch; YUM!!!

Home canning is a safe, economical way to put delicious nutritious food on your table at every meal.  Blackberry jam for breakfast, tasty home-canned chili for lunch, green beans from your garden, peaches from your trees-delicious!  Give canning a try. When that first batch of jewel-like jars stands cooling on your countertop, you’ll be thrilled you did.

Here are some helpful tips on canning successfully:

-          Clostridium Botulinum; thieves in under-processed low-acid, home canned goods. A single nibble or sip of botulism laced food, ingested as soon as three or four days after processing, can prove fetal. Botulinum and the other bacteria that contributes to spoilage are easily destroyed when cooked for the right amount of time at 240-250 degrees F the temperature in a properly-regulated pressure canner.

-          Canning Tomatoes; today’s varieties of tomatoes are low-acid hybrids having a pH of higher than 4.6 (the USDA considers food with 4.6 and lower pH levels to be high-acid food). Adding 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to each quart jar before filling and processing will help raise the pH levels.

-          Sweetening; instead of using refined sugar to sweeten canned goods, use fresh fruit juices such as apple, white grape, pineapple or a blend of all three.

NOTE: Don’t use substitute artificial sweeteners for sugar in canning recipes, it could omit or reduce the taste.

-          Optimal Flavor; for optimal flavor, nutrition and appearance, can them within 6 to 12 hours of harvest.  When possible grow or pick your own fruits and vegetable.  Choose fully-ripe (but not over-ripe), bruise and blemish-free produce. Rinse and lightly scrub fruit and veggies but don’t soak them prior to canning.

-          When in Doubt Throw Out; before preparing any home-canned food, examine the carefully. Those with bulged canning lids, raising air bubbles, foam, cloudiness, weird colors, and other visible abnormalities discard. When opening, check for unusual aromas, spurting liquids, or mold on the underside of the lid or the food’s surface. If in doubt don’t taste anything, consider it spoiled and dump it.