The Canning Thread

trafficguru26 said:

I pickle and can my cucumbers and my squash. I prefer the wide mouth jars (just easier to put stuff in them). I don't have a pressure canner. I use my roaster oven. Put about an inch of water in it and put your jars in and turn it up to 450. Then I cook my brine until boiling. stuff the hot jars with goodies then pour boiling brine in. Put the lids on and hand tighten. sit the jars on the counter and cover with a towel to slowly cool. You should start hearing the lids "tink" as they cool and seal. I do pickles, squash, okra, relish and salsa verde this way.

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Are you acidifying? Squash has to be acidified/pickled to safely can and Okra has to be pressure canned (unless also acidifying/pickling).

If you are just water bath canning, you should just use a large pot and do it on your stove top (with a wire mesh tray so the cans don't touch the bottom of the pot). Pouring in boiling brine and putting the lids on, even for pickling, isn't the safest way to can whether the lids seal or not.

My daughter wanted to pressure can this year for the first time. What a year to try. She almost bought cheap one and me and the wife ordered an All American 15 quart, for safety, but now it won't be in stock until November. AFTER everything in the garden is dead this year.

Archeryrob said:

My daughter wanted to pressure can this year for the first time. What a year to try. She almost bought cheap one and me and the wife ordered an All American 15 quart, for safety, but now it won't be in stock until November. AFTER everything in the garden is dead this year.

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A lot of the stuff if you wanted to you could freeze for now and can later.

That's obviously not as good a choice as just canning right after picking.

Archeryrob said:

My daughter wanted to pressure can this year for the first time. What a year to try. She almost bought cheap one and me and the wife ordered an All American 15 quart, for safety, but now it won't be in stock until November. AFTER everything in the garden is dead this year.

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Have you got jars, lids and everything, just no canner?

Yes, but she can wait. I have not planted for canning as I knew it was not coming.

PM sent...

Found myself in the Bed Bath Beyond in Rockville today, and scored a bunch of regular and wide mouth lids. I did leave a few boxes of each for others.




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Also from yesterday’s travels to Lancaster, we stopped at The Restaurant Store where I found these “flatware crates” for washing cutlery. They also happen to be perfectly sized for regular or wide-mouth pint jars but while they do stack, the top rack will rest directly on the jars underneath, not the frame of the rack underneath.




They also sell full sized glass washing crates (and “extenders” to make them taller) which would be large enough for quart jars. But they are 19+ inches square which is too large for any shelving we use, and with 16 quart jars that would be one heavy mo’ fo’.




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A piece of 1/4" plywood, cut to size and laid over your jars on the shelf, will give you a stable platform to stack another row of jars on top of the first ones.
I've done this in our pantry and stack 2 rows of quart jars on top of each other. The bottom shelves seem like they were built to store 1/2 gallon size jars back in the day, while the upper shelves are built to store quart size jars.

smkranz said:

Found myself in the Bed Bath Beyond in Rockville today, and scored a bunch of regular and wide mouth lids. I did leave a few boxes of each for others.

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Jars and lids are plentiful in the Pikesville/Randallstown/Owings Mills areas. If anyone I have met in person wants me to grab stuff, let me know and I will get it and meet up later.
PM me with what you're looking for.

smkranz said:

Also from yesterday’s travels to Lancaster, we stopped at The Restaurant Store where I found these “flatware crates” for washing cutlery. They also happen to be perfectly sized for regular or wide-mouth pint jars but while they do stack, the top rack will rest directly on the jars underneath, not the frame of the rack underneath.

They also sell full sized glass washing crates (and “extenders” to make them taller) which would be large enough for quart jars. But they are 19+ inches square which is too large for any shelving we use, and with 16 quart jars that would be one heavy mo’ fo’.

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I saw those lonline but they looked big and didnt know if they would fit

I can’t seem to go to H Mart and not buy quail eggs. (First World problems...)

After this morning’s batch of Scotch eggs, I just finished up water-bathing ten of these cute half-pint jars of eggs and baby corn. I bolstered last week’s left over Bread & Butter brine with some fresh B&B mix, and added a chopped up habanero pepper, to leave a little reminder in the after-taste.




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squaregrouper said:

Jars and lids are plentiful in the Pikesville/Randallstown/Owings Mills areas. If anyone I have met in person wants me to grab stuff, let me know and I will get it and meet up later.
PM me with what you're looking for.

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Thanks for the offer! Assuming my order of jars from Amazon arrives intact, I’ll be good for the foreseeable future. If not...I’ll hit you up. Still not much luck with jars out here in da country.


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In today's CCTimes:

Some gardeners in a pickle over scarce canning supplies

By Lisa Rathke Associated Press

MARSHFIELD, Vt. — It’s the time of year when gardeners are turning their ripe tomatoes into sauces and salsas and cucumbers into pickles. But a boom in gardening and preparing food at home during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a scarcity of supplies with which to preserve them. From Maine and Vermont to Louisiana and West Virginia, gardeners have reported being in a pickle when it comes to finding certain sized glass jars, the special lids to safely seal them, or the bands with which to screw them on. They’ve gone from store to store and some have given in to paying higher prices online for certain precious canning supplies.

“We have been everywhere,” said Vanessa Ware of Hurricane, West Virginia, who said she went to at least a half-dozen stores after running out of supplies for her tomatoes, peppers, corn and sauerkraut canning. She still had enough leftover jars and lids but not the bands, so she started looking — and looking. And a search of online retail sites proved to be frustrating due to price gouging.

The entire canning industry has seen an unprecedented demand for supplies as more consumers prepare meals at home during the pandemic, said a spokesperson for Newell Brands, owner of Ball, which produces Mason jars and other supplies. “The demand has resulted in supply constraints, extended lead times and recently limited product availability at stores and online,” the spokesperson said.

The scarcity didn’t surprise Elizabeth Andress, project director for the National Center for Home Food Preservation. “There seem to be more people canning than ever before — from the much higher number of inquiries coming into the National Center for help than in the past, and from the large number of participants I hear are attending virtual food preservation classes that Extension educators around the country have been offering,” said Andress, a professor and Extension food safety specialist at the University of Georgia.

More people put in gardens or expanded their existing plots this spring out of initial fears of a possible food shortage or apprehension about going to the grocery store during the pandemic. The master garden helpline at the University of Vermont Extension has gotten more than 500 emails and calls since mid-March from new gardeners, those who are expanding gardens or seeking help with plant disease issues, a jump from previous years, said Lisa Chouinard, the helpline assistant. “I do believe this is due to COVID as more people are wanting to grow their own food, as well as provide food for those who are in need,” she said by email.

Ware, in West Virginia, was finally able to find some bands for her canning. Her mother-in-law, two hours away, brought them to her. She’s since been able to get more, but only after paying extra because the bands were sold in a package of 12 with the jars and lids, which she didn’t need.

I bought a bunch of wide mouth Mason jars. Haven't gotten around to canning anything yet. They make great drinking glasses!

I have a weird problem that I've never seen before. I pressure canned stewed tomatoes yesterday. The first batch of 6 quarts are still bubbling.They are cool to the touch. The second batch is not doing this. The liquid levels in the first batch is noticeably lower than the liquid in the second batch. Has anyone ever seen this?

Todd S said:

I have a weird problem that I've never seen before. I pressure canned stewed tomatoes yesterday. The first batch of 6 quarts are still bubbling.They are cool to the touch. The second batch is not doing this. The liquid levels in the first batch is noticeably lower than the liquid in the second batch. Has anyone ever seen this?

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Did the lids seal?

Todd S said:

I have a weird problem that I've never seen before. I pressure canned stewed tomatoes yesterday. The first batch of 6 quarts are still bubbling.They are cool to the touch. The second batch is not doing this. The liquid levels in the first batch is noticeably lower than the liquid in the second batch. Has anyone ever seen this?

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Do people with pressure canners typically pressure can everything instead of water bath canning acidic foods?
I couldn’t buy the pressure canner I wanted due to them being sold out so I’m only water bath canning things this fall.

wilcam47 said:

Did the lids seal?

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Yes.


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pbharvey said:

Do people with pressure canners typically pressure can everything instead of water bath canning acidic foods?
I couldn’t buy the pressure canner I wanted due to them being sold out so I’m only water bath canning things this fall.

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I pressure canned because I added extra vegetables, onion, celery and green pepper. This lowers the acidity.


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