Several canning questions(country kitchen)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

There's a lady that lives nearby who canned 1,000 jars last year(including the chicken's feet), and another 1,500 jars. Do any of you can that much? What are you canning? Do you can year around, Paul Harvey used to advertise that he canned leftover soup and stew during the winter? Do you make jelly with frozen fruit or juice during the winter? When do you can dry beans? Do you sterilize your jars? Where do you store all those jars-empty and full?

-- Cindy (atilrthehony@yahoo.com), August 23, 2000

Answers

Some years I am ambitious and some years I'm not. This year is an ambitious one and the weather has cooperated so I am gettng a good garden.

So far I have made blueberry and raspberry jam the regular way and strawberry jam as freezer jam.

I always sterilize the jars in boiling water no matter what I am canning. My empty jars are stored in my cellar packed in their original cartons. The full jars are stacked on metal racks that I have bought at Walmart. Each shelf holds 250# so they are very sturdy shelves. This room is quite dark and, of course, cool.

I tend to do most of my canning as the produce comes in so I start with the berries first, and then move to veggies and other fruits as the year progresses. I am getting ready to can peaches next weekend and I have already been making pickles. I will still do tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce later this year. I also plan to make applesauce and apple pie fillng. Hubby wants to try making apple cider.

I will be using a pressure canner for everything except the jams and pickles. Those I just use a water bath canning method except for the freezer jam which I just pour into the jars and freeze them.

In addition to canning, I have already frozen peas and green beans and will be freezing corn and green peppers. I will store potatoes, both white and sweet, and sunflower seeds.

That is about my limit for this year. I haven't gotten the nerve to try canning meat but I suppose at some time I will since I have the pressure canner anyway.

I have also dried tomatoes on occassion but I have not been as successful with that. I have dried beans and popcorn and they were both fine. (Not much to drying them.) I have also frozen peaches which I'm not real fond of but hubby likes them but he forgets they are in the freezer. I also make zucchini bread and freeze that as well but this year a woodchuck got my zucchini so I don't have any.

That's pretty much my experience with canning.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), August 23, 2000.


Cindy:

Wow! 1,000 a year. Just out of curiosity, how large of a family do they have? That's consuming about an average of three jars a day.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 23, 2000.


Neither of these ladies are spring chickens. I'm not sure if the one is married or not. They both share with their kids and grandkids- don't know how many. They live in different towns and work in school cafeterias. The one that canned the 1,500 jars also froze 50 loaves of zucchini bread. And I thought I had a lot of jars.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 23, 2000.

YIKES! I figure I'm doing well to put up about 150 jars, about 1/2 quarts and 1/2 pints for the 2 of us! We have never run out of food, and I suspect we never will! 1500 jars!!?? Y2K weirdos, or do they know something the rest of us don't? GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 23, 2000.

Ours is a family of five - with lots and lots of company at dinner time. If you live out of your fruit cupboard, like we do, 1500 quarts canned will not run you. We can all year. Yes, the heaviest canning is in the summer, from the garden, but the late fall with the canning that goes with butchering is a big one, too.

Five people will easily eat a quart of fruit, vegetables or meat. Many meals (when you include the pickles, jellies and relishes) will empty four to five quarts - not to mention when you have company. Many times, I will run down to the fruit cupboard and grab three quarts of chicken and half a gallon of chicken broth, a quart of corn, a couple quarts of potatoes and a couple quarts of peaches and a couple "cake in a jar" and have a company meal on the table in half an hour with fried chicken, and noodles, potatoes and corn and biscuits with peaches and cake for dessert. That's ten plus jars emptied at a time.

When we speak of canning 1500 quarts or more in the year, most folks will visualize 1500 quarts on the shelf at one time, but actually, there are never that many jars full on the shelf at one time. We are emptying and filling the same jars as the seasons progress and the food is consumed.

You must never compare yourself and how much you have managed to can to what others are doing. We each live a different life. Canning a hundred quarts of anything is something to be proud of and we must never beat ourselves with folks who have been at this half a lifetime.

Wanting to can, learning to can and starting to can is an honorable endeavor. If you were here this next week, you would see me start to can our old laying hens. When I am done, there will be about 60 quarts of chicken on the shelf. That should not discourage anyone who caught chicken on sale for 29 cents a pound and canned seven quarts. Both are good projects - just different in their scope.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), August 23, 2000.



Homestead2, how do you make fried chicken from canned chicken? I'm not trying to be wise, here. I would really like to know. Thanks.

-- Laura Jensen (lrjensen@nwlink.com), August 24, 2000.

Sheesh... 1500 qt. I thought I was getting somewhere when I did 48 qt of spaghetti sauce last year!

Humbly hiding my head,

-- Misha (MishaaE@aol.com), August 24, 2000.


First, to Misha: Again - 48 quarts of sp. sauce is "getting somewhere". Other folks canning efforts should inspire you - not shame you.

We always tell folks who think they want to live the life we do, " Take from the homesteading lifestyle, the parts that realistically work for you. Your canning efforts should bring you satisfaction - five quarts or five hundred. You can always find someone who is deeper into the homesteading project, to beat yourself with, - but that contradicts the homesteading philosophy. It's about what is right for you - at this time in your life.

Many folks would not want to live our life. The canning jars aren't always the only thing in a pressure cooker at our farm. There is never a time of the year that we shouldn't already have finished the project we are working on and have moved on to the next one - that we are already behind on, before we started. Some folks thrive on that kind of pressure. Our days start early and end late, but it is not for everyone. Our caution to folks just starting out on this adventure is to enjoy what you do, be proud of where you are on the journey and keep it fun. We love what we are doing, but that doesn't make it right for everyone.

To answer "how to have fried chicken out of canned chicken". Lift the meat carefully out of the jars. Remember, it is "fall off the bone" done. Lots of the bones will slide right out of the meat, but it doesn't matter. Throw them away, we don't eat the bones. Put the chicken in a little water and simmer for a minute to rinse off the gelled broth. (Use that broth for noodles or gravy.) Drain the chicken in a colander. Roll it in flour, or breading or crumbs - (whatever you usually roll it in) and fry until crisp.

No, it is not always in the traditional looking pieces - legs, thighs, etc.- because a lot of it falls apart getting it out of the jar or turning it in the skillet. It's still chicken - fried chicken, but more important to us, - our chicken. The best chicken you will ever eat. The flavor is more rich and intense. We enjoy telling our guests who rave about the terrific chicken they are eating, - these are old laying hens.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), August 24, 2000.


Homestead2, I'm coming over to your house for dinner. That meal sounds scrumptious!!! One of these days I'll get brave enough to can meat. I am still new at using a pressure canner so I'll have to ease my way into it. With confidence, I know I'll eventually do it.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), August 24, 2000.

You eat as much fresh as you are able to and can the rest. One never knows when the weather will change the the harvest will not be as good as the year before. I am sure you see in your garden some years your harvest is bountiful and other years it is not. We can not count on each year giving an abundance so we can everything. If it happens to be 1500 quarts then that is what it is.

As to the chicken feet, never throwing any part away that can be used, you see chicken feet make the most flavorful broth! I know YEWwwww! but, there is always a but.... ever wonder what the ingredients are in store bought foods when they say "and natural flavorings"?

Always sterilize the jars! and why not go knock on the ladies door and talk to her. I bet she would be glad to share her knowledge with you.

-- Ima Gardener (ima@gardener.com), August 25, 2000.



I just made pickles for the first time, using a packaged seasoning mix we'd been given somehow, and the package didn't say to sterilize the jars. It just said to wash them and let them sit in hot water until they were ready to be packed with the cucumbers, so that is what I did. Isn't it safe to do it this way? They are going to be boiled for some time in the water bath anyway.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), August 25, 2000.

Rebekah, I sterilize my jars because they sit down in a nasty half basement with friendly spider and centipedes crawling in and out even though they're turned upside down. I know people that don't sterilize their jars. If they're clean, and your putting something boiling in them, I wouldn't worry about it. I don't sterilize jelly jars, they're stored with their lids on. there're a few ways to sterilize them. You can boil the whole jar or you can pour boiling water in them, or you can turn them upside down in a pan of boiling water. My nurtritionist friend does this. Some people usetheir dishwashers. Have fun canning.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 25, 2000.

Homestead2 - Thanks very much for the answer about the fried chicken! A new way to use an old hen! Can't wait to try it!

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), August 25, 2000.

I used to "help" my Grandma with the canning when I was little, but I was to young to really remember it. I do remember a saying she had that would always make me laugh..."We eat all we can, and what we can't, we can."

Now that I'm a "big girl", I'd like to try canning. Unfortunately Grandma is gone, so I can't ask for her help. Could any of you recommend a good beginners recipe book for canning? I don't have any equipment yet either. What features should I look for in a pressure cooker? Someone earlier mentioned cake in a jar. That sounds really interesting, how do you make it?

Thanks in advance, Sherri in IN

-- Sherri C (CeltiaSkye@aol.com), August 25, 2000.


Answering the question about "cake in a jar". In a wide mouth jar or in one of the straight sided pint jars. If you use a traditional wide mouth jar, you scoop out the cake with a very big spoon for serving. The stright sided pint jars let you pop the cake right out.

Make up your cake recipe. The moister cakes work best (pumpkin cake, carrot cake, etc) and fill the jar about 1/2 full. Bake in the oven until done. When it is done, carefully remove and carefully put on the flat and ring and leave alone. It will seal and keep. I don't know how long they will keep for sure, because we can't stay out of them. Longest so far, 5 1/2 weeks.

It takes some getting on to it to know how much batter to put in a jar. If it raises out of the top of the jar during baking, you obviously can't do the flat and ring thing. You get to eat that one.

Super way to have a nice rich dessert ready fast in a pinch.

Also, excellent gift idea. Five or six different kinds of cake in a jar, with a pint of canned caramel and a pint of canned fudge topping for Christmas.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), August 25, 2000.



Sherri, there's always a good canning book put out by the canning jar people. You can find it " wherever canning jars are sold" as the saying goes. The Ball Blue Book is always good. The big canning jar companies are all merged into one now anyway so the name on the book probably doesn't matter. They have good instructions, pictures, and recipes. You can also get good info from your county Extension Office.

I noticed that Walmart had a nice big pressure canner made by Presto for around $70. Expect to pay about that much for a new one.

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), August 25, 2000.


Cindy, With all you questions, if you don't already have a food preservation book, by all means do get one. Contact your county agent office,they should have one for your state at a resonable price. Our "Food Preservation in Alabama" by the AL Cooperative Extension Service, Auburn University, AL 36849-5612 was $6 at its last printing in 1995. Its good enough that a city girl from Chicago was canning circles around these Alabama belles her first season here ( yes, I'm talking about Mama)

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 28, 2000.

I, too, keep my empty jars upside down on the shelves. If they don't look clean (most do) I wash them before re-using. I also sterilize them by cranking up the pressure canner for @ 10 minutes at 10 lbs pressure. That way, the canner and water are ready to go when the jars are full. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 28, 2000.

Jay, I've been canning for years. I as a lot of questions to see if there's a better way. I usully learn something I didn't know.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 29, 2000.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ