How to Can 101

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our final day of this week, Foodie Friday!

Did you know that I have almost been doing this blog for one whole month? Exciting right? I know, try to contain yourselves! It'll be fine! But for real, this is the longest I have successfully done a blog and I'm very excited because I have many more tricks up my sleeve. So stick with me! :)

This past week I had a friend at work ask me if I knew how to can food. She mentioned that she might borrow me when she and her husband are ready to can their tomato sauce, when I hatched an idea! I would add it to a Foodie Friday Blog Post and that way I can show everyone how to can!

I'm not as much of an expert as some of these folks are in the videos, so I'm really glad that I looked up these tutorials. Some of them are lengthy, but if you have an interest in canning one of these vegetables or fruits then you may want to watch the whole video and get an idea of how it's done.

Canning is such a great healthy way of putting the right foods in our bodies. Today it is so hard to know what you'r really eating and by growing the food in your own garden or buying it in bulk at the farmer's market or your local big box store. A-hem. *Cough* Costco* Cough. ;)

If you're looking to get started and have never canned before you will need some basic tools to get the job done right. Some grocery stores will carry a canning aisle, which usually has a basic canning kit. For the most part the kits will look like this:

All of these pieces are pretty essential and in this next video he will explain what all of the pieces do. He also walks you through a basic Canning 101 info.

For this next video they show you how to can tomato sauce, for my sauce-making friends! Everyone has their own recipes for sauces, so this is just for the canning process, but I thought this would help you in your canning needs.

They use a traditional canning pot for a hot water bath to seal the jars, so I thought this would be a great way to show how to use this method.

When I was younger I learned how to can green beans from my Grandma so I really wanted to find a video on canning green beans, but it just happened to include carrots as well. She teaches you how to can green beans (from her garden) and carrots (which she got from her local Costco!)

In this video she uses a pressure cooker to can her vegetables and I'm not as familiar with a pressure cooker as I am a hot water bath. I have always been a bit timid around them, but I really just need to learn how to use one safely. So if you are familiar and comfortable with a pressure cooker and you prefer to use this method, wonderful. From what I have seen in the videos you have to know what elevation level you are at to be able to calculate how much pressure you need for the pan. I would keep that in mind if you're a newbie like me to the pressure cooker, and as always, read your manual!

My grandma also taught me how to make her recipe of strawberry jam (on the back of the Sure-Jell Pectin box.) These recipes are very similar though. One thing I will note, yes, they do have a lot of sugar. But they are tasty and make an amazing jam to have around the house all year long!

These are the same people from the first video, using the hot water bath method of canning again.

There are ways to can just about anything you can think of so if something interests you try typing it in the search bar online and see if you can can that food. I've known people who have canned meat, potatoes, pickles, apple sauce, apple butter, variations of tomato consistencies, beans, rice, peaches every fruit and veggie you can think of...even medleys of things, such as multiple kinds of beans, a salsa, a pepper mixture, a potato mixture, meatballs...the list goes on and on. Canning possibilities are endless!

My grandma and aunts also taught me how to make and can apple butter and apple sauce, but I will be saving that one for sometime this fall! I love Autumn it is my favorite time of the year and I'm excited to do a blog post all about that one later this year. Only 4 more months until apple picking season! Woohoo! That seems unreal! No rushing! We haven't even gotten to enjoy our Spring yet...

I hope this was helpful to any of your curious canners and I'm sure I'll be posting more things associated with canning in the seasons to come. If you plan on using this as a helpful tool for your canning this year I'd recommend saving the link to this blog post so you can refer back to this later.

I'll see you Monday for the beginning of week 5! One whole MONTH!