Addicted to Canning!

Category: basic principles

  • Chili and beer

    Everyone has their favourite chili recipe. And why wouldn’t you? A meltingly tender stew of mixed meats, and/or veggies, and/or beans, it can be a gourmet feast, a magnet for leftovers, or an acknowledgement that there is too much month left at the end of your pay! How can you incorporate a nice beer into…

  • Pomona’s Pectin

    I thought it would be a good idea to break out the information about Pomona’s Pectin into a separate article. Q: Where can I buy Pomona’s? A: You can buy it online in bulk, which is what I would recommend. Q: What makes it different from the regular stuff? A: You can double, triple, quadruple,…

  • Reduced Sugar Cherry Jam

    I am loving the results I get with Pomona’s Pectin. The jam tastes like fruit gently stewed in honey. Wonderful. 4 cups, mashed or chopped, pitted cherries 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice 4 tsp calcium water Place these ingredients in a large saucepan and start to gently heat. 1 cup honey (or, if you…

  • Low added sugar blackberry jam

    Having picked a lot of delicious blackberries at Holmestead Farm as part of my fun U-Pick experience, I set out to create some awesome low added sugar blackberry jam, using Pomona’s Universal Pectin. Yield: about 5 cups (5 jelly jars) Thoroughly rinse and pick through your blackberries 4 cups blackberries 1 cup honey 2 teaspoons…

  • Tips for a successful u-pick experience

    As various fruits come into season, u-pick places are opening their doors to the hungry. Resources like Pick Your Own come into their own, but here are some things you need to consider. Getting there Unless you live in a rural area the likelihood is that you will be driving for an hour or more.…

  • What to do with canned foods?

    The whole reason I make canned/preserved foods is to be able to eat them when they are out of season and thus expensive and shipped in over long distances. But once you’ve got them, what do you do with them? Last year I made a couple of different pie fillings while the fruits were in…

  • Coming soon!

    Now that we are in the new year and produce is beginning to wake from its long winter slumber, canning time is back! With my focus on canning only what’s in season, winter can be hard as there really isn’t a lot to can. But the good point about winter is that you get the…

  • Pressure Canning – basic principles

    If you want to know how to preserve food by pressure canning, this article is what you need. You may want to check out my boiling water bath article as well. First, what foods must you pressure can? Low-acid foods. In this context, low acid is defined as “pH 4.7 or higher”. Vegetables, meat, fish,…

  • Farmer’s markets

    One of the benefits of going to a farmer’s market is that you can get some absolute steals when they are at the end of their produce and want to go home. I got 1.5 bushels of tomatoes for $4. So far I have canned 7 qts of tomatoes and 7 qts of basic meat…

  • Boiling Water Bath Canning – basic principles

    This article should serve as a handy reference point for anyone who is unsure how to can by using the Boiling Water Bath, or Hot Water Bath, method. You might want to have a read of my article on setup costs as well. The technique I am describing here is only for products that can…