Food Preservation Series #2: Canning Your Food

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In the first part of the food preservation series, we discussed dehydrating your food to keep it fresh longer.

Today, we are going to talk about a timeless way to preserve your harvest: canning.

Canning has been around A LONG TIME. In fact, I love to look for old canning jars and supplies while I am roaming around the antiques store.

Some things have changed since your grandmother used to can her harvest, but the basics are still the same.

Why can your food?

1. It saves the nutrients of fresh food straight from the garden.
2. By canning your harvest, you can preserve it for several years without refrigeration.
3. You can make food with ingredients you approve of and can pronounce.
4. My favorite – the different colored jars look so pretty on the shelf.

What tools do you need?

Pressure Canner

Water Bath Canner

Canning Labels

Canning Jars

White Storing Lids

Food Strainer

What can you can?

You can preserve just about any kind of food by canning.

The best things to can are (but not limited to):

Jams & Jellies

Vegetables

Pickles

Salsa

Tomato Sauces

Meat

How do you store canned food?

Canned food can be stored on the shelf after it is processed in the pressure or water bath canner.

Store canned food in the back of your pantry, where it is usually dark and cooler. This will help the food stay preserved for longer.

Canned food will last for several years in your pantry, but the nutritional quality will decrease over time.

Canning tips:

1. Can your food as quick after the harvest as possible to keep the nutrients high quality.
2. Label you canned foods with name and date canned.
3. Rotate your food so that you use the oldest first.
4. Pay attention to your altitude, because times will change according to your location.
5. Clean your jars and lids in warm water (or the dishwasher) right before using.
6. If you have someone that can mentor you in-person, this is the best way to learn how to can properly.
7. Can low acidic foods with a pressure canner and high acidic foods with a water bath canner.
8. Leave a little head space (empty space) at the top of your jar for foods to expand.
9. Only use jars specific for canning. Don’t use leftover jars from other places for canning.
10. Canned goods such as jams, jellies and salsa make great homemade gifts.

Recipes to get started:

25 Easy Tomato Canning Recipes to Preserve Your Summer Harvest

How to Can Beef Stew

Strawberry Jam

101+ Canning Recipes for Food Storage

60 Canning Recipes

The Best Dill Pickles

Resources:

Heritage Cooking Crash Course

Beginners Guide to Water Bath Canning

How to Can Food in 13 Easy Steps Video

Beginner Canning Video

Ball Complete Book of Preserving

All New Ball Canning Book

Canning For The New Generation

Food In Jars

The Amish Canning Cookbook

The Canning Academy Online Course

Canning can be intimidating at first. Everyone starts out by worrying if they are going to blow themselves up! That’s normal!

Hopefully these tips, recipes and resources will encourage you to try canning this fall. It is a lot of work to can your harvest, but it is very satisfying as well. I love to see those pretty jars sitting on the shelf.

It makes me feel so accomplished to know that I have preserved the food I grew myself in the garden for the winter to come. What a great reward for a job well done!

Do you have any favorite canning tricks or recipes? Share them in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!