Kitchen

[fluffysmom]

@Mominohio  I realize it can be done incorretly. I have never heard of anyone becoming ill.Thanks for sharing this with me.I'm also from Ohio.

[Jtdmum]

Tomatoes, pickles, strawberry jam and applesauce. 

Have cut way back but still love having that taste of summer during the mid-winter months. It's like opening sunshine and I know what's in the jar.  These days you never know what's been put in your food. 

[Fressa]

I used to do tomatoes, applesauce and some veggies with my son was little. Now we just to pickles because my husband just loves them. 

[hellokitty]

I still can most of what we raise in our garden and what I don't can I freeze.  Canning is a lot of work but for me it is a stress reliever and a money saver. I love canning and we eat what we can.  I have a select few I give home canned stuff to because I realize that it's not everybody's cup of tea.

[greamy]

Not much anymore. Used to do tomatoes, peaches, relish and applesauce. My Dear departed Father always raised a big garden and there was always an abundance of veggies to can. Now to get tomatoes to can, it costs so much, and then the cost of actual canning, does make the end product very expensive. Sad, because I do not like the canned tomatoes that are available at the grocery store.

[Pooky1]

my inlaws still do but not as much as years ago but shes 75 years old and last year made tomato sauce, artichokes, grape jelly, long thin string beans she pickles them. but thats about it. they have a good size garden and years ago they new people with alot of land so they let them use a good size area so they harvested tons of stuff. last year we had a ghofer steal so much stuff.

[PamelaSue72]

Although I am a master at freezing and dehydrating, I've been leery of canning for years. Finally, about 10 years ago, I decided to make some pickles. My mom and grandmother used to can tons of different pickles and I found myself so hungry for them.

I had no canning supplies, but thankfully, my wonderful MIL kept all her things and, quite willingly, gave me everything. That summer/fall, I made watermelon pickles, bread-and-butter pickles, chow chow (a PA Dutch conditment), red onions with white wine (which is simply delicious over a steak), etc.

The next year, I found a recipe for a zucchini hot dog/hamburger relish that is just divine. After dealing with watery jars of relish found in stores, I decided to try the recipe. Yum! That recipe makes a lot of relish, but ironically, I never seem to have enough to get me through a full year; my sister loves it, DH's BIL loves it, our kids love it. Til I finished giving it away to people, I could probably make more! And it uses zucchini, so it's a great way to use up the zucchini in our garden. Win, Win!

I've now branched out a bit into canning peaches. I do two bushels of peaches every year and that will last pretty much all through the year, til it's time to can them again. Between the canned peaches and all the frozen peach pies and peach dumplings, we have enough peach-stuff to see us through.

I will tell you that I am meticulous! I was so afraid of botulism or food poisoning. My jars and lids are santized, my utensils are sanitized. No pets in the kitchen while I'm canning anything. Only clean cloths and such. I make everybody crazy. But I'm really meticulous about it.

I love to hear the ping! that tells me the jars are sealing!

I use a pressure canner for my red onions and my peaches. Because we have a glass-top stove and my canner has a rounded bottom, I can't get it up to the proper pressure for safe canning on the stove. I always use the pressure canner outside on our gas grill. It works beautifully on the grill.

I remember my co-worker's daughter and SIL canning over 100 quarts of some kind of tomato sauce a couple years ago. I don't know what they did wrong, but every single jar was bad. So bad that you could see it immediately upon opening the jars. It was ugly.

We freeze tons of applesauce and I make tons of apple pies and apple dumplings for the freezer. I dehydrate fruits and they are packaged up for snacking. Between our two freezers and my basement pantry of canned goods, we won't go hungry!

[hellokitty]

I am the same as PamSue 72.  I make sure everything is exact when I can.  My favorite sound is that "ping", too. I don't like do overs.  

My hubby bought me the Ball Jam and Jelly maker and the electric water bath canner and they are awesome.  I also have a dehydrator and I am just learning how to use it. I own a Roma tomato strainer and the Ball sauce maker.  I love to can.  I consider it "the most wonderful time of the year".

[insomniac2]

Never had a craving to can.

[Topaz Gem]

I have always wanted to learn to can, but only jams and jellies.  I hear that the high sugar content of those foods cuts down on the likelihood of contamination, but I’m still very nervous about attempting it.  I keep checking to see if there are any classes in my area, but I can’t find any.  I would prefer to go to a cooking school or take a one-time class where I could ask questions, rather than try it myself from a cookbook.