by Tracy Falbe

Preserving your own food with home canning techniques is no longer the dying art of grandmothers and church ladies. Younger people and families are reviving home canning, but you need fresh food in bulk in order to preserve it.

So, how do you get the produce without spending too much?

Growing the food yourself is the obvious, but not only answer. Home gardeners have been canning their fruits and vegetables for generations. Planting a garden and putting in some fruit trees are definitely rewarding. You will get the freshest and most convenient produce this way, but you probably can’t grow everything you want. Time and space limitations often restrict your ability to produce in quantity as well, but you do have options.

Farmers’ markets are expanding all over the country and they offer you a great way to buy fruits, vegetables and other produce. Check your local daily or weekly newspapers for ads and articles about farmers’ markets in your area. The markets are often located in downtowns, so check with your chamber of commerce or downtown business associations for information about farmers’ markets. The website www.localharvest.org has a searchable database of farmers throughout the United States that may be helpful as a starting point too.

You will likely find that you have more than one market in your area through the summer. While you’re at the market, you will be able to meet growers of the types of food in which you’re most interested. Growers often open their farms to the public, and you can find out if you can connect with them directly outside the market venue. They often have bulk deals at the farms. At the market, expect to pay retail prices. Sometimes the prices are better than the supermarket, but you will still be at the retail level.

You-pick or U-pick farms are also widespread. These operations are popular for berries and fruits. You can find them through ads in local publications and signs on the side of the road. Sometimes your vendors at the farmers’ market have u-pick operations too, so be sure to ask. You can get a great price on produce at the u-pick farms because you are supplying the labor and transportation.

I just paid $1.50 a quart for strawberries by picking them myself. The work was a little dirty but otherwise a fairly pleasant activity. It actually felt nice to be out there with other people harvesting food.

People have been doing this since we were wearing fig leaves, and the experience had a natural and serene quality. If I had to do it all day, the work would have been backbreaking, but it’s a nice outing for an hour to get food for your family at a great price. You will certainly gain a deep empathy with the underpaid people who have to put in long days harvesting the food sold at the supermarket.

Another emerging way to find produce is www.craigslist.org. If your community has an active Craigslist be sure to frequently scan the ads in the farm and garden category. This will alert you to deals on local produce, markets, and u-pick farms.

Road side stands usually have decent prices as well. The produce tends to be very fresh because the stands are often right next to the fields.

You can reasonably expect to find good prices on fresh produce during peak seasons. With a little effort you can find the best growers and obtain quality food for home canning.

When I picked strawberries the other day, I paid $12 for 8 quarts. This would have easily cost $24 at the market, so I gained a 50 percent discount with under 1 hour of labor. With that 8 quarts of super fresh strawberries, I put up 18 half pints of jam, made a strawberry crisp dessert, and froze about a quart of whole strawberries to use in a pie later. I put in a big day of work, but all that jam will last my family for months and taste better than anything I can buy.

This is the basic recipe for Canning Strawberry Jam:

• 5 cups strawberries
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 package fruit pectin powder
• 7 cups sugar

Fill and heat a water bath canning kettle. Bring the water almost to boiling, at least 180 degrees F and sterilize 8 to 10 half pint canning jars and new lids in the hot water. Set them aside on a clean cloth.

Then in a big sauce pan, add the strawberries and lemon juice. Crush the strawberries with a potato masher while heating to a boil. Once you have a nice berry mash, thoroughly stir in the pectin. Bring this to a hard boil that cannot be stirred down. Then stir in the appalling amount of sugar. Keep stirring until you reach that hard rolling boil again. Maintain the boiling for 1 full minute and then shut off the heat.

I usually let the jam cool for 5 to 10 minutes and stir it a couple times. Turn the heat back on for your water bath and start filling your jars to within 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe clean the jar edges and put on the lids and bands. Once the water bath is boiling, lower the jars into the water bath and process them for 10 minutes. (If you’re at elevations about 1,000 feet, you may need to process longer. Look for directions specific to your area.)

Remove the jars from the water bath and set them on a counter to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Do not disturb them. You will likely hear the lids pop shut within minutes of taking them out of the water.

You can get many jam and jelly recipes like this one out of the box of fruit pectin. For complete information about home canning and more recipes, please visit and bookmark my website Canning Local http://canning.falbepublishing.com

by guest writer Tracy Falbe

With the growing season about to get underway, you might already have some home canning recipes picked out to try this summer. But for those hillbillies actually up in the hills, you’ll need to take your altitude into account. The processing times mentioned in most canning recipes are valid for locations from sea level to 1,000 feet. If you live higher up the hill than that, you’ll need to use adjusted processing directions.

We’ll have to recall some book learning to understand the reasons for the increased processing times at higher altitudes. As any flatlander who has taken a hike in the mountains can attest, the air is thinner up there. Thinner air means a lower air pressure, which influences the temperature at which water boils. Boiling is the process of water being turned into vapor by heat energy, and lower air pressure makes it easier for the heated water to vaporize.

The reference Putting Food By, 3rd Edition by Hertzberg, Vaughn, and Greene states:

Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit up to 1,000 feet elevation; at 203 F at 5,000 feet; and 194 F at 10,000 feet.

The lower boiling point temperatures that result at higher altitudes mean that foods might not be getting heated up enough to be safely stored when you attempt to preserve them at higher elevations. This is corrected by increasing the amount of time that the jars spend in the boiling water bath. When you use a pressure canner, you adjust for altitude by increasing the pressure and sometimes the time.

To determine how to adjust the processing time for a boiling water bath, first see if the processing time stated in the recipe is for less than or more than 20 minutes.

• Less than 20 minutes will need an extra 1 minute of processing for every 1,000 feet altitude. For example, at 3,000 feet altitude, you will add 3 extra minutes.
• More than 20 minutes of processing time will need to add 2 minutes for every 1,000 feet. For example, at 3,000 feet altitude you add 6 extra minutes.

Altitude adjustments for pressure canning are trickier. One of the simpler approaches to pressure canning up to 3,000 feet altitude states that if a recipe calls for a pressure of 5 pounds, increase it to 10 pounds. If the recipe calls for 10 pounds pressure, increase it to 15 pounds. For recipes calling for 15 pounds, use the same pressure because it is not safe to go much higher, but you will need to add more processing time. For altitudes above 3,000 feet, you cannot use a small pressure canner because it can’t hold enough water to maintain the longer processing times because of accelerated water evaporation at the higher altitudes. A large pressure canner that accommodates 12 quarts or more must be used above 3,000 feet.

If you are planning to can foods at higher altitudes you will need to get yourself a good reference, like Putting Food By mentioned above, so you can have detailed guidelines for preserving specific types of foods. Also carefully consult the instructions of your pressure canner, and ideal resources for you will be information published by your local agriculture extension service.

Although home canners at higher altitudes face some challenges, they have the consolation of excellent views to enjoy during the longer processing times.

This information was provided by Tracy Falbe, publisher of Canning Local http://canning.falbepublishing.com

by guest writer Tracy Falbe

Home canning can be addictive. Once you get hooked on preserving your own food, you’ll start thinking “What can I preserve next?” But the simple boiling water bath will only get you so far. Many types of food, like vegetables, meats, poultry, and fish can only be safely canned with a pressure canner. These are the foods that have a low-acid or non-acid chemical composition, which makes them susceptible to the bacterium that produces botulism toxin. This hazardous and sometimes lethal toxin can only be destroyed in the high temperatures achieved within a pressure canner.

The pressure canner works just like a pressure cooker, except that it is large enough to hold quart canning jars. Water is heated within the sealed canner and the pressure builds. The pressure causes the water molecules of the steam to continually collide, which produces temperatures of 240 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. This is significantly higher than the 212 degrees Fahrenheit that is the top temperature of a boiling water bath.

What a pressure canner will do for you:

Provide the capability to can your own soups and stocks containing vegetables and meats. Some people like to preserve their leftovers after they make a big kettle of soup. When canning soups, you will have to keep a couple things in mind to be successful. Cream-based or milk-based soups are not recommended for home canning. I’ve read that the milk product will tend to separate during the canning process. I’m not saying it is impossible but I’ve read several warnings against trying it. What you can do is preserve the soup base and then add the cream or milk later when you heat up the soup to eat. For example, for cream of mushroom soup, you would can the mushroom broth and then add the cream when you open the jar and reheat the soup. This applies to any cream of vegetable soup. The same principle will be necessary for pasta and noodles. Do not can the soup with the noodles in it. They will likely break down and dissolve during processing. Simply add the noodles when you heat the soup before serving.

A pressure canner will allow you to can any vegetable safely. You CANNOT use a boiling water bath to preserve vegetables like corn, beans, peas, squash, carrots, beets, peppers, potatoes, and so forth. You must use a pressure canner unless you are using a pickling recipe. For some people, this could be a worthwhile endeavor. If you grow sweet corn, the crop comes in all at once. Sometimes you can’t eat it all, despite your family’s best efforts, so canning that corn would be a great idea. The book that came with my Presto pressure canner even explains how to can dried beans or peas. You soak and boil them and then can them. This is handy because dried beans or peas are extremely affordable, but — if you’re like me — it is easy to forget to soak them ahead of time when you need them for cooking. By cooking and canning them, they are ready to go off the shelf anytime.

With a pressure canner, you will be able to can all meats (including game), poultry, and fish. Some people like to do this when they see a good price on meat and they do not have freezer space. They will buy a bunch of the meat and can it. Then they have, for example, jars of cooked chicken or beef ready to go off the shelf as convenience food. And if you have a fisherman in your family who shows up once in a while with a big catch, that food can be canned as well. I was told by a lady who did this that the fish tasted wonderful.

Deciding to beef up your home canning beyond the boiling water bath will require an investment of approximately $100 for a pressure canner. Should you get a pressure canner, carefully follow the directions for set up, use, and maintenance. The book that comes with whatever model you buy should also include many recipes. Also be aware that the pressure canner can do double duty as a boiling water bath simply by not sealing it. Home canning with the pressure canner will be a long process because it takes time to pressurize the cooker and then to let it cool down (don’t run it under cold water).

Although it requires an investment and significant effort, the pressure canner remains a versatile piece of equipment that will help you take advantage of food deals and bountiful gardens. I personally use mine mostly for tomatoes. Although tomatoes and tomato sauce can be preserved in a boiling water bath, the results are superior when you use the pressure canner. I have done tomatoes both ways and really prefer them out of the pressure canner. Their color and flavor are better.

At my website Canning Local, I have information about determining which foods require pressure canning and how to use the equipment. http://canning.falbepublishing.com