Canning This, Canning That
October 31, 2011Throughout the Autumn season and continued garden harvests, I’ve been able to stay productive by canning this, canning that. I’ve canned foods with the pressure canner, filling it up with jars sitting on top of jars. I’ve also used the water bath canner and even canned foods in small batches, as I have written about previously.
This has been a busy year for canning. We ran out of shelf space in the kitchen pantry back in early August. Trying to rearrange a kitchen pantry helps but when a pantry is full, there’s really no more room. So this year, when September arrived, the kitchen pantry was filled to the ceiling. Literally.
For now, the extra jars of homegrown canned foods have to be stored downstairs in our larger food storage area.
September was a good month to work on home-canned foods. We had 3 weeks of rain in September and when I couldn’t harvest fresh veggies from the gardens, I began cooking up dry beans that we have in our food storage.
I cooked large pots of beans that were then pressure-canned.
I canned pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, pork & beans, and beans canned in a variety of sauces.
I also canned some veggies when I had a chance. Here are some carrots.
And I canned some jars of dog food with carrots. This is dog food a person would eat: lamb with carrots.
Now it’s apple season and it’s time to can some apple butter!
How about you? What are you canning?
Beautiful! You’ve been a busy little canner this year! We have a serious lack of storage here, and until we get a root cellar dug we can just enough to get us through to the next season. I canned fish, pickles (lots and lots of pickles), corn, and peppers this year. I still have green beans, turnips, jam, pie filling, and a few other things from last years’ canning that should take us through to next year. I do love the idea of cooking and canning beans. I tend to make big batches and freeze beans I frequently use, but canning them is a great idea. And a great fall/winter activity! Your pantry is so pretty with all your canned items. I know that feels wonderful!
So far this year, I’ve canned 679 jars of food including 18 pints of your famous “klaussen pickles” which are devine!
beef stew, boeuf boiguignon, apple juice, apple sauce, cajun beef chuck, chicken w/andouille sausage, chinese pepper steak, salsa, tomato water, enchilada sauce, pork loin verde, apricots, pears, cream of muchroom soup base, green beans, peas + carrots together, carrots, blueberry syrup, spicey pinto beans, beef chuck, cherry pie filling, beans=garbanzo, pink, navy, red kidney, and pinto. strawberry juice and strawberry pie filling. my last adventure, yesterday was 7 quarts of Hot dogs! Turned out great. Why? cleaning out my freezer for an anticipated move after 21 years. uh!
More canning from the freezer over the next month!
Wow, you certainly have been busy with canning. I absolutely love that you are canning dog food…I am going to have to think about that, what a great idea. Other than a bunch of tomatoes to finish up with we are done canning for the year. Loved your crisp pickle recipe so much that we canned twice as many this season…it was a good year for cucumbers.
I think I need to check out your pickle recipe
Today I’m finishing up our ripe tomatoes by making pizza sauce (which I’ll freeze since I’m low on pint jars). We doubled our canned goods from last year. My family loves the peaches (boy do they taste better than store bought .. very peachy flavored) .. I’m anxious to try our sauerkraut. This is the first year that canning seemed second nature. We also have one freezer filled with fruit/veggies and another one with just meat. We’re set for quite a while.
Last year you inspired me to try small batch canning ..
Enjoy your great bounty.
I just stumbled upon your blog and will be coming back often to read it. Your canning pantry looks wonderful! I home can just about everything also. So much cheaper and better than the store bought.
Thank you for sharing a look at your canning.
My goodness lady….you have been one busy canner!!! I have canned 279 jars so far this year. I still have a couple of jams, jellies and mustards to make. I really need to ask Santa for a pressure canner!
Love your canning! Beautiful pics! I too, love to can and am currently reorganizing my shelves with this year’s harvest. Do you know if there is a way to can “pork & beans” without pre-making them before canning?
Hi Delanie! I recently wrote a post on canning beans. I don’t pre-cook beans before canning them since they’ll be cooked during the canning process. Read this blog post: http://woodridge.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/canning-a-pot-of-beans/ and see if the instructions make sense to you. For “pork and beans”, I add diced ham and I use a tomato-based sauce with some molasses. The pressure-canning should be adjusted for the added meat, so I do my pints at 75 minutes. They’re much better than store-bought!