I first became interested in canning because I grew up eating my Memere’s pickles, chili sauce, and other canned goods. They were always delicious, and that gave me an appreciation for home-preserved food early on.
Roughly six years ago, a friend of mine invited me to can salsa with her. That day was a lot of fun and it was my first hands-on experience with canning. My mother-in-law, Debbie, and my dad also enjoy pickling foods, which makes it even more meaningful to me. I’ve learned a bit from all of them and then took it a step further by taking a canning course from Homesteading Family. I highly recommend this course if you want to learn how to can because it’s very thorough and emphasizes proper techniques for safe canning.
I really like the expression that “canning is not an art, it’s a science.” You have to follow the rules carefully, because while jars of preserved food look nice, the safety of what’s inside matters most. Years ago, people often canned in ways we now know weren’t safe, but we now have tested methods that ensure canned food is safe to eat.
Personally, I enjoy both water bath canning and pressure canning. Water bath canning is great for things like dill pickles, dill carrots, beets, and chili sauce—the foods I grew up eating from my Memere’s kitchen. But I actually prefer pressure canning because it allows me to put up full meals, like soups, moose meat, or jars of green beans that are ready to use in the winter.
Another reason I love canning is how satisfying it feels to have a pantry stocked full of foods I’ve preserved myself. My favorite part of the process is the next morning, checking all the jars, finding that they’ve sealed, wiping them down, and labeling the lids. There’s nothing like seeing rows of jars, ready to feed my family.
When it comes to recipes, I mostly use these 2 resources:
• Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today
• The Complete Guide to Pressure Canning: Everything You Need to Know to Can Meats, Vegetables, Meals in a Jar, and More
I stick to recipes that are approved by certified food safety standards (FDA and the National Center for Home Food Preservation). If I do make substitutions, they’re only the ones I’ve learned are safe through the Homesteading Family course. For example, you can safely remove ingredients, swap spices, or replace one type of pepper with another. What you can’t do is add extra ingredients, since that changes the tested recipe.
Some substitutions I often make include:
• Replacing green bell peppers with jalapeños
• Removing celery (or any vegetable) if I don’t have it
• Exchanging spices but keeping the same total quantity
• *I’ll always keep the same vinegar to water ratio, the acid that keeps the preserve
safe.
Canning has become something I really enjoy because it connects me to foods I’ve loved since childhood, gives me safe and ready meals for my family, and makes the most of seasonal produce.
Finally, I want to say thank you everyone who has purchased my canned goods at Connolly’s Hive, from Connolly Farm. This is a passion of mine that I truly enjoy doing for you, and it brings me great satisfaction knowing that people enjoy what I’ve made.
That’s what makes all the effort in canning worth it.
Homesteading Family Course:
https://classes.homesteadingfamily.com/abundant-pantry-canning
