Whether a person grows a garden, visits a farmers market or receives produce from other gardeners, a person can often be faced with more produce than they know what to do with. There are many preservation methods, but ranking up…
Read morePreserving the harvest - Canning food
After you have gone to the work of growing your garden or foraging supplies, it is time to put it in a shelf stable form in your pantry. In this section I will share some of my tried and true methods of preserving the harvest with canning food, whether that be pickles, relish, hot water bath canning, pressure canning, or jams and jellies.
Over the 30+ years of canning food that I have raised, research, trial and error and conversations with experienced canners have all attributed to my successes in being able to preserve the harvest by water bath canning it. Although pressure canning using a pressure canner was something that intrigued me due to the doors it opened in preserving the harvest, I had a paralysis that only a lot of research and then just diving in could eliminate. After a couple years of successful pressure canning under my belt, I ran across a course that combined the techniques of water bath canning and pressure canning into one place. Like gardening, we never stop learning, and so I dove into an on line class with Homesteading Family and took their course called The Abundant Pantry: Canning. This exceptional course really did a good job on explaining the "why" and "how to". For the beginner and even for me, being a experienced canner, it was well worth the time and I would recommend it.
At the end of the day, how we approach hot water bath canning and pressure canning boils down to our own comfort levels. So although you will see things on My Boreal Homestead Life that do not necessarily follow the guidelines provided by The National Center for Home Food Preservation, The USDA - Food Safety and Inspection Service, Health Canada - Home canning safety or recommendations taught in The Abundant Pantry: Canning class, trust that I am only sharing tried and true recipes and techniques that I have been doing for decades and my family have been doing for even longer.
Nov 20 2022
Canning tomatoes - Preserving a surprise harvest
It has been an interesting gardening year to say the least. Although things may not have gone as I had planned with the garden, I was surprised to be able to get a garden harvest like I did. Enough in…
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Sep 26 2022
Fall is the time for preserving all things Apple and Crabapple and for canning juice in odd shaped glass jars
When fall rolls around, besides the produce coming in from the garden, there is quite often a surplus of apples and crabapples that are looking to be used up. Although keeping them as fresh as possible in some manner is…
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Jul 17 2022
Canning Water...Yes, Water! - Reusing odd shaped jars
If anyone would have told me years ago that we as a society would be doing things like canning water, I would not have believed it. Nor would I have believed that I would be canning water. But all one…
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Jun 30 2022
The journey continues - Pressure Canning quarts of Vegan Beans reusing Odd shaped jars and reusing jar lids
As the journey continues into pressure canning reusing odd shaped jars with their associated jar lids obtained from store bought items, I expanded my earlier exploration to include reusing quart size category glass jars with their associated jar lids also…
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Jun 26 2022
Vegan Beans and Odd shaped glass jars - pressure canning with reusing glass jars and reusing canning lids
The other night I realized that I was running out of Vegan Beans and so I decided to make a batch this week. I also decided that I wanted to put my fears to rest regarding reusing commercially filled glass…
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Jun 16 2022
Recycle canning lids, upcycle canning lids and repurpose canning lids....but can I reuse canning lids for home canning?
There has been a long standing debate about whether or not a home canner should be reusing canning lids, one piece lids and rubber gaskets. But with the canning lid shortages that were experienced in parts of the world over…
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Jun 12 2022
Recycle glass jars, upcycle glass jars and repurpose glass jars....but, can I reuse commercially filled glass jars for home canning?
With the canning jar shortages that were experienced in parts of the world over the last number of years and the home canning season getting started, if we have not done so already, we start to think about supply of…
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May 22 2022
Nature's Herbal Gift - Chokecherry medicinal syrup
The fruit of the chokecherry (Prunus Virginiana) has long been used for making a delectable jelly and syrup to grace the homestead pantry shelf. With its cherry like flavor it is a perfect addition to those breakfast foods. Recently, I…
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May 22 2022
How to make chokecherry syrup
The fruit of the chokecherry (Prunus Virginiana) has long been used for making a delectable syrup to grace the homestead pantry shelf. With its cherry like flavor and a hint of almond it is a perfect addition to those morning…
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May 22 2022
How to make Chokecherry Jelly
The fruit of the chokecherry (Prunus Virginiana) has long been used for making a delectable jelly to grace the homestead pantry shelf. With its cherry like flavor it is a perfect addition to that morning toast either on its own…
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