This has been something that has been bothering me for a long time. When I think of canning I think of a metal can, something that tuna fish or green beans come in. Canning involves using glass jars, so I'm confused why isn't it called jarring? This is why I don't sleep well at night.
I wanted to do canning for awhile for a number of reasons: 1. It saves money; 2. It's a good way to have your fresh fruit and vegetables months later; 3. It saves money; 4. I can help reduce my carbon footprint; 5. It saves money; 6. There is no reason six; and 7. It saves money. Sorry, I have been watching a lot of Monty Python lately. I never canned before in my life, it was never done in my house growing up. My parents are from the generation that embraced modern technology like the refrigerator and supermarkets. As a child I believed that food came only from the supermarket. You went each week and bought what you needed and that was that. My dad did some gardening in the backyard of fruits and vegetables, but we ate what grew and used it up by the end of the summer. Not much was grown, just enough to add to what was bought at the store.
I too want to garden, but I believe my goal differs from my dad and other people. I want to grow my own food because I don't want to be dependent on the supermarket. Yes it's good for the ground to grow things, yes it's healthier to eat food you grow yourself, yes it does reduce your carbon footprint and yes, most of all, it does save money. A small package of seeds for a dollar or two will grow twenty dollars or more of produce. But the main reason is that I want to be in control of my food source. Not that I don't trust Safeway or Win Co, I support them as free market entities that do a great job in selling food. I want to be independent, or as close as possible, of obtaining my food. This is why I started to can.
You hear horror stories, like ones about Art Linkletter's daughter, about the dangers of canning. Botulism, exploding equipment, poising and other urban legends are commonly heard. Yes canning can be dangerous, but there are structured and organized steps. As long as you follow the procedures, have the right equipment and take your time, it's not that hard. By the way Art Linkletter's daughter did not die in a canning disaster.
Since I am afraid to do something the first time, but I become comfortable very quickly and an expert in no time. I watched a friend of mine from my peak oil group back in May about how to hot water bath can. She made apple butter and pickled asparagus. I realized that it's not that difficult and I had most of the equipment I needed. Thankfully Bi-Mart had a sale over the summer on pressure caners, a nice 23 quart model, a Ball canning book, a seven piece kit that had tongs, digital timer, side scrapper with a magnetic tip to pick up the lids and other neat stuff, and I also bought a case of quart sized and pint sized jars. I bought it and then let it sit around gathering dust. I still had to get enough nerve to actually start canning.
My tomatoes were growing but not many were turning red.
This is good since I do enjoy pickled tomatoes more than regular tomatoes. But I wanted to use the pressure caner since it cuts so much time off the canning process. For example canning tomatoes with a hot water bath takes about 85 minutes. Using the pressure caner it takes 25. To the rescue came the City of Forest Grove, not actually the city, but an announcement inside my month water/power bill. A class on canning tomatoes was going to be held on a Saturday afternoon in town. I signed up and was ready to go and learn about canning.I watched tomato sauce, vegetable juice and halved tomatoes get canned. The first two were with a hot water bath, which I have seen already, the halved tomatoes was with the pressure caner. Making detailed notes and helping along, I watched and saw how easy it was. I was ready to use my pressure caner as soon as my tomatoes were ready.
By
the beginning of October I realized that most of my tomatoes were not going to turn red and that I would be making a lot of pickled tomatoes. I needed to find a brine. One that was bitter and salty. I miss having garlic sour pickled tomatoes. I acquired a taste for them many years back in New York City when I did a lot of deli work to pay my tuition. I looked for recipes on the internet but almost all of them added sugar or used milder vinegar. I finally found one for kosher dill pickled tomatoes which looked good to me. I got the ingredients, repeatedly read all of my canning books over and over and over again and got ready to use my pressure caner.I did notice one thing in one of the books I was looking at, you cannot pressure can pickles. Something about it ruining the taste or flavor or something. So even though I was all ready to use the pressure caner, I used it for hot water canning. I first made up the brine, adding more garlic than it called for. I prepared my tomatoes, I cut out any parts that looked bad, I started to boil water. I ran all of the jars and bands in my dishwasher to sterilize them and then when the water boiled put the lids in a bowl with boiling water. This helps them heat up. I also placed the jars in the boiling water for about ten minutes, again you can't can in a cold jar, it could explode.
I removed one jar at a time from the hot water bath and added some dill seed,
peppercorns, tomatoes and then ladled in the brine with garlic which I heated up. Carefully I placed a lid on top, finger tightened the band and when enough jars were filled, I put them back into the water, turned up the heat and waited for it to boil. I put the lid on and was concerned when I heard the jars rumbling, my worst urban legend was coming true, it was going to explode! I quickly took the lid off, noticed that all was well and like a mental patent, proceeded to drop the lid on the floor. The side locking handle shattered, the rubber ring fell out, my hand was hurting. I was able to get the lid back on, timed it and then pulled them out.The next day I made more brine and instead of adding the garlic to the brine I just added it to the jar instead. When all was finished I had over a dozen quarts of pickled tomatoes. After testing them and making sure the lids were sealed I wrote what they were and the date on the top and then put them away in a cabinet inside my laundry room. I have to wait four to six weeks and it's only been two weeks so far. But I should have enough to last me through next year. Right, who am I kidding!
