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Pressure Canning – basic principles
If you want to know how to preserve food by pressure canning, this article is what you need. You may want to check out my boiling water bath article as well. First, what foods must you pressure can? Low-acid foods. In this context, low acid is defined as “pH 4.7 or higher”. Vegetables, meat, fish,…
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Farmer’s markets
One of the benefits of going to a farmer’s market is that you can get some absolute steals when they are at the end of their produce and want to go home. I got 1.5 bushels of tomatoes for $4. So far I have canned 7 qts of tomatoes and 7 qts of basic meat…
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Boiling Water Bath Canning – basic principles
This article should serve as a handy reference point for anyone who is unsure how to can by using the Boiling Water Bath, or Hot Water Bath, method. You might want to have a read of my article on setup costs as well. The technique I am describing here is only for products that can…
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Choosing produce for canning
The modern grocery store is a wonder. You have all sorts of produce available all the year round – strawberries in December and lemons in July. If you look carefully, you will notice that all of the produce is uniform – everything of one type is pretty much the same size, shape, and colour as…
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Pluot Jam
I am in the lucky position where the farmer’s market comes to our office once a week. This is a great way to get people to eat more fruit and veg (put it right in front of them!) so I bought some pluots* and proceeded to make jam with them! 4 pints of sorted, scrubbed,…
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Seasonal eating – July / August
Apologies for missing out on the July seasonal eating post – I have been busy canning like a madman, because pretty much everything is in season! Broccoli Carrots Tomatoes Squash Onions Potatoes Cucumber Eggplant Beans Corn Peas Garlic Herbs Basil Cantaloupes Figs Peaches Muscadine Watermelon Honeydew What can you make with these ingredients? Pickled cucumbers,…
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Foamy jam and how to remove it
While making a batch of fig jam this morning, I had a strange crossover between my love of making food and my love of drinking really good beer. I have seen people dealing with an excessively foamy pint by… well, never mind what they did to kill the head, but the thought that struck me…
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Blueberry fruit butter
Fruit butters are extremely easy to make in your slow cooker and you can use any fruit to make a butter. Use this recipe and technique to design your own – substitute your favourite fruit for blueberries. Blueberries – 5 pints / 10 cups / 2.25 litres / about 3.5 lbs / about 1.75…
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Blueberry pie filling
Part 2 of my short series on blueberries – pie! 7 cups blueberries, washed and sorted 1 2/3 cups sugar 2/3 cup ClearJel 2tbsp lemon juice OPTIONAL 12 drops blue food colouring 4 drops red food colouring 1tsp grated lemon zest Prepare your jars and lids in the usual way. Half fill a large stainless…
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Blueberry Syrup
Blueberries are in season just now, so get out there and pick some yourself! Once you have a ridiculous amount of blueberries, what can you do with them? Well, I am here to help with a short series, starting with blueberry syrup. Prepare your jars and lids by thorough washing with soap and hot water.…