21 quarts of Salsa (with tomatoes from my garden, but not peppers and onions...they didn't do very well).
34 quarts of applesauce (from my friend's orchard. Thank you, Andrea!)
and 20 quarts of apples for pie (the kids loved helping me with the apple corer-peeler-slicer).
The kids enjoyed eating the apple peels,
as well as snitching from the finished sliced apples.
24 quarts of marinara (also from my garden)
I can't wait til next year, when I will finally have peaches to can as well! :)
Canning is messy, as you can see. But I wish I could post the smell! Oh so heavenly!
Here are my recipes for salsa and marinara:
Aunt Jane’s Salsa
8 cups tomatoes
1 large onion
4 peppers, seeded
2-3 jalapeno peppers, seeded (use rubber gloves!)
½ bunch cilantro
15 oz tomato paste
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 ¼ tablespoons salt
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Blend first 5 ingredients, and add to large stock pot.
Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil, then simmer for ½ an hour.
Fill jars with salsa, remembering to leave headspace.
Place in canner for recommended amount of time.
Marinara Sauce
4 onions
3 green peppers
1 ½ cups oil (veggie or olive)
1 ½ teaspoons pepper
8-10 C tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced (I just use the minced garlic from Costco)
3 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons of oregano, basil, thyme (get spices from the Winco bulk section)
12 bay leaves
2, 12 oz cans tomato paste
Blend up the onions and peppers in a little of the oil. Simmer them in all of the oil, and add ground pepper.
In a large stock pot add:
Tomatoes blended
Garlic, salt, sugar, herbs,
the onion pepper mix
Bring to a good rolling boil and add the tomato paste. Remove bay leaves.
Fill jars with sauce, remembering to leave headspace.
Place in canner for recommended amount of time.
Here are a few canning tips I've picked up over the years:
FREEZING TOMATOES
If you do not have enough tomatoes come on at once to do multiple batches, you can skin the tomatoes and then freeze them in a ziploc bag until you have enough. You simply boil the tomatoes for 1 minute, then put them immediately into ice cold water (this is called “blanching”). Their skins will crack and you can easily peel them off. Put the whole skinned tomatoes in a Ziploc bag and freeze. Remember to get them out to thaw a day in advance.
PURCHASING EQUIPMENT AND JARS
DI has jars all the time, except at canning season. They are usually $ .50 each. I got a bunch off of ksl.com for free, I just had to empty out the old contents.
You can buy jars with lids and rings at most grocery stores during canning season, but it is much cheaper to buy the lids new (you need new lids every year) and get used rings and jars. You do not need a ring for every jar in storage, only at least one for each spot in your canner. I don’t buy rusty or bent rings. When buying used jars, check the rim for chips. It will not seal properly otherwise. Personally I try to only buy narrow mouth jars, because then I only have to buy one kind of lid and ring.
I did see a few steam canners on ksl.com. But they are not that expensive to buy new. I found them at Walmart and amazon.com for about $35 and that includes the extra tools you need as well. I have had mine for about 8 years, so they are pretty sturdy.
When your jars are empty, throw away the lids and store them upside down. This saves a ton of time cleaning later.
CANNING DAY
I prefer to get my canning over in one or two days (per type of food). So I like to big batches. It doesn’t take that long to do one batch, but I figure once I’ve got all the equipment out and heated up my stove I might as well spend the whole day and do as much as possible. You are more productive if you check all your supplies the night before and stock up if necessary. It’s annoying to have to stop canning to run get more tomato paste. Also, canning is more fun with a friend (or at least an audiobook).
