Can You Can It? Yes I Can Can!

I fell in love with canning back in 1990 when we lived in Rifle, Colorado. I had a really nice garden and decided I would try my hand at canning. I loved it! I was able to make pickles that my family still loves to this day. I could put up my tomatoes, green beans and anything else that came out of my garden. At that time I just enjoyed it.

Fast forward to present time, 23 years later. I still enjoy it. I love that little pop the lid makes when the jar seals letting me know I have another successful batch of food for my family to enjoy. 

I enjoy canning for several reasons. I love to garden and this is a way to enjoy the garden for many months. I also like the fact that I know how my food was grown and how it was processed. 

Also, I guess you could call us preppers. The way our country is going I sometimes wonder if we will have stores where we can just go in and buy what we want. I also can't help but wonder, if our economy were to collapse, would people be able to grown their own food? If they did, would they have the knowledge to preserve it?

Here are some seeds. From the top are green beans, cucumber and yellow squash. 

Seeds will keep for a long time if they are kept in a dry, cool place.

 Here is some squash and some green beans as they are beginning to grow a few weeks ago.

This was back when everything was just starting to produce. Now things are going crazy and I am having to check things almost every day. So my canning season has started.
Today I worked at putting up cucumbers. I had picked a five gallon bucket and they needed to be put up. Some were too big for pickles, so those I chopped up and made a relish for turkey salad and other things later this year.

 I also picked a bunch of squash. That one big zucchini is as big as my arm! That guy had been hid for some time. But I found him anyway!

So after washing, slicing a packing the cucumbers into the jars, they were ready for the juice and to be put in the canner. Now I like to use a dill pickle mix called Mrs. Wages Dill Pickle mix. I guess it is kind of cheating, but it sure makes good pickles. I add a couple of slices of fresh jalapenos to some of my jars because some of my family likes their pickles hot. The jars that don't get the jalapenos get a couple of carrots. It's just a quick way to know which are the hot ones and which are the mild ones.

 The top picture is the quart size. The bottom picture is some half pint jars I made for the grandkids so they could have their own jar just their size. I have six grandkids, so there will be more I need to make.

 
I know of at least one grandkid in North Carolina that loves my pickles!!

Here is a picture of some of the stuff I have canned so far this year. This isn't all of it because we have used some of it already. In this picture there are pickles, green beans and a few jars of yellow and zucchini squash. 

The pickles are water bathed,but the rest is pressure canned. 

Water bath is simply placing the jars in a large pot that is full of boiling water. The you let it cook for a certain length of time. For a quart jar of pickles at our altitude that is 13 minutes. 

Pressure canning is a little more involved. You have to use a pressure cooker which is fitted with a tight seal and has a pressure valve. The amount of pressure and time the product is cooked depends on the product, altitude and size of jar. 

It really isn't as hard as it sounds. If you can read and follow directions, you can can your own food and enjoy it for many months to come.