Thank you for visiting my canning cellar! Salsa!  here’s the ingredients I used 10 lbs green tomatoes chopped   8 cups onions  2 teaspoons dried red pepper flakes  8 lg red peppers chopped  6 garlic cloves minced  1 cup dried basil  1 cup lime juice 1 cup lemon juice 1 cup  apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons salt 1 tablespoon cumin 4 tsp black pepper  1 tablespoon sugar I washed the tomatoes and used the serrated knife to remove the stem part and any other blemishes, and used my food processor to chop them up, not bothering to remove the seeds ..read more

Pizza Sauce, Update on Evelyn's Jam What I used for equipment was my presto precise digital canner, my electronic postal scale,  a dutch oven stovetop pot, a jar lifter, a canning funnel, a measure cup, a de-bubbler, a strainer, a wooden spoon, a dish towel, a vinegar soaked lint free cloth, small serrated knife.  What I used for ingredients:  10 pounds tomatoes 3 tablespoons oil, and I had some store bought fancy oil that I used, fancy meaning it was an Italian flavored one that I bought it at Big Lots on the after Christmas clearance sale in January 4 chopped onions 2 tables ..read more

Blueberry Jam! My friend Nancy generously picked and gifted us 4 pounds of blueberries. Evelyn plans on entering jam at the fair again this year, last year she won a blue ribbon for her raspberry jam. I measured the blueberries out into two bags of 6 cups each and froze them until she and I were able to do some canning. I had looked at the recipe I was going to follow to know how many to put in each bag.  What I used for equipment was the Presto digital canner, a strainer, a dutch oven pot, a old fashioned handheld potato masher the kind with the square holes, a wooden spoon, a 4 cup me ..read more

Kori sent me a recipe for sweet tea jelly and I decided to make it using chai tea. Because I didn’t have the required liquid pectin, only powdered pectin, I thought I could substitute the powder. However, because the first pectin I saw in my cupboard was an already opened jar of low and no sugar pectin, I decided to use that. Don’t be me. Don’t mess with the science! I had to process that batch two times to try to get it to gel, adding more pectin the 2nd time. I’ve decided it’s going to be used in baking as a kind of thickish yet runny syrup, and I did have some on toast and it has a great c ..read more

Plum Jam and Spicy Plum Sauce. I went by the recipe found in the Sure-jell brand of low or no sugar pectin.  The difference in the makeup is the classic pectin requires a higher amount of sugar in order to set as the low/no sugar pectin will set without any added sugar due to the addition of dextrose in the product. So the pectins can’t be interchanged. What I used for equipment for the jam was a food processor, cutting board, measure cups, wooden spoon, paring knife, canning funnel, jar lifter, dish towel, dutch oven pot, a strainer, small pot. I also wore my canning apron, because canni ..read more

Canning last year's tomatoes! Here's how! I forgot to weigh the tomatoes that I froze last year, but I figure there were about 25ish pounds.  To freeze, I simply rinsed them with water, cut off any blemishes, and froze in plastic bags.  To use, what I did was pour each bag of tomatoes into a pot of hot tap water, just long enough for the water to allow easy slipping off of the skins. I saved the unblemished skins to put in my dehydrator, as I’ve read about many folks doing this and then blending them up into a powder to use as seasoning. After the skins were removed, I put all the ..read more

This is season 2, episode 19, Pepper Jelly.  This recipe was done on the water bath cycle of my digital canner, and of course you can use your regular water bath canner. For equipment I also used a dutch oven pot, pot holders, a canning funnel, canning jar lifter, a sharp knife, a cutting board, measure cups and spoons, my small food processor, and a towel. I always put newly processed jars on a towel no matter what table I use, not only to catch the water but also to avoid shocking the jars on a colder surface.  The recipe I used is from a website I happened upon online, and I wil ..read more

Welcome to my canning cellar, where my goal is not to tell YOU how to can, but rather tell you how ‘I’ can. I am an advocate of following guidelines such as stated by the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and I’ll put the link in the show description, although I also explore other canning groups and websites to study and sometimes copy tried and tested recipes. Like me, please do your own research to be sure you are confident in the safety of your home canned items.   What I used for equipment was my digital pressure canner, a serrated knife, a cutting board, a dutch oven p ..read more

Welcome to my canning cellar. My purpose is not to tell you HOW to can, but rather tell you how 'I' can. Please do your own research to find the canning processes that make you feel the most confident and safe. This is the original recipe as given to me to make 4 pints. 2 pounds green beans, washed, ends trimmed brine: 2.5 cups vinegar 2.5 cups water 1/4 cup salt into each jar: 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 teaspoon dill seed 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (will be kicky, can be left out or reduced) Bring brine to boil, let cool. Fill each pint jar with as many beans as possible. Top with b ..read more

Welcome to my canning cellar!  This is where I don’t want to tell you how to can but rather tell you how I can. Everyone has to do his or her own research and use the information that makes them feel the most comfortable and confident. I utilize the guidelines put out by the national center for home food preservation which I’ll link to in the show description. I do, however, research other tried and true canning ways and decide which seems safe to me and which don’t. So, season 2, episode 16: mushrooms. We aren’t big mushroom eaters and historically whenever I bought a package, most woul ..read more