Home Canning

.
The same year we bought our first home we planted a garden. We moved in during February so that gave us some time to plan and dig. Ripened tomatoes, green beans, zukes, cukes, snap peas, carrots, celery, pumpkins and just about everything short of sweet corn showed up in September of 1979.


The only drawback to gardening is waste. There is no way to consume the harvest as it ripens and underplanting risks not having anything to show for the effort.



Everyone has had that neighbor or relative who proudly drops off his excess home grown garden veggies at your place beginning in August so they won’t go to waste. If you're lucky he shows up weekly. Tomatoes are a popular giveaway item along with other high volume plants such as cukes and zucchinis.

An option to the good neighborly giveaway is to preserve your own home grown vegetables for winter consumption. Canning and preserving takes work so most backyard gardeners would rather give their excess away.


Others wouldn’t think of growing or canning vegetables since is considered to be an unnecessary task of frugality best left to the lower class peasantry. That first September we were canning in the new kitchen when my mother-in-law stopped by on an unscheduled visit. In a quiet corner I heard her whisper to the wife, “Is HE making you do THAT???” Her ‘ma grew up in extreme depression era poverty and one of her chores was to put up preserves each weekend during September and October. Seeing her offspring participating in this activity obviously gave her some bad flashbacks.

We did it because it wasn’t a chore at all. It was an enjoyable activity we shared and the results were satisfying to us. Besides, it saved a few bucks to help pay that new mortgage after dropping 20% (everything we had) down and a 13% interest rate at the time.

My specialty was roma tomatoes. I would grow these in very fertile raised beds supported by round wire baskets and the results were an abundance of perfectly shaped, blazing red, food magazine quality photogenic tomato fruits by the bushel.

There’s something extra special to opening a jar of vine ripened roma tomatoes in February and making the finest marinara sauce there is. The flavor and texture of store bought hot-house canned tomatoes in February will never compare to what ripened in my backyard last September.

We would “put up” 48 quarts of roma tomatoes and that would last into the following summer. Another plus to home canning is you can place herbs and flavor enhancers like fresh basil and a clove or two of garlic into the jar. It’s definitely worth the effort.


My home canning days ended when we built the country bunker near Valpo seventeen years ago. The property is so densely wooded there isn’t enough sunlight to grow a respectable garden but we manage to grow herbs in the sunny space we do have. With an abundance of country road farm stands nearby I kind of lost the itch to garden.

Last week I noticed an ad in the local newspaper for a local farm stand that was selling fresh picked pickles for $2.99 a bushel. The canning bug just hit me. I would need to buy more jars, new lids and screw on rings along with spices. Being bored and suddenly craving a quality garlicky kosher dill pickle impulsively grabbed control of my desires. I was so focused that I drove to the stand at Remus Farms and bought a small amount of pickles to test my rusty canning ability.

The process of canning is simple but time consuming. Most necessary for canning is a large pot and rack to hold the jars. Luckily we still had the old pot and rack in the pantry. Pack-rat behavior can pay off since the pot and rack now costs $50. and I know we paid less that $20 for the same thing in '79.

For best results the freshest cucumber pickles are a must. If they are old and flacid going into the jar that’s what you’ll get when opening the jar. The mason jars and lids must be sanitized. Dunking them into the large pot of boiling water does the job. While that’s happening I am washing and slicing the knobby-skinned stubby bright green cukes.

Mass produced pickles are uniform in size and fill the jar. Hand sliced spears may not be not long enough to fill the jar so I cram in a few flat and short spear-cut slices to make best use of space.

The spicy brine mixture has been prepared and percolating in another pot made of stainless steel. I load a few cloves of fresh garlic into each jar before stuffing with spears. Next is the brine, using a ladle I fill the jars to within ½” from the top before sealing with a lid and finger-tightening the ring.

Loading into the rack for boiling is tricky with the boiling steam singing the hairs of my arms. Then the seven jars get dipped for ten minutes, slightly submerged by boiling hot water.

Removing the scalding hot jars can be dangerous. They make special tools for this but I used hot pads since I lost my old jar gripper. There they sat, on a towel on the countertop. While they cool the vacuum process takes over. Hot air inside the jars contract and the thin rubber rimmed lids seal as a result. Thirty minutes later the mason jar lids begin “pop” as they cave into the jar indicating the process is over.


The results were outstanding. Pickles as crispy and flavorful as anything you can buy were ready 24 hours later after spending the night in the garage refrigerator.

Did I save a lot of money doing this? No. What I have as a result is something I made that tastes far better than any store-bought jar of pickles. Every pulled pork and every ham sandwich will be that much better. Every hot dog will be relished more than others. Each burger will be that much more special.

I will be buying a bushel or two of locally grown roma tomatoes soon, before this season ends.

And a lot more mason jars.
.