Episode 1548: Seg 2 of S10E10 what to know if you are a new canner - The Gardening with Joey and Holly Radio Show

We're going to talk about how on what you need to know if you want to get into Canning

this year, we make the mistake so you don't have to.

Yeah, so you want to keep in mind to be safe with your canning and this is very important.

Canning is a science.

You are taking a perishable food and making it non perishable, which means you're taking

something that can rock and spoil and making it shelf stable.

So keep that in mind as you do your canning, you want to look for resources, etc. so that

you know that they are safe.

You know that they are good recipes and they have your best safety and interest in mind.

So if you'll go to look at books or recipes, you want to make sure they're from within

the past 15 years, there shouldn't be an issue for most like websites, unless it's called

like vintage canning recipes or something like that.

But for books, like the library is a great resource for a lot of books, but they don't toss

the books after 15 years.

Like keep them silly for a part, regardless of the information is correct or not.

Like I recently got into knitting and I found a book from like the 80s.

So you know, they're not tossing these books, which is good.

I mean, some of the stuff doesn't change.

Oh, if you want to collect vintage canning books, you can, there's plenty of second, second

place or second hand places online in order to purchase them and you build a little collection.

But don't use them.

So the reason why we want to look within the past 15 years is because it craps of change,

food has changed, food science has changed, safety has changed.

Like for example, joy group canning and they would water bath their green beans and that's

no longer...

You got a pressure can.

You want a pressure can then?

Yeah, we'd water bath them for three hours.

Yeah, that's a, that's quite sometimes.

Yeah.

So you want to keep that in mind, learn that, you know, just keep in mind is science, etc.

So then you want to start with something, you know, simple, a lot of times people think

I'm just going to make jam, that's going to be simple and that's not necessarily true.

Not that jam isn't, is super hard, it's just that at times it doesn't set up.

You kind of have to learn the, the process.

There's a lot, with jam compared to like, I would say pickles, there's like twice as many

moving parts in the jam process and there is the pickle making process.

Right.

Right.

Or even just salsa, you know, something kind of more less moving parts as Joey had said.

And also, there's a pretty foolproof, and you don't have to worry about them setting

up.

Well, and if you want to get into canning, you know, your church group or whatever organization

you're with, male or female, it doesn't matter.

There's somebody that knows somebody that would love to have some help in the kitchen,

cutting, processing, getting jars, and so you can learn first hand how to go about doing

this rather than simply watching a video online from a reputable source.

Your hands are in the pickles, your hands are in the salsa, the individual is saying,

okay, this is what we've got to do, and what do to do it say, this is how you're seeing

at first hand.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

So you want to also, Joey had mentioned talking to people, you can do that and look for jars

that way as well.

And you might think to yourself, I don't know, buddy, who has any canning jars.

But I swear, these people come or they would work as soon as you start talking about canning,

all of a sudden they have jars, they have this and that.

Betty, I heard you brought some jam in, you know, my aunt passed away.

We got like 50 or 80 jars in the garage.

We really didn't want to get rid of them.

Do you want them?

Right.

And that's exactly what happens.

Yeah.

So keep that in mind.

You can find these jars or you can look at rummage sales, yard sales, et cetera.

You're going to get a better deal if you buy everything, the whole lot, and you may end

up with some random jars and that's okay.

But otherwise you're going to buy the jar for a quarter of a piece.

I'm picking a number.

But if you buy all of them together and you figure out, and when you get home, you figure,

oh, I bought them all for like eight cents a jar.

Right.

And you can toss the ones that don't work or put dry goods in the other ones.

Exactly.

So then you also want to, as you're doing this process, make sure you keep everything

clean.

If you have a pet like a cat who could possibly jump on the counter or the table, you want

to make sure that you are keeping them out of the kitchen.

I know my cat, he typically doesn't jump on the counter or the table.

But I feel like as soon as I start a project and kitchen, he's like, what's going on?

Or if you have little ones that will, that can get underfoot and trip while you're, trip

you when you're moving very hot items or breakable things, that's something that needs to be

addressed as well.

Great.

I love people who don't think about these things.

And when you're doing like pickles or candy, anything, you kind of want to move quickly,

especially pickles because those cucumbers, if you let them sit or cook at too high of

a temperature for too long, the longer you do the most year they can get.

So while pickles are easy to can, you just want to make sure you're not dilly dallying

around while you're doing the process.

Most people, you know, typically you see or you think of pickles being in court jars,

but if you can get away with putting them in pint jars, yes, it's half the batch, half

the quantity, but the quality of them does increase substantially because it's less time

in the heat and you can get more of a, like a store bought crisp pickle at home.

If you move quickly and keep that from getting too hot, but doing it for the direction

of time and don't do in half gallon jars, we don't do that anymore.

It's not safe, national home for food preservation, that apple juice, and I think grape juice

are the only two safe things in which you can preserve in a half gallon jar, using

for dry goods.

So some of my favorite resources as Joy had mentioned was the National Center for Home

Food Preservation.

They have a lot of great basics, like say you have 45 pounds of tomatoes and you want

to know how much it's going to make into X. They can help you with that on the National

Center for Home Food Preservation.

We learn how to can, uh, venison with their sites.

Yeah, that's a pressure can process.

Right.

Yeah.

Not all vegetables and stuff that comes out of your garden, you're going to water bath.

Right.

So you want to make sure you are using good resources and then better homes and gardens.

They have a good book called You Can Can and it's pretty comprehensive, has some good

recipes.

The ball, blue book is what it's called, put out by ball canning, they put it in a new

edition every couple of years, they have good information and even just how to can.

And you would think, oh, it's a, I got one, two years ago.

There are new recipes and new variations of recipes, every book, it's not just a copy

of, oh, we're just going to put it out to put it out.

And you know, you might think, okay, I got the new edition.

I know somebody who could benefit from the old edition, you can pass it along.

You don't necessarily have to hold on to it.

If there's anything left of that old edition, if you haven't loved it so much that the pages

are falling out of it, like some of ours are.

Right.

And then you can look for classes.

I did take some canning classes through my local rec department.

This may not be an option for you, but you can definitely keep an eye out for it.

I know I have a friend who teaches like kombucha making classes, which is not canning,

but you can find a lot of resources when you look around.

Now with those classes, those are taught by master garden master canners, which are

much more regulated in states than master gardeners due to the information and the safety

and effectiveness of that information that is being taught to individuals.

Absolutely, and I took, like I said, I took a lot of canning classes.

I even learned how to make mustard, which is really easy to make.

Make you mustard.

It seems, I think it seems more complicated than it is, but it's very simple to make.

And you make a lot of different varieties of mustard and it's, it's kind of fun.

So when it comes to canning, lids, jars, you want to make sure there's no cracks in the

jars.

You want to use modern day jars, not the antique blue ones that were made from 1896 to 1932.

So, you know, a jar, and make sure it is a canning jar.

You get these mixtures of glass jars.

Yeah, make sure it's real mason jar.

Yeah.

And you can tell by the thickness of an old managed jar from the 80s versus a canning

jar.

Right.

And, you know, you want to look for, make sure you have, I bought this new, but it was

like a canning kit, which comes with the funnel, the headspace measure, the jar lifter,

and the little thing that can lift the lids, it's a little magnet, one type situation.

Sometimes you can find those at yard sales, thrift stores, whatever.

If you go to a yard, so you go ahead and buy, have two or three or four of them.

It's not, it's because you're going to lose one.

And if you have two or three, and another thing with your canning, you want like lots

of towels.

But what do you call it, dish towels and rags and extra spatulas and extra spoons and things.

So whenever you're in this process, you don't have to, oh, you have a backup.

You're ready to grab a different one.

It's clean.

It's sanitary.

Because the time it's not a, oh, I'll get it done when I get it.

It's a time-sensitive situation.

Right.

And one thing to keep in mind is that, or for me, I know myself like I enjoy being in

the kitchen, whether it be cooking and baking, I don't bake as much as I used to.

So canning, even though I didn't grow up doing it, became a kind of a natural extension

of what I enjoyed doing when it came to being in the kitchen.

And you were not a canner.

You did not grow up in the world of canning.

No, I was a city girl.

Yeah, I grew up in this city.

And when it, joy and I met in probably about 15 years ago now, even though we had both

garden separately, we grew our first big garden together and we had all these, a lot of tomatoes,

cucumbers, I think peppers, onions, just a lot of stuff.

And joy was like, we're going to can this and I was like, okay, you have fun with that.

And he was like, no, you're going to help me.

So, you know, we kind of, I don't want to see if we learn together because joy had some

canning experience.

Growing up on the phone.

That's all we did.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

That really into it and I really, I really did enjoy it.

I thought, in my words, I thought that was for country people.

Man, you are a multi-award winning Wisconsin state canner.

That's where the show originates out of Southeast Wisconsin.

And you've placed several ribbons in the state fair.

Yes.

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