Thinking About Canning at Home? Here's How.

Grandma’s beloved canning recipes are worth keeping for posterity, but canning food methods and equipment have improved.

Canning is a great way to safely preserve produce, especially seasonal items for use all year long. It’s also to reduce food spoilage and save money. This guide offers all the modern tips and tricks you’ll need to make your canned fruits and vegetables taste better and last longer.

Where to Start. Deciding What Foods Work Well for Canning

There are lots of choices when it comes to choosing foods for canning. First let’s look at the two groups of produce that require different canning methods.

Other Great Canning Ideas: 

Homemade drinks like tomato juice and fruit juices, Pasta sauces and BBQ sauces, Soups & stocks, Jams & jellies, Salsas & Relishes, Kimchi, Mustards, Lemon curds

First Time Canner? Here's What You Need to Know

Make it simple. Here are a few tips to help you:

What Size Canning Jars Do You Need?

There are several sizes available when it comes to jars designed for canning. The ones most commonly used are small 250 ml and 500 mL jars. These are good choices for most preservation needs. You can also check for other sizes that may better fit your plans.

Safety Tips to Follow

Canning involves high temperatures, so although it is a safe process, care must be taken. The most important part is reading the canner manual that came with your water-bath canner or pressure canner. 

Be sure to follow the recommendations. Always use heat-proof gloves and tools with heat-proof handles when preparing to process your canning jars. Wash your canner and jars with soap and warm water prior to use. Sanitize your countertops, cutting boards and tools to eliminate any bacteria.

Step-by-Step Canning Tips

Prepare everything you need before beginning your canning session. Here’s an easy list to follow:

Determining Your Needs

Before embarking on a home canning session, think about how much processed food your family might consume between this winter and next. Let that be your guide when purchasing produce, jars, and, if you’re a buying a new canner, the appropriate size. 

Where the canner is concerned, you’ll need to consider the size of your stove top and burners as well. Can it accommodate a very large canner safely? You can always have several canning sessions if you plan to produce many jars of produce. Storage is another consideration. Do you have appropriate space to keep all that wonderful food? Not everyone has the luxury of a cold space in today’s home basements.

Canning is not only rewarding, but it provides ongoing benefits. You can make soups, casseroles and sauces whenever the inclination strikes. If you grow your own fruits & vegetables, you know that many of them ripen at the same time, so canning is a great solution for any surplus. And when farmers harvest their produce at season’s end, you can find large volume at great prices. In either case, canning your favourites gives you plenty of great-tasting food to enjoy throughout the winter months.