I had my first experience with home canning all by myself this weekend and it left me wondering if it's really worth it. I've done jam and apricot nectar with my mom and mil but this was the first time I did it all by myself. What did I do? Tomatoes. (queue ominous music)I single-handedly processed and preserved 40 pounds of tomatoes. I got 21 half-pints of Summer Salsa, 7 pints of sauce (will NEVER do that again!), 7 pints of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes, and 6 pints of Mexican seasoned diced tomatoes. It took me about 15 hours of processing over 3 days plus time shopping and running around looking for jars (I couldn't find them anywhere!) and the cleaning up (which frankly, still isn't done). I spent $40 on jars and another $40 on other ingredients: peaches, pears, onions, peppers, carrots, celery, and spices I didn't have since we recently moved. The tomatoes I got for free, which is the only reason I would ever can anything.
I didn't save time. I didn't save money. Do I regret doing it? No! I'm glad I got this chance. When I was finally done I felt a great sense of accomplishment, which is always worth the effort. But it did leave me wondering why people go out and BUY the produce to can it themselves? I can certainly see canning something you grow in excess, but why pay for the raw product and invest the time to process it when you can save time and money to buy the food already canned? I suppose if you have special dietary needs this is a great thing to do because you can control the salt and sugar or anything else that goes into it. I am also looking forward to giving away some of my canned salsa; I wouldn't go buy a jar of salsa as a gift, but something I've canned myself and put my sweat and tears into seems much more appropriate. So, yes, I can see reasons for home canning. I will do it again when I harvest my own garden next year. I have learned a lot and now that it's done can it say it was a good experience. But won't do tomato sauce again! And I can't ever see myself paying for produce to put up (at least, not tomatoes!).
Do you buy raw foods to home can? Why or whynot?
The whole experience? Sure, you can read some more random ramblings, but proceed at your own risk.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I accepted 40 pounds of tomatoes from my friend who was unexpectedly called out of town and had to get rid of them. She even loaned me the processing pot, rack, and the Ball Home Canning "Bible." I was so excited! I found a Summer Salsa recipe with Tomatoes, Peaches, and Pears, Oh my! I was already drooling. I also wanted some spaghetti sauce so found a garden sauce recipe. Then, judging by the recipes I knew I would still have plenty left so I got some spices for Italian and Mexican spiced tomatoes to finish them off.
The children were thrilled to go to the Farmers Market with me to look for peaches, pears, and peppers. I also needed carrots, celery and onions, as well as several spices that I hadn't replaced since we moved, though I didn't expect them to be there. I guess peaches are out of season but we did find pears and red peppers. The kids also convinced me to get some grapes the size of small plums, pickling cucumbers (not to pickle, just to eat), corn, and raspberries. I'm glad my kids like fresh produce.We got everything else I needed from the grocery store.
I didn't have any jars so we also ran to WalMart expecting to find everything I would need. I was disappointed. They had several quart size jars on the shelf, but all my recipes wanted pints or half pints and since it was my first time I thought I'd follow the instructions. After staring at the bare shelf for several moments, wondering what to do now and wishing that if I stared long enough what I needed would show up, I left empty handed and came home to see where google might recommend. One site recommended a farmer's supply store. Well, though I'm new to the area, I have passed that and knew right where it was so I left the kids with Hubby for lunch and headed straight over. Another disappointment! They had one box of the pint size jars. So I bought that and asked where else they might recommend. He said WalMart. :/ There is another WalMart on the other side of town but I don't really know where and I didn't have my gps with me, so I started driving around and found a KMart. I didn't really expect them to have much, but since I was there I ran in. SURPRISE! KMart had them! They had tons of them! I picked up 2 cases of half pints (why do they call them Half Pint jars? Half a pint is a cup. Wouldn't it just be easier to call them that?) and came home to get started.
Oh no. My stock pot is in storage. I knocked on the neighbors door.
Okay! Produce, jars, stock pot, tomatoes, processing pot...I'm finally ready. Boil some water, put the tomatoes in, watch for them to crack, take them out put them in the cold water, add some more to the water, watch for them to crack...How many am I going to need for this recipe? Should I just do them all right now, then they'll be ready? No, I don't have room in my kitchen and I don't know when I'll get the rest; just do one recipe at a time. And the peaches! Blanch them, too. Before I start peeling I put the jars in the dishwasher. Great, now to start peeling. It was right about then I realized I had undertaken much more than I had thought. Peeling, seeding, squeezing out extra liquid, dicing. This was going to take me all day, just preping the tomatoes! Next the peaches. The peels didn't slide off even though they were blanched and, once off, they were so slipper they were hard to cut up. I usually cut a peach in half and twist then take the pit out. I couldn't do that once the skin was off so I was trying to cut the flesh off from around the pit. Then the pears. No surprises there. Chop some red pepper, onion, and jalapeno; my Pampered Chef Food Chopper saved me there. Dishwasher's done, get the jars on the stove, lids in a pot, they should be done and ready when I am. Back to the veggies: everything in a pot, put it on the stove, bring to boil. Add zest and juice of a lemon, some cilantro, mint, honey and...balsamic vinegar? *shrug* okay. Boil boil boil. Ready to jar! Pull one jar out, fill it up, wipe off the top, screw on the lid, put it back in. Eight half pints and a pint (for the girl that gave me the tomatoes). Not bad. Turn them on to process and start over on another batch. Faster this time. 11 more half pints. I'm smiling as I call Hubby.
Church is at the awkward time of 12:30 so I don't dare start something before church. We have a baptism at 5:30. I didn't start tomato sauce until 8:30. Blanch, peel, seed, squeeze, measure into the blender. About 9:30 I realize I had done a conversion wrong and had only preped half the tomatoes I would need. So I start over. Blanch, peel, seed, squeeze, measure, blend. Sigh. Chop carrots, celery, and onion. Start to boil. Add tomato puree 1 cup at a time keeping at a boil. Oh, did I start the jars?? Yes. Relief. Dishwasher is done, put them on the stove. Add more puree. What!!?? I'm two cups short!!?? And now I don't have a pan or a place to blanch anymore so I'm trying to peel tomatoes that are not blanched and I would not recommend that to anyone!! Finally it just has to boil down. I clean up a little and go sit down. I come back in to see that boiling sauce is messy!! Sigh. Stir. Looks about right. Feels thick enough. Let's jar it and go to bed!! At 1am I go to bed.
We have lunch and load into the car. I've looked up the addresses for several thrift stores. After buying all those jars to start with I had a friend recommend looking at the thrift stores. After 5 stores and not one jar I give up and go back to KMart. Back home again I finish up the tomatoes sigh and look around at the mess. The floors bug the most so I sweep and mop the kitchen as well as the fake hard wood in the living room and hall way, and decide I may as well do the bathroom, too. My cupboards are completely bare since I was supposed to go shopping that day and I've only been buying what I need for the week since we're moving again soon so we load back into the car to head to Cici's. On our way out we pass our neighbor who says, "Are you ok? You look really stressed out!" I just have to smile. I know she's being polite. I look TERRIBLE!! I briefly tell her about my adventures and she smiles and nods though I get the idea she really has no idea what I've been through this weekend.
We pick up Hubby from work and come home for a quick Family Home Night before bed. What should we do? Who has a lesson? I do. I had a whole weekend of lessons. We sing I Love to See the Temple and I show them how our family is like a jar of salsa. If a family is not sealed it will only last through this life. But when we go to the temple we get a special lid that seal us together for ever. But it's not that easy. We still need to be processed, just like the jar going into the hot water bath. This life is our processing and if we make it through, our family can be preserved forever.
The children are in bed and I count and loving label each of my precious jars, look around at the mess still in the kitchen and go to bed.
ha! Yeah, tomatoes are a ton of work, especially when you can get them for so cheap! But, as you say, you control what goes in them and they do taste much better. Another thing to note, my sister tells me the tomatoes in the cans are terrible for you because the the plastic that lines the cans. So, there ya go, you're not poisoning your family with BPA. :) Good job, tough job for a first time adventure with canning.
ReplyDeleteWow!! That is amazing, Messy! Good job!
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