Preserving the Good Life

My goal this year is to buy as few canned goods as possible from the grocery store because I like knowing what I’m feeding my family.  You’ll notice that I can lots of different beans because beans are a common thing at my house.  As I started searching through my pantry, looking for things that I normally buy that I could replace with things more wholesome, it was safe to say that Green Peas should be at the top of the list.

Turn the oven on 200° to get your jars hot. Start a pot of boiling water to add to jars and a pot of water to boil lids.  Rinse peas really well.

Measure a half cup of dry beans per pint jar.

Add one half teaspoon canning salt per jar.

Fill with boiling water, leaving one inch head space.  Wipe the rims with a sterile cloth, place hot lids and tighten down rings.

Place in pressure canner, put the lid on and wait for it to steam.  Once it begins steaming, let it steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on it.  Then once the weight begins to jiggle, start the timer for 75 minutes.

We use 10 lbs of pressure based on our elevation.  Your elevation will determine to weight of pressure that you use. Please refer to Ball guidelines for reference.

There’s a local produce stand that I like to buy my dry beans from.  If you’re local, check out B&B Produce on 52, they have a large variety of dry beans!

Some call them Cranberry,  some call them October,  I call them good!!!  When I have a hankering to can and can’t put my hands on something fresh, I head to my local produce stand and grab a few pounds of dry beans. If you’re local, check out B&B Produce on 52, they have a large variety of dry beans!  This makes dinner in the future – quick and painless!

Turn the oven on 200° to get your jars hot. Start a pot of boiling water to add to jars and a pot of water to boil lids.  Rinse the beans really well.

Measure a cup of dry beans per quart jar.  Add one teaspoon canning salt and a small piece of country ham to each quart jar.  I can these in quarts since they’re so similar to pintos and my boys can easily eat a quart at a time.

Fill with boiling water, leaving one inch head space.  Wipe the rims with a sterile cloth, place hot lids and tighten down rings.

Place in pressure canner, put the lid on and wait for it to steam.  Once it begins steaming, let it steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on it.  Then once the weight begins to jiggle, start the timer for 90 minutes.  (Pints – 1 hour, 15 minutes, Quarts – 1 hour, 30 minutes).

We use 10 lbs of pressure based on our elevation.  Your elevation will determine to weight of pressure that you use. Please refer to Ball guidelines for reference.

Compared to Chow Chow, this makes a great addition to a pinto bean dinner….pintos, cornbread, pickled beets…and squash relish – YUM!  Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

When I went searching for a recipe, my cousin said, “You’ve gotta try the squash relish that Mama and Michael make”.  Thank you Rachel and Micheal Marion for sharing your recipe!

I love Michael’s sense of humor, “Place in jars, NOT OPTIONAL”…..’

I made two batches, one with squash, one with zucchini.  Finely chop the squash or zucchini, onion, and red and green bell peppers (hot peppers if desired).  Add them to a large bowl and sprinkle with salt.  Combine really good and allow the vegetables to drain for about 1 hour.  Discard juice.

Add sugar, salt, vinegar, celery seeds and turmeric and bring to a boil over medium heat.  Stir occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.  Simmer 10-15 minutes.

Place the jars in the oven on 200 ° and start a pot of boiling water for the lids. Pack the squash relish into the hot, sterilized jars, filling the jars to within 1/4 inch of the top. Run a knife or a thin spatula around the insides of the jars after they have been filled to remove any air bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jars with a sterile cloth to remove any food residue. Top with lids, and screw on rings.

Waterbath for 10 minutes.   Place a rack in the bottom of a large canner and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then carefully lower the jars into the pot. Pour in more boiling water if necessary until the water is at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Bring the water to a full boil, cover the pot, and waterbath for 10 minutes, or the time recommended for your area.

The night we canned black beans, we thought we’d try something new…split peas.  At first I was skeptical,  but I’m glad we did.  It turned out as a delicious split peas soup base!

Turn the oven on 200° to get your jars hot. Start a pot of boiling water to add to jars and a pot of water to boil lids.

Measure a half cup of dry beans per pint jar.

Add one half teaspoon canning salt per jar.

Fill with boiling water, leaving one inch head space.  Wipe the rims with a sterile cloth, place hot lids and tighten down rings.

Place in pressure canner, put the lid on and wait for it to steam.  Once it begins steaming, let it steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on it.  Then once the weight begins to jiggle, start the timer for 50 minutes.

We use 10 lbs of pressure based on our elevation.  Your elevation will determine to weight of pressure that you use. Please refer to Ball guidelines for reference.

Pressure can for 50 minutes on 10 lbs of pressure.

When opened, add 1/2 cup of water, a few dashed of red wine vinegar and 2 slices of deli ham, enjoy!

When friends show up at your house with 148 ears of corn, you gotta do something with it – so we put it in a jar!

Shuck the corn and remove all the silks.

Wash the corn really good and cut the corn off of the cob.

We found this neat little tool that you use with a drill on Amazon, it worked great, but would make a mess if we didn’t take our time. So we used a combination of this and a Pampered Chef Corn Cutter which worked great!

Turn the oven on 200° and place the jars in the oven.  Start the boiling water to fill the jars and the water for the lids. Pack the raw corn into hot jars, loosely, leaving 1 inch head space.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt per pint jar.  Fill the jars with boiling water,  leaving 1 inch head space.  Remove all air bubbles.  Wipe down the rims with a sterile cloth and place the lids and rings and tighten. Pressure can pints for 55 mins on 10 lbs of pressure.  Corn, if not processed the recommended time, will ferment in the jars and come unsealed at a later date.  It is important to process the full 55 minutes as directed.

Lesson learned – in the future WIDE MOUTH JARS are a must!  These are delicious, but they’re a BEAST to clean!

One dozen ears of corn yields 3 pints.

When I heard of this, I was really skeptical.  But the more I thought about it, the more uses I came up with for the crushed pineapple, so I thought it was worth a try.  I use a lot of crushed pineapple throughout the year when I make my angel food cake.  After it started simmering my house filled with a sweet aroma of pineapple.  By the time I was done, my house smelled like pineapple, the jars looked like pineapple and it tasted like pineapple!

• 4 qts of peeled, shredded zucchini or squash
• 46 oz can of pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 cups of lemon juice
• 3 cups of sugar

Combine all of the ingredients in a stock pot and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  While it’s simmering, place jars in the oven on 200° and start the water for the lids.  Boil lids, fill hot jars with the hot mixture and wipe the tops with a clean sterile cloth.  Place the lids, put the rings on and tighten.  Water bath for 15 minutes.

Hard to believe that’s not crushed pineapple!

My zucchini batch yielded 9 pints, my squash batch yielded 11 pints.  I’m not sure why it was different unless the zucchini cooks down more?  Not sure, but either way – it’s DELICIOUS!  I used some of the leftovers today with my Greek yogurt and plan to use some really soon in my angel food cake recipe.

Blackberry jam is probably one of my all time favorites, it brings back a flood of memories of picking blackberries with my grandfather as a child.  This is one of those recipes that I literally take from the farm to the jar.

This recipe yields 12 jelly jars (8 oz)

• 1 Gallon fresh berries – washed and mashed
• 8 cups of sugar – divided
• 2 T Lemon Juice
• 2 T Real Butter
• 12 sterile jars, rings and lids

Place the jars in the oven, heat to 200°.  Wash and mash the berries with a potato masher.  Measure berries.  An average gallon yields 8 cups of chopped berries; this is important.  For every cup of berries, you will need one cup of sugar.  Add berries and 1/2 of the sugar to a stock pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Increase temperature to high.

Once it’s at a rolling boil, boil for 5 minutes, occasionally stirring.  Add remaining sugar, lemon juice and butter.   Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 10 minutes, stir occasionally.  Be sure to stir it enough that it doesn’t stick.  Skim off any excess pink foam.  Boil lids, fill hot jars with the hot jam and wipe the tops with a clean sterile cloth.  Place the lids, put the rings on and tighten.  Water bath for 10 minutes.

Water Bathing Instructions:  While cooking the berries, I start my canner of water on high.  Jelly jars require 1-2 inches of water over the jars.  If placed carefully you can get 12 jars in the canner.  Once the jars are ready and placed in there, I put a lid on the canner and bring it to a boil.  Once boiling, I boil for 10 minutes.  Remove jars, cover with a towel and cool over night.  Don’t be surprised if your jars start sealing as soon as you take them out of the canner.

I don’t use Pectin in my jam recipes for a reason.  Have you ever noticed that the recipes that call for Pectin or Sure-Jell call for more sugar than fruit?  Let that sink in a minute….

I love black beans any way you fix them.  They’re loaded with health benefits, such as; high in fiber, high in protein and they help protect against cancer.

Check out Dr. Josh Axe’s other helpful tips and information at: http://draxe.com.

Since we’re all about knowing what we eat, I thought we’d try canning some and I’m so glad we did!  They turned out delicious!!!

Turn the oven on 200° to get your jars hot. Start a pot of boiling water to add to jars and a pot of water to boil lids.

Measure a half cup of dry beans per pint jar.

Add one half teaspoon canning salt per jar.

Fill with boiling water, leaving one inch head space.  Wipe the rims with a sterile cloth, place hot lids and tighten down rings.

Place in pressure canner, put the lid on and wait for it to steam.  Once it begins steaming, let it steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on it.  Then once the weight begins to jiggle, start the timer for 50 minutes.

We use 10 lbs of pressure based on our elevation.  Your elevation will determine to weight of pressure that you use. Please refer to Ball guidelines for reference.

Pressure can for 50 minutes on 10 lbs of pressure.

These are great as a side dish with a little bit of minced garlic, added to a sweet potato with a little bit of salsa or used to make burgers.  There’s so many uses for these beans!

Canning green beans is almost like a tradition at my house each year.  My crowd eats an average of 100 quarts of green beans per year, that’s 5 bushels of beans!  And I’ve gotta say, there’s no way I could can them working 55 hours a week if it weren’t for my wonderful in-laws that do all the stringing and breaking of the beans for me!

So here goes…..

String and break the beans, wash thoroughly.

Turn the oven on 200°  and heat the jars.  Start water for jars and water for lids.  Pack hot jars with raw beans, pack tight!!!  Be sure to leave 1 inch head space.  Add 1 tsp of canning salt.

Fill with boiling water, wipe rims with sterile cloth, place lid, ring and tighten.

Place in pressure canner, put the lid on and wait for it to steam.

Once it begins steaming, let it steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on it.  Then once the weight begins to jiggle, start the timer for 25 minutes.

We use 10 lbs of pressure based on our elevation.  Your elevation will determine to weight of pressure that you use. Please refer to Ball guidelines for reference.

We processed 1 bushel and it yielded 20 quarts.

Canning ‘taters…I can hear my Daddy now, “Why can taters, they’re cheap, they last all winter if stored in a cool basement,  so why can them?”….For convenience and saving time.  Plus I know what I’m eating when I can it!  It’s nice to do all the work in one Saturday afternoon and just be able to open a jar when I’m ready to have potatoes with a meal.  All of that dreaded peeling is done at once….

Wash the potatoes real well.

Peel the potatoes and put them in ice water.

At this point I start a pot of boiling water on the stove to add to the potatoes.  I also turn the oven on 200° to heat the jars.

Dice the potatoes into 1 inch cubes and place back in ice water.  Placing the potatoes in ice water keeps them from turning dark.

Start the water for the lids.  Add water to the pressure canners as per the manufacturer’s directions and turn them on.

Fill the hot jars with potatoes leaving 1 inch of heat space.  Add 1 teaspoon of canning salt to each jar.

Fill with boiling water, wipe rims with sterile cloth, place lid, ring and tighten.

Place in pressure canner, put the lid on and wait for it to steam.  Once it begins steaming, let it steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on it.  Then once the weight begins to jiggle, start the timer for 40 minutes.

We use 10 lbs of pressure based on our elevation.  Your elevation will determine to weight of pressure that you use. Please refer to Ball guidelines for reference.

We processed 1 bushel and it yielded 35 quarts.