Canning Weekend!

Growing our own food in our garden is one of the most rewarding experienced. Being able to put that food up so it will last through a winter is the second most rewarding experience.

Over the last week, we had several things cross into harvest ready or canning ready status.

A couple of days ago we picked about 4 cans of green beans, and on the 7th, my sauerkraut was officially complete. With work and our daughter Emily being home from Japan for a visit, I hadn’t had the chance to can the beans, and the sauerkraut was held over for a bbq we had for Emily while she was home so everyone could spend time before she had to go back.

Sunday was all work.

I started by canning the sauerkraut. I talked about how Michael loves sauerkraut, but mostly no one else in the house really does. His biggest complaint was always that store bought kraut comes in containers too large for a single serving. I had been promising him I would make some kraut and can it it little 4 oz jars for single servings.

I finally fulfilled my promise. I made the sauerkraut from cabbages we grew ourselves, and I was so proud that it actually turned out on my first try! It was gobbled up at the bbq, but I still have plenty left over. I ended up with 21 quarter pint jars and 3 half pint jars of canned kraut. Not to mention the quart that I put in the fridge for us to eat right now.

Next, I decided I better can those green beans before they go bad. If growing your own food is rewarding, letting that food go to the chickens for no reason is the worst. I cleaned up my beans and as I am getting them in jars I said to Michael, “Hey, since I have the canner going, want to get those jalapeño’s? I can do those as well.”

Off he goes and he came back with another pound of green beans! I finish those off and get them in the pressure canner, while he went back out to harvest the jalapeños. I made 11 pints of green beans.

We ended up with about 2 pounds of jalapeños that michael cleaned up along with a couple of green tomatoes that had blossom end rot, and a couple of leftover carrots from our fridge. We just mixed it all together and put in quarter pint jars as well. Our jalapeños were not very hot, so I added a couple of dried japon chili’s to each jar. Then I processed those in the pressure cooker. We ended up with 11 quarter pint jars of canned jalapeños.

All in all a very productive day.

Let me know how your harvest is going, and what things you are canning this season. 🙂