Blueberry Jam

Several weeks ago, I posted about our wonderful day picking blueberries. At the bottom of that post was a recipe for blueberry jam topping.

Another recipe I have used to preserve the blueberries was simply blueberry jam. It is very easy! I did change the recipe up a little and used less sugar.

Blueberry Jam

1. Take 9 cups of crushed (and washed) blueberries and 6 cups of sugar and mix together. I only use about 4 cups of sugar. (You can use a potato masher to crush your blueberries while it heats.) 
2. Heat until all the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to gel.
3. Using your funnel pour the jam into your jars.
4. Place lids on.
5. Process in a hot water bath for approximately 10 minutes.

And that would be all for this year! Hopefully, you'll get to join me next year when I take a stab at pickles!

Canning Green Beans

Welcome back to the canning series! For us, this is the biggy. We can more green beans than anything else. And these crazy little beans have given me more anxiety than any other vegetable or fruit that we have preserved. Remember how we use Granny's methods for canning a lot? Well, not one single friend of mine that also does food preservation cans green beans the way we do. So, I must announce a disclaimer. DO.YOUR.RESEARCH.

This is a method of canning that is NOT typically accepted. I had to really think and discuss over this method with my husband. Apparently, there is a bacteria on low acidic vegetables that if not killed at the proper temperature can cause botulism. That's right, botulism. I looked it up to see the symptoms. That did not aid in my anxieties over using this method of canning. The temperature that needs to be reached to kill this little varmint can supposedly only be reached in a pressure canner. (Which, as I mentioned before, I particularly don't care to have around three small children.) My husband and his entire family, however, could take much offense to this. Since they've been doing it this way for years and no one has yet to contract said botulism. After much discussion and angst, we decided it was OK. Besides, this is how my Russian friend did it in Russia and well, for some reason, that gave me assurance.

Again. Make this decision for yourself understanding there are recommendations that it is not safe. (Wow, I can't believe I'm saying that.)

But hey...it's easy after you break your beans! Simply...

1. Break your beans and cut off bug bites.
2. Wash them three times to remove any dirt and to catch any missed bug bites.
3. Pack your jars and add one tsp of salt.
4. Add hot water leaving about 1/4 inch headspace.
5. Wipe your lid to ensure no debris will inhibit the sealing of the jar.
6. Do a hot water bath for 3 to 3.5 hours. (This is why we use the contraption below rather than our stove.)

Now, another reason The Franklin family has not suffered from botulism could be the time we cook the beans before we eat them. My crazy, northern neighbor mentioned boiling her beans for 10 minutes one day and I thought she just told me she flew back from Mars.

Here...is how I do it...and they are oh so yummy good.

The Right Way to Cook Fresh Green Beans

1. Rinse your beans to remove that old salt.
2. Place them in a large pot and fill with water.
3. Add one beef bouillon cube.
4. Add one heaping spoon of butter.
5. Add one slice of bacon or a big piece of fat back.
6. Cook for several hours. (Around five over medium heat.)
7. Don't forget to add more water or you'll burn the beans!
8. Before serving, add a little salt to put at the taste of country perfection.

Now, if anyone ever thought I might be healthy... myth...debunked.

(Dark chocolate is high in antioxidants though.)

Disclaimer: AGAIN, I take no responsibility for how you choose to can your green beans should you use this recipe. I am not a professional. Check with those government guys for the health standards.

Canned Jalapenos

Finally, I make a gradual step back into the canning series. I’m hoping to get these flipped out fast over the next couple of days.

When slicing your jalapenos, be sure to wear gloves. Nate slices ours since I am nursing Anna. He did it barehanded and woke me up at three in the morning complaining of his left arm burning. Silly me thought he was having a heart attack. It wasn’t until the next day he suggested it might be the jalapenos. So, wear gloves if you don’t want your hand to burn.We use pint and half pint jars for our jalapenos but divide a recipe for quarts. (Again, we have a small amount of people actually eating some of this food we’re preserving.)

Recipe for Canned Jalapenos

1. Mix 2 cups of water and 2 cups of white vinegar on the stove to simmer. Do not boil…just simmer.
2. Pack your jars with your jalapenos and use a non-metallic spatula to go around the side removing any air-bubbles. (Remember, I'm not sure if I do a good job of this...I mean how do you know you've removed air bubbles?!) 
3. Add a clove of garlic to a pint jar of jalapenos. (For a quart add 2 cloves and for a half pint add 1/2 clove.) Aren't you glad I'm doing the math for you.
4. Add 1/8 tsp of pickling salt to a pint jar of jalapenos. (For a quart 1/4 tsp for a half pint...I do smaller than a pinch since I don't have a tsp that measures 1/16.) 
5. Once your liquid mixture is simmering, use your funnel to assist you in pouring the mixture into the jar. Fill your jar up leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
6. PUT ON YOUR LID! (Edited so Tony C doesn't lose his peppers.)
7. Using a water bath canner or a large pot, place your jars in the boiling water and ensure the tops of the jars are covered by one or two inches of the water. 
8. Once the water begins to boil again after the jars are placed in, process for 15 minutes. 
9. You can safely remove jars with the special jar tongs I showed you in the first post.

Canning Tomatoes: An Alternative

As I mentioned yesterday in my introduction to food preservation, we can our food a little different then some other folks for various reasons. I apologize that I don’t have a video or any flashy step-by-step photos of how we go about doing this. Canning season makes for a busy season and since I’m already in a busy season with little ones…you get no photos of the actual process.

Let me begin by saying this is the second year we have grown tomatoes and the first we actually preserved them. Last year we realized we had an unusual issue with our tomatoes that caused us to have to remove them from the vine before they are ripe. We now know this condition is referred to as bottom end rot. We hope to remedy this next year by placing a Tums in the dirt when we plant our tomatoes. It is caused by a lack of calcium. Another remedy if you find yourself with this problem is to take your almost empty milk jug, fill it with water, and use that to water your tomato plants.

A few of our roma tomatoes ripening in the window. We use a variety of tomatoes. The big one you see is a German tomato and is wonderful on sandwiches and biscuits!

Even though we were struck by bottom end rot again, we were able to allow our tomatoes to ripen in the window and still preserve some of them.

An Alternative Way to Can Tomatoes

1. Wash your tomatoes.
2. Using a large pot, begin to boil water. (I use a large pasta pot with the strainer in it.)
3. Use a sharp knife to “core” your tomatoes. Remove the stem and any “green core.” Granny says this will ruin your tomatoes if you don’t remove the “green.” She doesn’t know why; that’s just what her mother told her. Make an “X” with your knife on the bottom (blossom end) of the tomato.
4. Fill your clean sink with cold ice water.
5. Once all your tomatoes are cored and ready, dip them in the boiling water for about 30 seconds.
6. Now move them to the cold water. If you used a large pasta pot, simply remove your strainer and dump them in the sink.
7. Your tomato skins will now easily pull away from the tomatoes.
8. After your tomatoes are peeled, cut your tomatoes in half to make sure you have removed the core. Be sure not to confuse the green core with the “meaty” white part of your tomato, aka, the flesh. (Nate kept doing that and was throwing half the tomato away!) The core, if there is one, will be a teeny, tiny speck of green.
9. Cut your tomatoes into small pieces in a large pot. Granny taught me how to take my hands and squish them up even more once you are ready to cook them. (I find it therapeutic for some odd reason.)
10. Now you are ready to “cook your tomatoes down.” Place your tomatoes on the stove and cook them over medium heat. You can cover them, but be sure to vent them so they don’t collect too much extra water.
11. The amount of time you cook your tomatoes will vary depending on the amount of tomatoes you have. Granny says, “Cook them HOT, until they fall all to pieces.” I have found that for a larger amount of tomatoes I will cook them for about 45 minutes to an hour. If it is around one quart or a pint, 30 minutes is usually sufficient.
12. Once your tomatoes have “cooked all to pieces,” place them in the jar you wish to preserve them in with 1 tsp of salt per quart. (1/2 tsp per pint)
13. Wipe the outer rip of your jar to be sure no debris will interfere with the sealing of the jar.
14. Place your lid on and tighten using your band.
15. Set your jar aside and within an unspecified amount of time you will hear the jar seal from the heat of the cooked tomatoes.



The end result...with our jalapenos. The next recipe to be posted in this series!

 Note: You cook your tomatoes “really hot” to kill any bacteria and to seal your jar. We realize this is not the conventional way of canning tomatoes; this is just the way we choose to do it. It works fine for us and we have delicious tomatoes!

Being the small family we are, we can them when they are ready, sometimes only canning a pint or a half pint. We think this will be beneficial to add to soups and chili in the winter. This also helps us from being overwhelmed by all those stinkin’ tomatoes trickling in one at a time!

The Lost Art of Food Preservation

For the entertainment of my old, (literally speaking), friend Tony C, for informative reasons to those beginning this process like me, and for a mere journaling of my experience, I thought it worthy to share what I have learned during my first year canning. This is something I would have never imagined myself doing…just like having three children in three and a half years. I would have laughed with Tony C at the mere suggestion. However, times and people change and here we are with canned jalapenos, blueberry jam, tomatoes, and green beans from our very own garden. (Well, not the blueberries, they came from Rabbit Eye Orchard.)

Later in this series of posts, I will share the specific ways I go about canning the above mentioned. But today, I would like to share just some basic information about how we, The Franklins, go about canning. Much of my canning know-how came from this lady…

Also know as Granny Ann. Granny Ann has been doing this more decades than I’ve been alive. She does things a little different; but, it works and for us we’ll feel it is the safest option. (More on that later.)

Here are some tools we use in canning:

• Pickling Salt (aka, just PLAIN salt)
• Magnetic lid “grabber”
• Jar Tongs
• Spatula and headspace measurer
• Funnel

This is how we do most of our canning.

By using this method, we save a bit of money on the power it would take to complete this process on the stove and the amount of heat it would produce in already smoldering weather. And again, this is the way Granny does it. Papaw Maney actually use to can over an open fire. Imagine that. I should add that many things can be canned just using a large pot on your stove. We’ve used that method on jalapenos. The first time because we didn’t have our water bath canner and the last time because we ran out of gas! This method worked fine.

Before starting on the specific foods we preserved, here are some helpful hints that I learned this summer. Jars and bands can be reused. Flats, or lids, cannot. Each year you will need new ones to ensure your jars seal properly. I throw my lids in a pot of water on the stove to heat them while I prepare the food. I place my jars on the stove over my warmer to warm them so there will be no shock from going from cold to really hot during the processing of the food. Another way to do this is place them in the oven on a low setting. This would be ideal if you were using a lot of jars. I believe around 150 degrees is recommended. (Honestly, I haven’t taken that much precaution in warming the jars and have been fine. I’m assuming this could cause your jar to break in certain conditions.) Although I don’t know why, you’re supposed to get “air bubbles” out of the jar. I’m still not sure I do this sufficiently?? It would help if I knew why I was supposed to do this.

This leads me to “safety” issues. First, if you choose to can on your stove and it is a glass top be careful. Nana has a friend whose stovetop was broken due to the weight of canning on it. I also know of ladies who have never had a problem. Just a warning in case you don’t know. I personally err on the side of caution and choose not to can several quarts on the glass stovetop. Second, we choose not to use a pressure canner. Accidents are a huge possibility when using a pressure cooker for canning. Granny says Geneva got her hand almost clear cut off and Betty was picking beans out of her curtains months later after a jar exploded. Granny said she stopped using a pressure canner when that happened to Geneva. I did have some reservations about this at first. Especially since all my friends were using pressure canning; however, after much thought we decided what we were doing was safe and fine. I’ll go into more of those reservations when I get to how we can our green beans.

So, all that being said…I look forward to inviting you into my kitchen. Join me tomorrow when I talk about an easy option to preserve tomatoes.