Comments on: I can’t can

By: Jackie

Jackie — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:15:46 +0000

Hey Leah! The canning went really well on Thursday. Here’s how I did it:
1) Boil peaches for 2 minutes. Now the skin is easy to peel off.
2) Once all skin is peeled, chop up peaches. (I wanted my preserves to be a little chunky so I chopped them into 8ths)
3) Put cut peaches into large pot and add sugar - no water needed! (I used enough sugar to equal about 1/3 the amount of peaches - if you use less it will be less sweet and syrupy and add more if you want it to be more sweet and syrupy). Feel free to add a little lemon juice (I did) and other accompaniments (like minced ginger or almond extract- which I’ll have to try next time).
4) Heat up on the stove top so that everything comes to a boil and then bring down the temperature so that it simmers. (I let my preserves simmer for about 45 minutes but it depends on how syrupy you want your peaches to get and how many peaches you have in your pot.)
5) While everything is simmering, sterilize your jars ! You can do this by (carefully!) dropping your jars into a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes. Remove jars and set aside to cool.
6) Once peach mixture has simmered long enough fill each jar with preserves leaving 1/4″ room at the top.
7) Screw on lid tightly (but not too tightly!) and drop jars (again-carefully!) into a pot of boiling water. You will notice little bubbles coming up from the jars. This process will properly seal the cans so that they are shelf stable. Let the cans sit in the boiling water for 20-30 minutes.
7) Carefully remove sealed jars from pot and set on counter to cool for 24 hours.
8) Enjoy your peach preserves during the winter (and now if ya can’t wait to try ‘em)! ;)

By: Sarah Tuttle

Sarah Tuttle — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:09:26 +0000

Oh! (can you tell i found your blog today? its made my morning). We live in New York, and have canned (not this season yet). Its actually really sad, because its gotten quite expensive to get cans & bands and the like (I suspect because so few people do it these days). Easy long term canning? Water bath. I’ve never used a pressure cooker. They freak me out. I’m sure if we actually had… dirt, and therefore much of a garden, I might get brave. Water bath canning requires more acidity, so fruity things are easier, or tomato things… which is great, because those are two things that are terrible in the winter (unless they come alllllll the way from watsonville, CA….)

By: Tzimmes-Maker

Tzimmes-Maker — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:57:41 +0000

canning workshop at the dec food conference? eh?

By: Jackie Topol

Jackie Topol — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:56:30 +0000

Hi Leah,
This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Here at Adamah, we’ve been freezing a great deal of summer squash and zucchini. Today was the first day we pureed a whole crate full of our delicious tomatoes in tomato sauce and our pickling is still going strong (though it’s slowing down). I’ve learned a lot from being here and I hope that I’ll be able to adapt what we’re doing here in my own home oneday.
Anna and I went peach picking at a local orchard on Sunday and I’m making my first batch of peach preserves EVER on Thursday night. I’ll let you know how it goes !
-Jackie

By: Michael Croland

Michael Croland — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:45:46 +0000

The title is brilliant!!