Winter Canning

There are different reasons why I pull out my canning tools in the middle of winter.  Some years, I freeze my summer fruits when they are ripe and pull them out in the dead of winter to make jams and jellies when I want the house to warm up with all that cooking time verses in the middle of a heat wave in July.  Last year I was making maple syrup and needed to bring out the jars and lids for putting up the syrup (which is almost gone so maple syrup season should be just around the corner).  This time it was red potatoes that were determined to sprout and shrivel before they could be used.

I had never canned potatoes before, but I have used store bought canned potatoes as a quick camp meal.  I par-cooked the rest of what was in storage for easy peeling.  I left most whole but halved the larger ones to fit through the mouth of the jar.  I heated new water with canning salt for the fluid and pressure canned them according to the recommended pounds and time.  One jar oddly lost all its fluid and had to go right into the refrigerator for use now.  The others sealed well and are now back in the basement on the shelf.

The other item that needed to be processed into a finished product was my spaghetti squash.  I had some rot starting on one, so I pulled the whole bin out of the basement to process.  I cut into quarters and stood them up in my deep stainless steel pan with some water just in the very bottom to help steam them.  A good size sheet of foil capped it all.  It took about two hours to bake all the squash until it was soft, but it was worth it.  I scraped all of it out, drained the excess liquid and froze it in vacuum sealed bag for individual meals.

The last of the Ailsa Craig onions were also starting to sprout.  I cut and sliced them all on a mandolin and froze what I didn't use for immediate cooking needs.  Part of that was pulling out more soup bones (you get lots of soup bones with half a cow) and cooked up a hearty beef broth which I also processed in the pressure canner for later use.  The meat which came off the bones went into the freezer for addition to soup or casseroles at another date.  I used the Tattler lids for this for the first time.  They are reusable canning lids with rubber rings that are BPA free.  Only one did not seal that had to be used instead of stored.  I figure it was beginner error since it was my first time using this set up.  The rest are holding their own.

Rather than compost things that I can't get on the table fast enough, winter canning and freezing provides another option to extending the harvest season.