Canning with ease with a few good tools

I haven't posted in years. My work life has been all-consuming with managing a greenhouse and nursery. I still garden and all those things associated with it. Blogging just hasn't been on the list of things to do. Grandchildren came along and there went the rest of the time I used to use for tracking my gardening activities.

 The corona virus has given me some extra time for a couple weeks. I have been on a close contact quarantine which keeps me out of work. Windows have been washed, the garden cleaned out for winter, vegetables dug, and all those piles of mail have been sorted and filed. Now I have some time to share a little bit of canning tricks I have come up with in the past couple years.

I bought the stainless steel pans so I could cook down maple syrup. They have come in handy for other jobs including canning. I am able to blanch a large quantity of vegetables in one batch. I can steam my jars before filling them. I can process items into them and reheat for canning. They are really versatile.  

The other thing I use a lot is a Camp Chef 2-burner stove that Cabela's sells. I have seen them on Amazon as well. I can do two large kettles at one time with twice the jars...and do it outside to keep the heat out of the kitchen. 

I also have a small fondue pot with a temperature dial that works very well for sterilizing lids and not occupying a burner on the stove. I can plug it in right by my jar filling area and pop them on with a small magnetic tool that lifts them out of the hot water with no fishing around to get them. I also found a jar filling funnel with the headspace marks on the outside so no more guessing. I found a good Foley food mill at a resale store and added that to the mix.

One tool that I find indispensable in my kitchen is an immersion blender. No more pouring hot liquids into a blender or processor. I do it right in the pot that I am cooking in. I don't peel tomatoes for juice or sauce. Just core and cut cut the big ones for cooking. I blend them and then put them through the Foley mill to remove the seeds. Sauces are so much thicker without all the cooking down. Check those out in the kitchen section of the store or on line. You will love it for cream soups as well.