Grand Rapids Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Canning?
Does anyone do home canning? I was thinking of doing some canning, but I have no idea where to even begin. Anyone have any good reference books or websites they could point me too?
I'm a bit nervous, in every microbiology course I took in college the prof always managed to bring up a story of the home canner killing the family. ( I know the stories were used for shock value, just like all the stories they would tell about how many bugs live on us. eww.)
Re: Canning?
Um, well I have never canned before. So I think I am looking to do a hot water bath. I don't want to invest a lot of money into this until I know I enjoy doing it and that the H will eat it. I could see myself going hog wild and then H refusing to eat any home canned product.
And that is really sweet that you can every year with your Grandma. I wish I lived closer to mine.
Hot water bath is good for foods with high acidity (fruits and tomatoes, mainly). This website is good for explaining the differences.
http://www.mrswages.com/Page/Basic_Methods.aspx
This website looks like it goes through all the steps well. I saw at my local Family Fare that the canning supplies were 50% off this week (funnel, jar lifter, etc).
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art2816.asp
It's really a simple process once you do it a few times. Read through it a few times. Let me know if you have more questions. I can ask my grandma specifics. (She helps me A LOT-- like getting the canner to the right temp and stuff.)
Also, your H would be NUTS to prefer store canned veggies/fruit over home canned. I don't even eat veggies/fruit from cans. Blech! ;o)
Oh TY for those links! Just want I was looking for. I was starting to feel overwhelmed when I 1st started googling canning.
Any recommendations for my 1st canning experience? I was thinking of tomatoes.
Tomatoes would be easy (and cheap if you happen to mess up). The only cruddy part is that you have to cook them, then skin then before you can them.
I used to can tomatoes, but found that freezing works better, and you don't have to deal with the worries of canning.
I do beans and peaches. Sometimes apple butter. Everything else we freeze.
I canned tomatoes -- it was my first canning experience.
I actually did tomatoe sauce, and I cheated slightly.
Instead of blanching and peeling them, I quatered the tomatoes and put them in the blender. Then I let that simmer down into a tomatoe sauce.
I'll probably freeze them in the future -- I just bought a freezer about a week ago.
I want to can apple butter soon.
Mira- I went out garage sale-ing today and found a pressure canner for $10. I live a couple of hours away from GR, though. I was so bummed b/c I would have snagged it for you!
I made jam this year, too. I did the freezer kind b/c I didn't have my grandma here to help that day haha!