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Canning And Preserving


mdt

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I love black mission figs, and I bought some last week at Balducci's and then a big box at Trader Joe's yesterday. Jonathan does not like figs, and I was faced with the possibility that I wouldn't eat them all before they went bad. So I made a conserve with the figs, the zest and juice of an orange, some sugar, a healthy slug of Pernod and a sprinkling of powdered lavender. And though I intended to reduce it significantly I added about 3/4 tsp. of apple pectin, from a bulk container I bought at Surfa's in L.A. I didn't have enough figs to make a multi jar batch. I ended up with a full pint jar and a little bit extra, which I just ate with a spoon because it turned out so freakin' delicious. This jam is for me. I'm not giving any away. I'm just going to keep it in the fridge and have it with cheese. Well, maybe if someone comes over, I might share a little.

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We went a little crazy last weekend doing the PYO thing at Crooked Run Orchard and ended up with 11 pounds of blackberries, and way too many peaches. We made up about 4 pints of blackberry jam, 5 pints of what was supposed to be peach jam which didn't set once again and ended up being peach syrup for pancakes, waffles, and ice cream. We also canned 6 quarts of peach halves in light syrup for the winter and still ended up freezing at least two quarts of blackberries for a mid-winter crumble.

When we go for pears in a few weeks we will have to try and be restrained. We did manage to eat an entire bucket of apples within a week however.

Do you add any Fruit Fresh (Vitamin C) to your peaches before you canned the halves? Also, did you cook the peaches a bit before canning or did you can them raw?

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Do you add any Fruit Fresh (Vitamin C) to your peaches before you canned the halves? Also, did you cook the peaches a bit before canning or did you can them raw?
You have to cook the peaces or they will turn brown even with ascorbic acid. A few things don't need to be cooked such as cherries before pickling but pears,apples,peaches do. Don't wing this! Use a recipe!
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You have to cook the peaces or they will turn brown even with ascorbic acid. A few things don't need to be cooked such as cherries before pickling but pears,apples,peaches do. Don't wing this! Use a recipe!

I've been looking at a few different recipes but they seemed to offer differing opionions on cooking/not cooking. Thanks for the experienced recommendation!

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If you process the peaches in a water-bath or pressure canner after covering them with hot sugar syrup, they will get cooked in the jars.

One recipe I saw called for precooking them for 5 minutes before putting them in jars and processing for an additional 25 minutes or putting them in raw and processing for 30 minutes. The total cooking time is the same but some online reviews claimed to prefer one or the other. I will probably do the precooking method since I would imagine that you could pack cooked peaches a little more densely in the jars.

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Hi Everyone-

I am a new canner. I had mild success with jam earlier in the summer (who was it that said jam is easy to make and hard to make well?) I am looking for a peach salsa recipe that includes tomatoes and is safe for hot water bath canning. Does anyone out there have a recipe? I'd be most appreciative!!

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Our elderly neighbor came by the other night to offer us some ripe figs from his trees. He was the one who gave my mother-in-law the cutting that became our tree, and he had some of the same brown figs that we are now getting in abundance. But he also brought a second variety, a bright green Kadota fig, that was about ten times more delicious than the brown ones we have. He gave my MIL the wrong cutting, that's for sure! We ate some of the ripe green figs with some cheese, and the remaining few I mixed with the figs that I've picked from our tree, to make two different fig preserves. The first, which I'd started before he showed up, is made with French lavender honey, powdered lavender flowers, fresh bay leaf, a splash of St. Germaine elderflower liqueur and lemon juice and zest. It was macerating in the fridge overnight, and I added some of the Kadota figs before I cooked it up and packed the jars. The second type, which is made with the less tasty brown figs mixed with some dried black mission figs from California, is more heavily spiced with cinnamon, star anise and cardamom, orange juice and zest and a splash of Pernod. I don't have a great number of jars of either type, but since I only made a small amount of other jams this summer, I will use the fig preserves as hostess and Christmas gifts and save the sour cherry (Jonathan's favorite) and brandied apricot preserves for our own consumption.

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One recipe I saw called for precooking them for 5 minutes before putting them in jars and processing for an additional 25 minutes or putting them in raw and processing for 30 minutes. The total cooking time is the same but some online reviews claimed to prefer one or the other. I will probably do the precooking method since I would imagine that you could pack cooked peaches a little more densely in the jars.

I canned the peaches and meh. They taste better than storebought but they still taste like canned peaches. I brought another half bushel home from PA this weekend and I'll be simply slicing and freezing these.

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How do you prep them for the freezer? Last year the ones I did stayed good only about through December.

I was just going to slice and vacuum pack in bags but after I saw your question I did a bit of googling and ended up adding a bit of light syrup and ascorbic acid to the bags before vacuum sealing them.

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I took a sack of very ripe Italian prune plums found on sale at Balducci's a few days ago and mixed them with some under-ripe plums I'd gotten at the Dupont Market and made a spiced plum preserve with lavender, Creme de Violette, orange zest, after an overnight maceration that included cinnamon stick and bay leaf with the previously mentioned flavor elements.

Cooking it down using the recommended method in Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber (although the recipe was my own) resulted in only five half-pint jars. But the flavor is very intense.

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Cooking it down using the recommended method in Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber (although the recipe was my own) resulted in only five half-pint jars. But the flavor is very intense.

I love that book. It has been a great resource not only for recipes, but also for inspiration. Once I started macerating everything in her 1 kilo of fruit to 800 g of sugar ratio, all my preserves became both more beautiful in the jars and more flavorful. The plum sounds wonderful, as does the fig you mentioned above. I have a fig tree in a pot, and I'm hoping it does well once I get it in the ground.

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I had a few hours last night and did some experimentation with home canning dried beans. I have no real good reason for doing this, except that I have an aversion to buying canned beans because they always have an odd taste to me, and they tend to be mushy in texture. Having cooked beans around seems to be positively correlated with eating beans, even though I have a pressure cooker and can, in theory, prepare them on a whim. My old method was to cook a huge pot full and freeze them in individual containers. Freezer space is more limited than shelf space, however, and those in the food blogosphere promise home-canned beans have nice texture and flavor. So a pound of black beans and a little over a pound of garbanzos got processed last night. One pound of dried beans made four pints of cooked beans. Here is the method I used - it is identical to the one in my old Ball Blue Book, although this one concedes that you can quick soak. The only thing I changed is that I did not throw out the soaking water and use fresh for the final cooking. I'm curious to find out how they taste and will probably have some of the garbanzos at lunch.

I also started some pink pickled turnips. I went a little overboard on the beet, and it appears that I will have fuchsia pickled turnips, but as long as they taste good I'll be happy. Searching with Google, I found recipes for making them with brine only - a fermented pickle - and with vinegar. I have no experience with making fermented sour pickles, so I used vinegar.

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The only time I tried canning, I processed several jars of pickles. I forget whose recipe it was, but I got it from the Post. I didn't have a proper setup but followed the directions as best I could, using the largest stockpot I have. Since I wasn't sure if I'd done everything correctly, I decided to refrigerate the jars, even though everything had been boiled, etc.

Subsequently I saw someone (maybe Heather) say that home-processed pickles should be kept no longer than a year. Does that also hold true if they've been refrigerated the entire time?

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The only time I tried canning, I processed several jars of pickles. I forget whose recipe it was, but I got it from the Post. I didn't have a proper setup but followed the directions as best I could, using the largest stockpot I have. Since I wasn't sure if I'd done everything correctly, I decided to refrigerate the jars, even though everything had been boiled, etc.

Subsequently I saw someone (maybe Heather) say that home-processed pickles should be kept no longer than a year. Does that also hold true if they've been refrigerated the entire time?

That's the official line, although if the jars are sealed they should last longer. If they are in sealed jars, and refrigerated, you are probably OK. If it's an open jar that's more than a year old I would pitch it.

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That's the official line, although if the jars are sealed they should last longer. If they are in sealed jars, and refrigerated, you are probably OK. If it's an open jar that's more than a year old I would pitch it.
Thanks. They're sealed and refrigerated and about 1 1/2 years old. When the initial excitement of homemade pickles wore off, my consumption of them dropped off sharply. I think I already disposed of any jars that were open, but if I come across one, I'll be sure to pitch it.
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^I won't admit the ages of some canned foods I've eaten. :rolleyes: I figure if the seal is intact, it has nice color, and it still smells and tastes good, it's fair game, although for the most part, I try to use things quickly. Sometimes, though, there's that renegade jar that hides in the back of the cabinet...

In other news I'm happy to report that the home-canned chick peas are delicious. Creamy texture but firm enough to hold their shape. I'm so pleased because the frozen ones always ended up in hummus because of the soft texture. I'll be able to use these in dishes where they need to be whole.

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^I won't admit the ages of some canned foods I've eaten. :rolleyes: I figure if the seal is intact, it has nice color, and it still smells and tastes good, it's fair game, although for the most part, I try to use things quickly. Sometimes, though, there's that renegade jar that hides in the back of the cabinet...

In other news I'm happy to report that the home-canned chick peas are delicious. Creamy texture but firm enough to hold their shape. I'm so pleased because the frozen ones always ended up in hummus because of the soft texture. I'll be able to use these in dishes where they need to be whole.

Found a steak in my deep freeze that has been there for 5 years. Eat or pitch?

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Thanks. They're sealed and refrigerated and about 1 1/2 years old. When the initial excitement of homemade pickles wore off, my consumption of them dropped off sharply. I think I already disposed of any jars that were open, but if I come across one, I'll be sure to pitch it.
Eating things past their expiration date is on the 'food machismo' list (I don.t know the feminine equivalent). Other items on the list:

- very rare roast beef

- caesar salad with raw egg

- oysters harvested by sleazy friend

- liquor (moonshine?) from unlabeled jar.

- mountain oysters

The list is endless. With canning, if something looks OK, and smells OK it probably is. The risk of botulism is low. The government, however, would not approve.

I had a friend who would take a bite out of a beer glass, then spit it out. Very impressive. He was dreadfully afraid of bacon past its expiration date.

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Found a steak in my deep freeze that has been there for 5 years. Eat or pitch?

I'm not an expert on meat, but it's my guess that it will taste distinctively like freezer and not be worth the trouble of cooking it. Otherwise, I've heard stories of people eating meat from animals that were preserved for centuries by glaciers or other ice, so assuming proper cooking, you'll probably survive. Then again, I don't work for the USDA. :rolleyes:

The list is endless. With canning, if something looks OK, and smells OK it probably is. The risk of botulism is low. The government, however, would not approve.

The government would not approve of most of my canning. I use the dreaded steam canner that has not been tested, so is deemed "unsafe." With acid, sugar, or brine, I don't worry. When it comes to something like low-acid and pressure canning, I'm there on the USDA site taking notes.

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I'm not an expert on meat, but it's my guess that it will taste distinctively like freezer and not be worth the trouble of cooking it. Otherwise, I've heard stories of people eating meat from animals that were preserved for centuries by glaciers or other ice, so assuming proper cooking, you'll probably survive. Then again, I don't work for the USDA. :rolleyes:

The meat is in a cryovac bag which should keep out any bad flavors. I guess I will thaw it at some point and see if it passes the sniff test.

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I would like to freeze the fantastic shelled English peas now available at farmers markets. Can you simply place uncooked peas in a freezer bag or should you blanch them first? If blanching is required, about how long should I blanch them for? My plan is to preserve as many peas and fresh corn on the cob as possible to use in the Fall and Winter! Thanks!

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I would like to freeze the fantastic shelled English peas now available at farmers markets. Can you simply place uncooked peas in a freezer bag or should you blanch them first? If blanching is required, about how long should I blanch them for? My plan is to preserve as many peas and fresh corn on the cob as possible to use in the Fall and Winter! Thanks!

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I would like to freeze the fantastic shelled English peas now available at farmers markets. Can you simply place uncooked peas in a freezer bag or should you blanch them first? If blanching is required, about how long should I blanch them for? My plan is to preserve as many peas and fresh corn on the cob as possible to use in the Fall and Winter! Thanks!

Click me.

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I would like to freeze the fantastic shelled English peas now available at farmers markets. Can you simply place uncooked peas in a freezer bag or should you blanch them first? If blanching is required, about how long should I blanch them for? My plan is to preserve as many peas and fresh corn on the cob as possible to use in the Fall and Winter! Thanks!
The only way that this would make sense, is if you grow peas yourself and have an abundance of plants and the time to shell and blanch all of those peas. They are extremely expensive when you buy them, in terms of the price per pound/usable food ratio. Corn is a different story--I froze a lot of corn when I had a big garden, and it's not that hard to do. But really, the quality of frozen peas will not be anything like fresh. And if you do it, I think you will have a hard time telling the difference with good quality commercial frozen peas, which will be a LOT cheaper.
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Shifting gears, a couple of days ago I made ramp vinegar, an idea I will freely admit I stole from a vendor at the Old Town farmer's market. (Biggs I think?) I couldn't bring myself to cook the things, trend or no. I could smell them through three bags. So off they are in a bottle of vinegar (that will now knock you clear across the room if you open it) so I can add small quantities of rampessence to various things that have yet to occur to me.

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I would like to freeze the fantastic shelled English peas now available at farmers markets. Can you simply place uncooked peas in a freezer bag or should you blanch them first? If blanching is required, about how long should I blanch them for? My plan is to preserve as many peas and fresh corn on the cob as possible to use in the Fall and Winter! Thanks!

2 years ago, I stocked up on fresh corn on the cob and froze it in vacuum-sealed bags. I can tell you that freezing is not kind to corn. My sense is that flash-frozen corn from the supermarket is better out of season. If I did freeze fresh corn again, I'd take it off the cobb, because it's really not the same as when you cook it right out of the field in summer. Have you had better luck or a better method with corn?

Inspired by Stefano's beautifully simple tomato sauces at the 14th St. market, I am determined to overcome my fear of canning and make tomato sauce (and maybe even jams, *gulp*) this year.

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2 years ago, I stocked up on fresh corn on the cob and froze it in vacuum-sealed bags. I can tell you that freezing is not kind to corn. My sense is that flash-frozen corn from the supermarket is better out of season. If I did freeze fresh corn again, I'd take it off the cobb, because it's really not the same as when you cook it right out of the field in summer. Have you had better luck or a better method with corn?

Inspired by Stefano's beautifully simple tomato sauces at the 14th St. market, I am determined to overcome my fear of canning and make tomato sauce (and maybe even jams, *gulp*) this year.

I read up somewhere that the best way to freeze fresh corn is to blanch it first. I'll have to find the link and send it along to you.

I'm going to try my hand at tomato sauce and strawberry jam this year too! Hopefully my attempts will be successful enough to blog about!

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I read up somewhere that the best way to freeze fresh corn is to blanch it first. I'll have to find the link and send it along to you.

I'm going to try my hand at tomato sauce and strawberry jam this year too! Hopefully my attempts will be successful enough to blog about!

Please do...I was a bit dissappointed when in the middle of winter, I pulled out my summer corn and found it water-logged and not as flavorful.

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I read up somewhere that the best way to freeze fresh corn is to blanch it first. I'll have to find the link and send it along to you.
The best way to freeze corn is to briefly blanch the cobs, then cut the kernels off the cobs. Dry the kernels off and spread them in a single layer on a sheet pan that was lined with parchment or wax paper. Put the sheet pan into the freezer for 6-8 hours. Use a spatula to scrape up the frozen kernels and then bag them in freezer strength zip lock bags. Make sure that they don't thaw before you get them back into the freezer, or they will clump up and have lousy texture. This tray method, minus the blanching, is the best way to freeze berries.
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I freeze a ton of corn (although maybe not with as much care as Zora describes), and I find it's okay as long as you are careful what you use it in. Soup, stew, chilli are all fine, but it doesn't hold up so well for salads or salsas. This is fine by me--I use frozen stuff in winter foods, and eat my salads & salsas in summer when it's fresh.

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Does anyone have any go to guides/books/lists of techniques/recipes for someone who is interested in learning more about the process of canning (and obviously eventually picking it up :( ). It's something I've always wanted to check out but never (until now!) looked into it. Any tips/ideas would be very much appreciated !

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Does anyone have any go to guides/books/lists of techniques/recipes for someone who is interested in learning more about the process of canning (and obviously eventually picking it up :( ). It's something I've always wanted to check out but never (until now!) looked into it. Any tips/ideas would be very much appreciated !

These two books are the ones I used to learn about canning and preserving. (The Ball Blue Book is still considered "the bible.")

Ball Blue Book

Putting Food By

Admittedly, we're talking about 35 years ago, and there may be some very good newer references available. I know that I've read a couple of reviews of "small batch" canning and preserving books this year that sound promising, but I can't recall the titles/authors.

Other books on the subject.

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Does anyone have any go to guides/books/lists of techniques/recipes for someone who is interested in learning more about the process of canning (and obviously eventually picking it up :( ). It's something I've always wanted to check out but never (until now!) looked into it. Any tips/ideas would be very much appreciated !

The USDA has a nice overview and recipes online. Don't let the fascist tone of the publication scare you off. :P

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Came across this article in this mornings Wall Street Journal and I thought it was interesting (this is actually the front of a section of the actual paper and is fairly prominent on their online site) so I thought I'd post it here. It made me wonder if there are classes like they mention here in DC? Don, not sure if adding this in it's entirety is cool (since it might be behind the subscription wall) so if not, I can remove.

By ANA CAMPOY

Pots are boiling on every burner and the kitchen counters are covered with a jumble of bowls, measuring cups and jars. Steam fills the house with the scent of vinegar and caramelizing sugar.

We're canning.

This two-century-old technique of preserving food—or "putting up," in canning-speak—is making a big comeback.

The worst recession in decades and a trend toward healthier eating are inspiring many Americans to grow their own food. Now the harvest season is turning many of these gardeners into canners looking to stretch the bounty of the garden into the winter.

Canning statistics are hard to come by, but Elizabeth Andress, project director of the National Center for Home Food Preservation, a government-funded program that advises consumers on how to safely preserve food, says requests for canning classes are flooding in at a rate not seen in many years.

Hundreds of cooks gathered at the end of August in simultaneous countrywide canning fests organized by Canning Across America, a new Web site for canning devotees (www.canningacrossamerica.com). At Jarden Corp.'s Jarden Home Brands—the maker of Kerr and Ball brand jars—sales of canning equipment are up 30% this year through mid-September, over the same period in 2008. And canning classes from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Boise, Idaho, report seeing skyrocketing enrollments this year.

Canning has been around since the dawn of the 19th century, when, at Napoleon's behest, a Frenchman developed a method of sealing food in bottles to prevent spoilage on long military campaigns. The process was later adapted to factory-sealed metal cans, but at home, "canning" is still practiced in thick glass jars.

Lately, canning has found new appeal as a healthier alternative to the chemicals and preservatives found in many prepared foods, says Brenda Schmidt, brand manager at Jarden. By preserving their own fruits and vegetables, people can also customize the amount of sugar or salt used. Canned foods will keep for varying lengths of time, depending on the recipe, but the National Center for Home Food Preservation says that you should can only what you plan to eat within a year.

In the weak economy, others are turning to it as a money saver. A few seeds planted in the spring can yield enough canned produce to last a year. But Ms. Andress, of the canning education program, warns that canning food isn't always cheaper than buying it from the grocery store.

I decided to take a class to find out for myself. I found a teacher through Slow Food Dallas, a chapter of an international organization that promotes traditional ingredients and food. I signed up for a private class with one other student, then bought supplies at my local farmer's market in Dallas, where I paid $8 for four pounds of fresh, firm cucumbers grown in Lipan, Texas, west of Fort Worth.

I bought vinegar, pickling salt, dill seeds and peppercorns at the supermarket and canning jars at the hardware store—all for $25.42. The canning teacher brought a big pot with a rack, which would have set me back another $25. My classmate showed up with $10 worth of peaches, some lemons and a bag of sugar. We were all set for our canning initiation.

I quickly discovered that preserving requires more rigor than my usual haphazard cooking method of tossing vegetables around in a sauté pan.

Our teacher devised an assembly line to process our two products, pickles and peach jam, to make the most of our limited counter space.

Strict Procedures

Canners must follow strict procedures, sticking to food safety guidelines issued by the U.S. Agriculture Department. The main threat is a microorganism called Clostridium botulinum, found on the surface of most produce. In a low-acid environment with no air, such as a food-filled jar, these bacteria can produce toxins that cause botulism, a deadly form of food poisoning.

One way to prevent that is by using a pressure cooker to heat food to a high temperature. The other is by adding vinegar or lemon juice to the food during canning. We used the latter technique, stuffing our fruit and vegetables into jars and then boiling them in a big pot of water.

First we washed our containers—pint and half-pint Ball brand glass jars, which have been made since 1884—in the dishwasher. Then we made the brine—a mixture of salt, water and vinegar for the pickles—and heated it on the stove. The peaches were blanched and peeled.

Peach Jam

At my station, I chopped a mound of cucumbers as best I could. I had already cut my finger by the second or third cucumber, and the slices ranged from fat to skinny. Although their irregularity was not intentional, I liked to think it gave them an artisanal quality.

Meanwhile, my classmate stirred a mixture of sugar and peaches over the stove. Recent heavy rains had forced the grower to pull them early from the tree, so they were as hard as tennis balls and refused to disintegrate. Instead of jam, we decided, we would make chunky peach preserves.

The next stop was the packing station. We squeezed as many cucumbers as we could into the jars, which were piping hot from the dishwasher. (Heating the jars prevents them from shattering when you pour in hot brine and preserves.)

Once the jars were full, we placed round metallic lids on them and held them in place with a separate ring that was screwed on over them. Then we submerged the jars in boiling water in order to destroy any microorganisms and remove oxygen. Slowly, the counter filled with jars that emitted a satisfying popping sound as the lids sealed, ensuring the food will keep without spoiling.

The Verdict: Delicious

Before the last batch was done, we were spooning peach preserves onto pieces of a baguette. The verdict: delicious, sweet, tangy and rich, despite the unripe peaches. The dill pickles had a sharp, full flavor that made store-bought versions seem overly sweet and dull.

In about four hours we produced eight one-pint jars of pickles at a cost of $2.14 each, and seven $2.60 half-pint jars of preserves. Those figures do not include our teacher's $100 fee nor the energy, water and labor we expended, but they do include all our ingredients and the jars. That's less than the $2.43 I paid for dill pickles at the supermarket, and the $3.12 I paid for store-bought preserves.

Although home-canned goods are not exactly a bargain, their taste is dramatically better and, in my view, well worth the labor. I'm not motivated enough to tackle a canning session on my own, but I'm definitely interested in team canning, which was as much fun as a dinner party and more productive.

My next canning project is already in the works. I have a bountiful crop of gypsy peppers and a good recipe for pickled peppers. All I need now are a few fellow canners to put them up.

Write to Ana Campoy at ana.campoy@dowjones.com

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Hey all, does anyone know where I could find canning materials, jars specifically, in NOVA? I have a mess of ramps to pickle, and I am going to make sauerkraut in the other. I apologize if I missed this somewhere in the topic or on the board.

-Theo

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Hey all, does anyone know where I could find canning materials, jars specifically, in NOVA? I have a mess of ramps to pickle, and I am going to make sauerkraut in the other. I apologize if I missed this somewhere in the topic or on the board.

-Theo

Theo, there's this topic on canning supplies, but it's not specific to NOVA.

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