This post will share the details of canning specifically as they apply to busy moms. Get ready for a super simple, easy to understand beginner canning tutorial, Wildflowers!
Psst! Scroll down if you want to watch the YouTube version of this post!
I know what you are probably thinking. Canning has a terrible reputation as being something that takes a ton of time, that might make you sick, that is super difficult, and that is way too complicated for a modern mom to tackle. I hear ya- I have NO interest in any of those things. Time-sucking activities have gone the way of the dinosaur in my house ever since I had kids.
I taught myself to can when I was pregnant with my first child. I grew up watching my mom and grandma can but as a teenager I had way cooler things to do then to can peaches. As an adult, I really was interested in learning so I could feed my baby homemade baby food and not worry about the junk like added sugar, preservatives, and allergens inside store-bought food. I learned how, and have been canning like crazy ever since. It has become THE tool I rely on to have healthy, homemade foods COOKED IN ADVANCE and it helps me save money and time.
I’m going to share with you today why canning can be fast, easy, and simple even if you’re an overwhelmed mom.
Canning is a way of preserving healthy fruit or veggies in glass jars using heat to sterilize the jar and to create a vacuum seal. That seal makes the jar shelf stable (on the pantry shelf, not in the fridge!) for up to a year.
The basic idea is that you put food (the preserve, such as applesauce, jam, whole fruit slices, pickles, salsa, tomato sauce, etc) into a glass canning jar, you put on the lid, and either submerge it into a boiling water bath OR set it on the rack of a steam canner (which I’ll explain in detail below and I have a whole blog post about here). You’ll set the timer for a set amount of time (dictated by a canning recipe, not your imagination) and then remove the jars from heat. The heat will seal the jar, and when the jars are cool you can store them to eat any time. It’s a science, not an art, which should be comforting to those of you who are more of type A, rule following, conscientious mom. If you’re the type B, easy going doesn’t ever follow recipes type of mom, hear me say this: You MUST follow a canning recipe because canning works because of several principles. One of these is that the contents of the jar have to be HIGH ACID. Canning recipes are all at a 4.6 acid level or greater. The inside of the jar will be too acidic for spoilers to grow. Canning creates an atmosphere inside the jar that I joke is like Mars. It gets really hot, there’s no oxygen, and it is really high in acid so nothing can live. By following a canning-specific recipe, you can be sure that the process will “work”, the jars will be safe, and your food will be delicious!
You might remember Great Aunt Nadine canning for hours and hours, working up mountains of peaches or bushels of apples. You don’t have to can huge batches, and after a batch or two, you’ll be able to can 5 or 6 jars of jam and have the dishes cleaned up in about an hour. I’m all about fast and I have many tips that will help you can quickly so you can get it all done during naptime.
Canning doesn’t take a ton of equipment. In fact, you probably have almost everything you need already! Here’s you can download a free equipment list for traditional water bath canning.
There’s a new kind of canning that you can try that I want to share with you also. The traditional boiling water bath is absolutely safe and effective so you do NOT have to try steam canning. But, steam canning saves a ton of time because you don’t have to wait for that huge pot of water to come to a boil. You also won’t need a jar lifter (one of the items on the list) and it is ideal if you are living on a sailboat, an RV, a tiny house, a yurt, cooking on propane or with solar heat, or any situation where you are short on time and heating resources. Here are the equipment list and fact sheet about steam canning that you can download for free.
Once you decide if you’ll try canning with a steam canner or a traditional water bath pot then you are ready to try canning on your own!
I know you are a busy mom and I totally get it. My kids are now 5 and 3 and I don’t have time to spend hours and hours in the kitchen. I want to help you learn how to can so you can have delicious and healthy tomato sauce preserved in jars for way less than it costs in the store. That tomato sauce can become countless dinners, and it is cooked way in advance! Imagine pasta sauce that is ready in five minutes that you MADE YOURSELF. Canning is the amazing means to do just that, Wildflowers!
Jenn from Home By Jenn and I have teamed up to put our collective genius together to bring you a super-affordable mini-course full of premium video instruction that will SHOW you, in a way a cookbook cannot, STEP BY STEP, exactly what to do when so you can can with success!
I’d like to introduce You Can Can!
Inside You Can Can you’ll find a 5 videos of me teaching you about the equipment you need, the way to set your stove up for success (What pot goes where?! Let me show you!), and the WHOLE process of canning. I’ll also show you how to set up a steam canner so you can preserve using that time-saving tool as well!
Enroll Now!For the amazing price of just $25 bucks, you can get these videos, PLUS-
- A PDF of the equipment checklists
- A canning log
- A canning season planner
- A notes section for while you’re watching, and more!
Wildflowers, you are not going to believe the BONUS SECTION that Jenn from Home By Jenn put together for you all too! She’s sharing 7 of her BEST 20 Minute Meals and all of them are linked to canning recipes that are easy, beginner friendly that you can try out TODAY.
Enroll Now!Get it now- for just $25 bucks, how could you afford not to?!
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