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| Canning jars in pantry, image courtesy of Akannie of Dragon Woman's Kitchen |
I recently saw this picture over at Akannie's blog and I told her that this inspired me and she graciously gave me permission to use it. She is a canning machine for sure. But images such as this remind me of my Grandmother and how she used to can so much every season, as my Grandfather gardened.
They kept their canned items in the cellar and I used to always ask to go down there and play. I remember staring in awe at them, glistening like jewels in a bookcase. A rainbow of colors. I SO wished I had been more involved in helping her so I could have learned. But hey, it's never too late to learn, and that's coming soon. Until then, enjoy this picture (thanks again Akannie!)
Be inspired!!
I love the jewel like tones of canned food. My mom used to can tomatoes and peaches when I was growing up. I do some canning, but honestly like the taste of frozen over canned for vegetables. So I do more freezing than canning.
ReplyDeletei have just recently changed my canning style. i used to have canning marathons and get burned out and have way more than i needed. now, when i make something, i make a much smaller amount and only can a few jars at a time. it is SO much easier and it is in amounts that we actually can use!
ReplyDeleteI am inspired! I have collected some canning jars and hope to collect some more. Now all I have to do if fill them!
ReplyDeleteCanning is not something that is popular in the UK and its very difficult to get supplies, I bought an All American Canner two years ago from the US you cannot buy them here at all they just dont exsist. I loved doing some canning at the moment it is packed away ready for the move but I intend to be canning in earnest.
ReplyDeleteI just canned 21 quarts of spaghetti sauce yesterday. Lots of work and it feels so good to have it done. Baby kept telling me how "prepared" we were having our food stored for future use.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by what is in those center, bottom quart jars in the photo.
Mama canned too many jars in one day, so she was exhausted. I could do it to when I was younger. Now, it's a few jars (water bath canner full) at one shot. Mama canned peaches, green beans, tomatoes, and jelly. I dehydrate other things now. I had an elderly friend (84) who canned as few as two or three jars at a time. She said it was all she could do at one time.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can in quarts is tomatoes. For just me, pints work best.
One thing you need to remember is to keep the canned food in the dark to keep vitamins from being destroyed.
I do love the look of canned foods.
1st Man,
ReplyDeleteHey sweetie, great picture from Akannie's blog. Once you start learning the canning process, you'll continue canning and have an entire pantry of canned goods just like this.
My Grandma who raised me half my life.... canned nearly everything we ate! We bought very little at the little bitty grocery store we went to once a week, which was 45 minutes down the mountain :O)... Big outing to go to the little store. When we went my Grandpa told me I could have the candy I could hold in my hands LOL....well I wasn't silly, I soon figured out to let my Grandpa hold my candy cuz his hands were MUCH bigger LOL... Yes my Grandparents were saints... They were sooooooooooooo good to me.. This picture makes me think of my Grannys canning closet...
ReplyDeleteWe have a cannery here. It's not used as much now, although it still opens one day a week, or something like that. I remember going there with my Mother with big washtubs full of green beans. She put them into cans (not jars) and there was a machine to seal the cans. Then they were put into a huge canner.In later years, she did home canning, and I have an aunt who still cans a lot. She's 83, healthy as can be.
ReplyDeleteI really need to learn how to can. In the UK it's just not done very much at all. I did some pears in syrup last year and they taste amazing! I've been looking into it and some say the water bath method is dangerous, what do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteKev,
ReplyDeleteGo here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/
Some things are safe in a water bath. Other things are not safe canned this way. The site I gave you is one of the leading sites for canning.
Thanks I'll check it out!
DeleteThanks for sharing the picture of my pantry ! It's even prettier here on your blog, lol. I can like a crazy woman sometimes. langela, those are quarts of peach pie filling, ready to go into a crust. We have 2 peach trees. However, it was an experiment I'm not likely to do again. It tastes okay, but is a pain to get out of the jar. lol And making peach pie filling isn't that hard anyway. I try at least one new thing every year. I also canned pickled green tomatoes last year for the first time. 1 batch of 6 pints. They're okay too--but not nearly as good as say, pickled okra or pickled beets.
ReplyDeleteKev, somethings you can water bath can. Very low acid foods can be dangerous to water bath can because of the risk of botulism. There was a time when all anyone did was water bath, but foods were different then too--tomatoes were MUCH more acidic than they are now. I still know people who only water bath, mostly because they are afraid of pressure canners. I'm not. I use both methods. And I dehydrate and freeze some things too. As for freezing, I want to be less dependent on the electrical grid, so I'm drying more and canning more all the time.
Now who wouldn't want to have THAT in their cold cellar? Pretty awesome!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous picture! Akannie, you are a kitchen artist!
ReplyDeleteBoth of my grandmothers and my parents canned and won numerous ribbons at the county fair each year. One grandma even had a pantry added onto her house just for her canned goods - she and we kids liked to go into it just to admire all the beautiful jars.
When I lived in the country, I used to go out and pick wild mustang grapes and make them into jelly. Yum!
Now that I have more time, I plan to get back into canning.
And 1st Man, you have inspired me to get a dehydrator!
Texas Rose