One of my goals this year was to turn my gardening hobby into something more. While it’s definitely fun to grow your own edibles, it’s even more fun to find ways to store those edibles to last you well past summer.
Last year, I bought a couple canning books on Amazon with good intentions, but was quickly overwhelmed and intimidated by all the steps and warnings. Maybe canning just wasn’t for me, I thought, so I tucked the books in the back of my cookbook shelf. In the spring, I ran a series called Adventures in Homesteading and I decided I simply could not run the series without a post on canning. It was time to get over my fears. Not only have I conquered my fear of canning this year, I’ve found I enjoy it. REALLY enjoy it.
Today I wanted to share with you what some of my misconceptions of canning were in hopes that if you’ve been on the fence, you’ll get off and join me!
Misconception #1: It’s too Expensive to Get Started.
I had this notion in my head that canning equipment was really, really expensive. The truth is, some canning equipment may be expensive, but what you need to get started is surprisingly inexpensive!
If you plan on canning items like jams, jellies, and fruits (think high acid products), a boiling-water canner like the one pictured above is suitable. I paid about $20 for mine at Bed, Bath & Beyond. If you already have a big pot like this? Great! All you need is a metal rack you can insert into the pot. (Here’s one on Amazon for about $13.)
I did buy the above utensil kit for about $10 as well, and am glad I did. I regularly use each of the four items included: a jar lifter, spatula for removing air bubbles, magnetic lid lifter and funnel. You could perhaps make due with similar items you already have in your kitchen or home.
All told, I spent about $30 on my canning equipment! Now there are ways you can save on the pressure canners, too, which are necessary for canning low-acid foods such as beans, corn, and meat. Fred Meyer, for instance, has these on clearance right now for 50%, plus you can use extra bonus coupons they have in their ad. This is a good time to watch for additional clearance sales as many stores are looking to move out canning supplies to make way for holiday displays.
As far as jars go, you will end up spending a bit more if you buy new, but you can also look for used jars on sites such as Craiglist or at garage sales and just buy the lids (which are just a couple bucks at the grocery store – and NOTE, you CANNOT reuse lids, so you will need these). I started small, just buying a case of quart-sized and a case of pint-sized jars. This is another way you can help watch your costs. (Refer to my post on Saving on Canning Supplies & Jars for more thoughts on this topic.)
If you’re not sure canning is for you? Chances are you have a friend or family member who has a boiling-water canner you could borrow and give it a try!
Misconception #2: Canning is too tricky
The truth is if you can follow a recipe, you can can!
It’s important to follow each of the steps in a trusty recipe (such as found in this Ball Book of Preserving) to the “t.” However, none of the steps are that tricky. It’s just making sure to do each of them! I’ve found I like to read a recipe, then read it a second time, then start.
The first few times it took me awhile to work through each step, but after you’ve gotten used to the process of prepping your canner and jars and you know how to heat the lids and remove the air bubbles, you’ll find these extra steps to the recipe aren’t very difficult or time consuming.
Misconception #3: Canning is only for people with very large gardens
Another idea I had is that canning was really only for people who had acres and acres of stuff growing or orchards of fruit trees. Guess what? Here again I was wrong!
Canning is an excellent way to preserve produce that may be found at a good sale at the store. Here are some $1 pineapples I canned a couple weeks ago:
I also canned plenty of blackberry jam from FREE wild blackberries I found in my neighborhood over the summer!
I was also surprised that my ONE garden tomato plant made up a batch of 5 quarts of tomatoes recently, too!
Cooking in small batches like this has helped me get the hang of the process involved. There’s no need to start by buying 200 pounds of tomatoes or 12 boxes of apples. Starting small has also helped me determine what we’ll actually use and like to eat – a good thing before you make tons of pear sauce only to discover no one likes it.
Misconception #4: Canning will take a lot of time
Sure, it could take a lot of time! But I’ve preferred to work in small batches (as mentioned above) on simple recipes that I can easily accomplish in the space of an evening or Saturday morning.
Canning tomatoes probably took me about a couple hours, and about the same for most of my jams. A good portion of this time was spent processing the jars in the water bath, too.
I do think it would be fun once I’ve really got this down to spend a weekend with girlfriends canning quarts and quarts of good food, but for right now, I really just enjoy spending a couple hours here and there on a single recipe. It does not have to be a huge time zapper.
Misconception #5: Canning doesn’t offer much benefit over buying at the store
From a cost standpoint, you could probably save money by buying cans of veggies and fruits in the store on sale and with coupons. But what took me completely by surprise?
The pride I feel when I look at all the lovely food I’ve canned this year! My husband got this awesome sturdy, storage unit for FREE recently and let me use it out in the garage to keep some of my stockpile. I decided it would be perfect to store (and display!) my canned food as well as keep some of my produce cold. (I keep my garden-grown onions out in a box on top, too.)
I love knowing the quality of the produce that’s in these jars. See those tomatoes? I bought that plant, cared for it all summer, didn’t use any chemicals, let the tomatoes ripen on the vine, and canned them within hours of being picked. I don’t have to worry about BPA, either, which I know is a growing concern for some. There’s value to that.
If you’re looking to get started? Here are a few items I’d recommend (please note these are Amazon links and prices & selection there may change at any time):
- Ball Book of Preserving (about $12 now on Amazon)
- Granite Ware Boiling-Water Canner (about $18 now on Amazon)
- Ball Utensil Set (about $11 now on Amazon)
And here are a few related posts you might want to read:
- Canning applesauce
- Canning tomatoes
- Canning kiwi jam & ambrosia
- Saving on canning supplies
- Wild blackberry picking & preserving
- Reflecting on the harvest
- How to grow garlic
I’d love to hear your thoughts whether you’re an old pro at canning or a newbie like myself! What excites you about canning your own food? Or, do you think this activity is not worth the time and effort involved? Sound off.
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you so much for showing others that canning can be easy and when you think about it reusing the things you bought over and over again will bring the cost of your canning down to the point where it will be more cost effective. The only thing that caught my eye is you are using the jar grabber thingy upsidedown but heck I don’t even know what the thing is called so who cares what I think. Just found it cute. Shows you don’t have to do it perfectly to do it right. Keep up the good work spreading the good word.
Am I seriously using it upside down! No wonder it’s not always the easiest to use! Oh my goodness, I’m laughing so hard right now! That would be totally something I’d do!
Thank you so much for stopping by and making me smile!
I had some of the same misconceptions you did before I started canning three or four years ago. Now I’m hooked. I’m still afraid of a pressure canner so I don’t can vegetables or meats, but I have a blast doing fruits and jams and pickles. I love opening a jar of peaches or pickles in midwinter. I confess that my favorite part, though, is seeing all the jars lined up on the shelves.
YES! Can you tell I lined mine all up neatly to show them off?
I haven’t pressure canned, but I’m thinking I’d like to try next year. I love making my own vegetable broth for soups – it’d be nice to have some on hand, and I’ve heard canning green beans is pretty simple, too.
I also only learned to can this summer – both water bath and pressure canner. I also just do small batches at one time. Have some pie pumpkins sitting on the table waiting their turn. I’m 72 — so anyone can learn and it’s never too late. Thank you so much for your posts.
Oh my gosh! I love this, Donna! Can I ask what you’ve done in the pressure canner? I’d love to venture into that next year.
Hi Angela,
This is a GREAT article! I started canning three years ago, and I just wanted to mention that before I bought a canning pot, I used my stock pot with a kitchen towel to keep the jars from bumping on the bottom of my pot while processing them- it worked really well and was free!
Thank you so much for sharing that tip, Laura!!
I have been canning for about 16 years. Started when a dear friend of mine (in her 80′s) showed me how to can tuna & tomato soup.
love looking at all my canned goods. my family has allergies & also we dislike all those chemicals etc. in food.
Since then I have experimented with many different recipes of my own. Love doing different soups and canning anything I can get inexpensively.
And I also reuse some of my canning lids. But you have to know which ones are still good.
Enjoyed reading your post about canning. Your canned food on the shelves looked great, but one caution here. I had been storing mine in the garage also but read on one of the canning sites that that may not be wise in certain parts of the country. Maintaining temperatures below 78º is very important for food safety, and also above 50º. I checked the temperature, and sure enough, during the summer my garage was as high as 85º so I moved my food storage , some in the house, and some to the basement.
I live in the PNW where it stays cold!
Great article! I have been canning for almost 20 years & still learn something new every year. Don’t be afraid to try out that pressure canner. As long as you follow the instructions all will go great. There is nothing better than grabbing a jar of homegrown goodness & not have to worry about what is in it.
We have generous friends who hunt so I can a lot of meat, especially wild hog. The security that having those jars tucked away in the cupboard gives me is phenomenal. Yes, you were using the jar lifter upside down, but as long as you didn’t get burned it’s all good. I have my grandma’s old jar lifter and as a teenager I had no idea what it was for or how to use it so I’d been using it upside down as tongs until I ran across a picture in an old housekeeping book that had a drawing that showed a happy housewife using one. Another nifty tool is the Sure Tight Band Tool by Ball, the county extension agent that taught my pressure canning class introduced me to it and it’s been very handy.
I really want to try canning next year! It sounds scary, but the internet is such a great source of information (plus now I have a whole year to brush up and prepare). My family is both slowly learning to stockpile and eat healthier, and part of both of those (at least for us) is making things as often as we can from scratch. The garlic is a great idea, I’m so excited to give that a try next spring!
Angela, I am glad to see that you are venturing into canning. I grew up helping my mom can. I have been doing a little bit here and there since living here in the PNW. This year, I didn’t do any jams though. Just never got to them. I did do pineapples this year. I had to can pineapples twice this year since we are eating them like candy. My kids have sworn they will never eat store bought canned pineapple ever again. The color difference was just amazing. I am currently finishing up applesauce. We went to Terry’s Berrys this past weekend and picked 130 lbs of apples. I am also going to make a couple batches of apple butter also. My best piece of advice in regards to canning, NEVER reuse a lid, even if it looks alright to so. I, personally just wouldn’t trust them. I haven’t done pressure canning yet. I need to find a place to get my gauge checked to make sure it is working properly. One last thing, I love your blog and your posts. Thanks for all do to help us.
Thank you so much for this post (and your website, it’s great!) I would love to try canning, maybe in a couple of years when my youngest does not need constant supervision and I catch up on our laundry.
Have you done pickles yet? If you find a good recipe, please share.
Haha! That’s hilarious about the jar grabber! Just shows that we all do things differently to get to the same result!
I have done a lot of canning in the past… Veggies, like corn, are better frozen, though. By the time you’ve processed it in the pressure canner, then cooked it for the minimum 20 minutes after opening it, it has cooked for at least an hour – it’s like chewing little rocks!
Another hint – Best Foods Mayo jars work with the lids! Save them and they’re free! Any jar that goes around and around will work. the type with broken up groove thingies won’t work….
I’ve read in multiple places that reusing commercial jars is a no-no?
As long as you use the right kind of screw-top (like the ones ones best foods mayo), you’re okay! I used dozens of them when I did a lot of canning when my kids were small!
The only problem I ever had was with pears…. Each child could sit and eat a whole quart jar for a snack! That was a lot of pears in there!
Yay! And good for you. My grandma did canning, but I never learned at her knee…my mom never canned. I started canning young, probably in my early 20s (self-taught, like you) and now at 57, I still can. My family loves to get a bag or box at Christmas filled with jams/jellies, etc. I am about to concur my fear of pressure canning soon (I bought a pressure canner at Freddies 2 years ago) and hope to crack it open soon! However, I cannot stress enough about the USDA guidelines, I am a stickler for canning by the rules (I would not want to make anyone sick) so I sterilize and if I feel my jars are not quite full enough, I use those first. On another note, a neighbor of mine has been giving me lots of canned goods; the first jar I opened was applesauce…IT WAS MOLDY. We went out to dinner and I asked her how long she had been canning and she said 30 years. hmmmm. I still take the food, but I am not sure we will eat it, so sad. Good luck with your new endeavors!
I canned for years when my kids were little and this past couple of years started again. I started with apple butter a couple of years ago, last year jams, and this year we did jams, green beans, tomatoes,salsa and tomato juice, and can’t forget the pickles. my garden didn’t produce as well as yours, but the local farmers markets were a great source plus farm like Duris who sells not only the produce but also the supplies. I’m like you I love it, I know what we are eating and it is so rewarding to see the jars filled with food, and know I did it. Jams and jellies with a loaf of friendship bread make awesome gifts. Just tell them if they want refills you want your jars back and believe me they will return them
Sorry forgot to add with the new pressure canners I found out you can’t blow them up, they have a new pressure gauge that will come off before they will blow like the old ones, I’ve never had one blow up on me, and its not any harder using the pressure canner than the hot water bath. Also you can use the the pressure canner bottom with a regular lid for a hot water bath Just follow the guidelines eat the food within the year and enjoy
Thanks so much for the reassurance!
I have loved this series of yours and it came at the perfect time too. We moved into a house with existing fruit trees and lots of blackberries. I now have lots of lovely jars of plum and blackberry jam and apples waiting to be sauced. The kids helped pick the berries so they are proud of all the jars too, definitely prefering “their” homemade jam over the store’s. Thanks for these encouraging posts!
Oh, and don’t be so proud of those jars that you hang onto them forever. My canning reinspired my mom and in the process of pulling out all the equipment we found jam canned in 1999! Not moldy, but very runny and inedible.
Yeah…it’s tempting to treat those jars like trophies! I actually only recently started opening them to you know…EAT, and I’m finding it’s kind of hard parting with them!
I’m sure I’ll get over it soon.
Thanks for your kind comment, Sarah! Happy canning.
Great job, Angela and a wonderful post:) I’m about to do my first real canning. Two years ago a friend gave me some homemade pear jam – to die for. So far I only froze my own garden goodies, but now I’m working up to canning and drying my herbs. Not sure what I’ll do first, maybe applesauce and apple jelly and whatever they have for cheap at the local farmer’s – flea market.
I’m enjoying all your comments and just have to add a couple of my own.
I’m 74, and remember my mom canning and making jams and jellies when I was small. As a young wife and mother I canned a lot – 120 quarts of peaches each year for a few years – half for my own family and half for my mom. She provided her own jars and sugar and I provided the peaches – we had a peach orchard – and the labor.
Seven years ago we went to Alaska. Friends offered us the use of their pressure canner. I went to the extension office in Soldotna and got some information plus some first hand advice from the lady who worked there. I put up 96 pints of sockeye salmon – which my husband and I caught and he filleted. I also put up 14 1/2 pints of clams which we dug.
The pressure canner was easy and fun and since then I bought one for myself.
Just relax and enjoy your canning and think of how beautiful your shelves will look and how much pleasure you’ll get from serving the wonderful foods you preserved, over the cold winter months!
Angela, thanks so much for this series, both my grandma’s canned & so did my mom when i was a kid. I recently started doing freezer jam & bought the canning kit from Basha’s last thanksgiving but i didnt use it yet. Wanting to get stated doing jam’s, peaches, pears & tomato sauce. I found Winco {for new jars- cheaper than other stores even when on sale elsehwere}, craigslist & goodwill seem to be good places for new & used jars. Thanks for sharing cant wait to get started.
I taught myself to can a few years ago, and I agree that it’s not as intimidating as I thought it would be. I don’t have a garden right now (sniff!) but I love being able to take advantage of an awesome deal on in-season fruits and vegetables, as well as be able to make some unique jams and other condiments that I would otherwise have to pay big $$$ for at a specialty store. My summer fave is peach jalapeno jam and my winter fave is lemon ginger marmalade.
I have a question: Your garage storage looks awesome! I have been a little leery to store produce in the garage because we catch a mouse in the house once a year or so, so I’m sure they are in the garage too. But I know it would be great for potatoes, onions, winter squash, etc. Have you had a problem with pests in the garage? How do you avoid getting mice or bugs in your food?