What are you canning now?

Ridgerunner

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That's sort of how I'd do it. Freezer space was precious with the chickens, vegetables for canning like yours let alone winter eating, plus the fruits and berries I saved until I had enough for jelly and jam. That's a big reason I never raised Cornish X meat chickens, I didn't have freezer space to put a bunch in at a time.

I could handle five each one gallon bags of frozen tomatoes in my sauce pans. I'd start with two sauce pans and cook them down where they fit into one, then keep cooking. When I got tired or ran out of time I'd freeze that, which was a great reduction in freezer space. When I was ready to make spaghetti sauce I'd have stuff already mostly cooked down and with the skins gone.

I saved the carcasses from my chickens. When freezer space became tight I'd make chicken broth with those carcasses, three batches in three days which was good for one canning. That would free up enough space for a couple of gallons of blueberries. Or some frozen peas or greens for winter.
 

TwinCitiesPanda

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That's sort of how I'd do it. Freezer space was precious with the chickens, vegetables for canning like yours let alone winter eating, plus the fruits and berries I saved until I had enough for jelly and jam. That's a big reason I never raised Cornish X meat chickens, I didn't have freezer space to put a bunch in at a time.

I could handle five each one gallon bags of frozen tomatoes in my sauce pans. I'd start with two sauce pans and cook them down where they fit into one, then keep cooking. When I got tired or ran out of time I'd freeze that, which was a great reduction in freezer space. When I was ready to make spaghetti sauce I'd have stuff already mostly cooked down and with the skins gone.

I saved the carcasses from my chickens. When freezer space became tight I'd make chicken broth with those carcasses, three batches in three days which was good for one canning. That would free up enough space for a couple of gallons of blueberries. Or some frozen peas or greens for winter.

That’s a great approach. They’ve cooked down so much it’s a massive reduction in space, even if I just froze it again- you’re right. My intention was to can fresh as the garden was producing, but once production was booming I was so busy in the garden- I don’t know how folks can fresh. I’ll try again this year. But winter- when the garden is covered in snow and the extra heat from canning on the stove is welcome- sounds like a much more pleasant time to put up veggies.
 

Ridgerunner

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Eight pints of green beans this morning. They are not packed real tightly, that's sort of on purpose. There are only two of us, a full pint is ore than we eat so I spread it out a bit. I don't think I'd have gotten all these in seven pints any way, even if I tried harder.

I'm happy with eight pints, considering they cane from one 4' x 8' raised bed in one picking. And they all sealed.
Canned Beans.jpg
 

ducks4you

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I tried ONE MORE TIME with my grape "syrup." I poured out eight 1/2 pints and one pint-&-a-half into my crock pot yesterday morning. All jars were full. I had sugared the batch and added 2 packages of (old) liquid pectin before the 2nd canning, all jars had sealed correctly (so I wasted 18 lids.)
I let it cook on high for about 6 hours and added AN ADDITIONAL 2 dry pectin packages (also old,) and one more package of old liquid pectin. Basically I had pectin, with a splash of grape juice.
It reduced to 7 full 1/2 pints, 1 pint-&-a-half, and 1 pint jar 1/2 full. THIS is the one pint 1/2 full, BUT they jelled. Tasted pretty good.
EDIT: This was the 3rd time with this batch, if I didn't make that clear.
 

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henless

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I bit the bullet today and finally canned up some meat! It wasn't bad at all. I put up 9 pints of chicken & 9 pints of hamburger.

I used one of the hamburger to fix a casserole tonight. I salt & peppered it and took a bite. It had a slightly different taste, but it was good. It's a softer consistency, but not real noticeable in a casserole.

I want to try the chicken, then put up more of both.
 

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