On our way home from our friends farm yesterday we made a quick stop at Kruger's Farm market on Sauvie's Island. After our last u-pick adventure with pickling cucumbers, where we had to search and search a teeny tiny field that was very picked over, a friend told me that they sell pre-picked bags of cuc's at Krugers for the same price. Normally I would always prefer to u-pick, but in this case it just doesn't seem worth it. We went in just planning on getting a 10 pound bag of cucumbers, but we ended up leaving with the cuc's, 5 pounds of green beans, two melons, a canning recipe book and some canning tools. And that was after I showed massive amounts of restraint in not buying gallons of raw honey, and 25 pound boxes of apricots. Farm stands just have some crazy affect on me, and make me want to buy everything in sight!
We brought our cucumbers home and tossed them in an ice water bath, and by the time I was ready to start canning it was already 7pm! Luckily Matthew offered to pitch in and help and the work went a lot quicker. We did two pickle recipes, one for Kosher Dills that I found on the Morton Salt website (more on that later) and one for regular dills that I found on the National Center for Home Food Preserving. I was excited to try making pickles that weren't from a mix, so we can compare them both and decide which we like. The process was just as easy from 'scratch' and little more fun that using the mixes.
We got 6 pints out of the Morton recipe, and 9 pints out of the NCHFP recipe. Now, a word about the Morton salt recipe. I made the mistake of assuming that a major company like Morton would only publish a safe and tested canning recipe. But a few days after canning these, I ran across some threads on a canning forum that made me question that thought. Everything I read said that to safely can pickles you needed to have a 50/50 ratio of water and vinegar. The Morton recipe called for 5 cups of water to only 3 cups of vinegar, something I didn't question at the time of canning. Even more disturbing, I ran across a thread talking about the dangers of using garlic in pickling recipes. Since garlic is a low acid food, the addition of it to pickle recipes can throw of the PH balance in the jar, leading to a very real threat of botulism and listeria. Just to be sure, I posted a copy of the two recipes I followed, and sure enough the experts came back saying that the NCHFP recipe was just fine....the Morton recipe definitely was not safe because of the vinegar to water ratio and the addition of low acid foods like garlic and hot peppers. I absolutely believe in following canning recipes to a 'T' because I hate to think of wasting all my time and money making something that isn't safe for my family to eat. So...the Morton pickles went in the trash. Lesson learned...any canning recipes that are not proven and tested wont make it into my kitchen!
The next day I got to work on the green beans I had bought along with the pickles. I have heard wonderful things about dilly beans from a few people who have canned them before, and I wanted to try them this year to see if we would like them. I had hoped to use beans from our garden, but after eating a bunch and having a large amount go past their prime I decided to just buy some fresh from the farm stand. I used two different recipes for Dilly beans, to see which one we like better. One was from my Ball blue book of canning, the other from the Better Homes and Garden "You can CAN" book. They were fun to make, although a little time consuming with having to trim all the beans to the length of the jar. But we got 8 pints out of the 5 pounds of beans, and I am excited to try these in a few weeks and see if they are something we will be making again.
I didn't get a picture of all the jars out on the counter, but here they are in their cupboard home:
I love opening our cupboards and seeing all this delicious home canned food waiting for the leaner season of winter. I have two cupboards filled with full jars, and empty ones just waiting to be filled. Canning season is really just beginning, and I am excited to see what we can 'put up' next!
We brought our cucumbers home and tossed them in an ice water bath, and by the time I was ready to start canning it was already 7pm! Luckily Matthew offered to pitch in and help and the work went a lot quicker. We did two pickle recipes, one for Kosher Dills that I found on the Morton Salt website (more on that later) and one for regular dills that I found on the National Center for Home Food Preserving. I was excited to try making pickles that weren't from a mix, so we can compare them both and decide which we like. The process was just as easy from 'scratch' and little more fun that using the mixes.
We got 6 pints out of the Morton recipe, and 9 pints out of the NCHFP recipe. Now, a word about the Morton salt recipe. I made the mistake of assuming that a major company like Morton would only publish a safe and tested canning recipe. But a few days after canning these, I ran across some threads on a canning forum that made me question that thought. Everything I read said that to safely can pickles you needed to have a 50/50 ratio of water and vinegar. The Morton recipe called for 5 cups of water to only 3 cups of vinegar, something I didn't question at the time of canning. Even more disturbing, I ran across a thread talking about the dangers of using garlic in pickling recipes. Since garlic is a low acid food, the addition of it to pickle recipes can throw of the PH balance in the jar, leading to a very real threat of botulism and listeria. Just to be sure, I posted a copy of the two recipes I followed, and sure enough the experts came back saying that the NCHFP recipe was just fine....the Morton recipe definitely was not safe because of the vinegar to water ratio and the addition of low acid foods like garlic and hot peppers. I absolutely believe in following canning recipes to a 'T' because I hate to think of wasting all my time and money making something that isn't safe for my family to eat. So...the Morton pickles went in the trash. Lesson learned...any canning recipes that are not proven and tested wont make it into my kitchen!
The next day I got to work on the green beans I had bought along with the pickles. I have heard wonderful things about dilly beans from a few people who have canned them before, and I wanted to try them this year to see if we would like them. I had hoped to use beans from our garden, but after eating a bunch and having a large amount go past their prime I decided to just buy some fresh from the farm stand. I used two different recipes for Dilly beans, to see which one we like better. One was from my Ball blue book of canning, the other from the Better Homes and Garden "You can CAN" book. They were fun to make, although a little time consuming with having to trim all the beans to the length of the jar. But we got 8 pints out of the 5 pounds of beans, and I am excited to try these in a few weeks and see if they are something we will be making again.
I didn't get a picture of all the jars out on the counter, but here they are in their cupboard home:
I love opening our cupboards and seeing all this delicious home canned food waiting for the leaner season of winter. I have two cupboards filled with full jars, and empty ones just waiting to be filled. Canning season is really just beginning, and I am excited to see what we can 'put up' next!