Canning: worth it?

[Gardenarian]

I have avoided canning for a number of reasons:

1) I don't have the equipment. It seems to require a fairly large outlay of cash, and you also need room to store the equipment. (I don't even own a pressure cooker.)
2) Jars: apparently you need to buy new lids and seals every season? Do you re-use the jars?
3) Quality: I occasionally get gifts of food that have been canned - runny preserves, suspiciously odd tasting tomatoes.
4) Safety: Botulism is pretty rare, but the cases of it that do occur (in adults) are almost always in home canned food.
5) Canning uses quite a lot of energy, and also seems time consuming.
6) I don't even like cooking.

Do you can? Do you feel the effort is worth it? How do you think it compares to other methods of preservation (freezing, drying?)

I feel like canning is one of those things I should do, but I'm not sure I'd actually end up saving money or eating better.

FYI, foods I'd be interested in canning would be cherries, applesauce, tomatoes, blackberries, plums (probably as preserves?), apricots. I would love to make my own strawberry jam but we've had little luck in growing strawberries. i also grow quite a bit of basil and freeze pesto - I don't know if that can even be canned?

[KayLR]

I do. Small batch preserving. Just a couple weeks ago (I mentioned this in another thread someplace) I made a small batch of mango chutney. The mangoes were an awesome price and chutney is something we love, but it's expensive. So what I do is usually only preserve produce which is free or a great price, like the mangoes were. We had a neighbor with a loaded persimmon tree and they were just letting them drop. So we went over and picked up enough for me to preserve some jam.

I do not own a pressure canner; I only can what can be done in a water bath canner (jams, mustards, fruits, pickles). I do have to buy new lids occasionally. I do reuse the jars. Since I just do small batches, I don't need a lot of jars.

I do feel it is worth it because I enjoy it and can make recipes for things that would be really expensive if I had to buy them prepared.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I don't can, however they always canned at my grandparents growing up so I'm somewhat familiar

1) I don't have the equipment. It seems to require a fairly large outlay of cash, and you also need room to store the equipment. (I don't even own a pressure cooker.)

I don't think that's true unless you're doing pressure canning or whatever (which you need to do for extremely low acid things like green beans - then you need a pressure canner). But for ordinary canning all you need is canning jars obviously - the Ball jars and the like. Which you may get free if you already buy jam etc. especially from the farmer's market and the like - these can be reused indefinitely or until they break. I already have a small collection started this way. And jar tops and sealant which I think you do need to buy new each time. A very large pot to boil it all in which you may already have and something to keep the jars in place when boiling. Ok if you are making jam you may need pectin.

2) Jars: apparently you need to buy new lids and seals every season? Do you re-use the jars?

yes reuse the jars buy new lids and seals I think

3) Quality: I occasionally get gifts of food that have been canned - runny preserves, suspiciously odd tasting tomatoes.

yea the suspicious tasting stuff you really shouldn't be eating. Canning should produce tasty food.

4) Safety: Botulism is pretty rare, but the cases of it that do occur (in adults) are almost always in home canned food.

yea botulism is scary, but I think the risk is quite low. Don't eat anything that looks suspicious (bulging lids etc.),and follow the recipes for canning, you can't vary the recipes, as the acid content might get too low. But it is true just a small amout of botulism will kill, it's one of the most deadly toxins in existence.

I feel like canning is one of those things I should do, but I'm not sure I'd actually end up saving money or eating better.

Yea something I should do. I mostly only want to do tomatoes and tomato products (which are pretty expensive in glass jars like I buy them). Fruit and stuff takes a lot of sugar to preserve it, which is tasty ocassionally, as a treat in the dead of winter, but maybe not best to be eating all the time.

I would love to make my own strawberry jam but we've had little luck in growing strawberries.

There's also a concept of quick jams or temporary jams that doesn't involve canning. You make jam (if you ever get good strawberries etc.). And you FREEZE it and keep what you are using quickly in your fridge and the rest in the freezer. It will last about 6 months in the freezer supposedly if you do this. So if you really want homemade jam, eat it often and don't want to can, it's the way to go. Books like better homes and gardens cookbook have recipes for this type of jam (in addition to real canning stuff).

i also grow quite a bit of basil and freeze pesto - I don't know if that can even be canned?

anything can be canned but if it doesn't have enough acid, you'd need to pressure can it.

[redfox]

I love canning, I grew up doing it, and have waterbath canned yearly for forty years; I've not canned in a pressure canner. I taught a waterbath canning class this year, at our neighborhood Community Kitchen. Only buy new seals; rings and jars are reusable as long as they are not warped or cracked, and you sterilize them. Botulism is very, very rare, and isn't a reason to avoid canning. The most recent article I read about it was incorrectly canned meat.

I get gear at Goodwill, except for the new lids. I have a big stockpot which is my waterbath canning pot, as well as our soup stockpot. I find it to be a fun way to preserve extra, as well as make affordable gifts that people really appreciate.

I disagree that fruit takes lots of sugar to can it. I find that most recipes I use has double or more the amount of sugar in it than what's needed! Many fruits are canned without sugar. Italian prune plums make their own heavy syrup if they are really ripe when canned, just cover them with boiling water. I can applesauce with just a bit of sugar, choosing the right apples makes the difference, as well as adding cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and cooking them down to concentrate their sweetness. Also, the way to add acidity is with lemon juice. I can green beans in the water bath canner.

Fruit spread can be made with honey or a touch of sugar. I find the best quality is made with organic, super ripe, just picked fruit. I think the best thing I've ever canned was a drunken fig jam I made a few summer ago, when it was hot enough over a month to ripen a huge bounty of dark figs all at once. I cooked them down at low heat for hours, and added a bit of sugar, lemon zest, and a vanilla cognac, them puréed them with my stick blender. Oh my goodness!

The craziest canning batch I did was 5 bushels of grapes from a feral vine at an abandoned house in our neighborhood. The were green, seeded grapes, and I cut each one in half and took those seeds out by hand before I cooked them down. I was at that for days and days and days... It was crazy. Made good jam, though.

I say, go for it! Find a class, learn with others, get sticky and have fun. Then have treats in the middle of winter.

[herbgeek]

I do pickles and jams, ie stuff safe for a water bath canner. Its worth it for me, because my bread and butter pickles are better than anything that can be bought in a store. Nice to have in the middle of winter when spring is so far away. I also do some freezing, as well as dehydration (like for zucchini). I get new lids each year. Its a couple of bucks for a dozen, so once you have the gear, ongoing costs are minimal. I use a large pot with an insert that holds the jars.

[Jilly]

I know many people who reuse jars, and not just the canning ones. They use jars from pickles and jams and use the original lids, too.

If they have regular canning jars and lids, they reuse both until a jar gets chipped around the rim and a lid looks wonky.

It kind of creeps me out..shudder...shudder, but they have been doing this for decades and are still alive to keep on doing it.

When I canned I used the jars and rings over and over, but bought new lids each time. I did only water bath processing, as a pressure canner scared the fruity loopies right out of me. I did can green beans, but pickled them, so no need there.

I loved being able to feed my family all year on the stuff from my garden, especially tomatoes and all the things we pickled. Beans, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers, onions, watermelon, tiny patty pan squash. Probably some other vegetables, but I forget. With jams and jellies and all the rest, you can eat very well without needing a pressure canner.

I also had a huge freezer and tomato sauce, whole green beans, chopped onions, berries, especially strawberries that we would pick like crazy.

Ball makes a nice little kit, with jars, lids, rings and a really cool basket like thing that you can use to protect the jars from banging in the pot and use to lift them out. I bought one for my daughter, it was somewhere around $10/US, you could use a stock pot you already have and experiment a bit.

[Jilly]

It is the Ball Canning Discovery Kit.

[Gardenarian]

Thanks for the feedback!
As I said, I dislike cooking, but this might be more rewarding. My neighbor does make the best applesauce ever.
I think I should take a class and see if it is something I would want to pursue.

[pcooley]

I pressure canned one year, long ago, just because it seemed like a good, simple living thing to do. I made a bunch of spaghetti sauce, and a bunch of apple sauce, and it was fun, but at the time, it didn't seem like the end justified the means. I didn't enjoy it enough to do it again. I still think about it from time to time. IF I had a big enough garden that I was drowning in produce, or if I had enough time on my hands to collect fruit from trees in the city that goes to waste, I might take it up again. But for the time, I would have to say, it isn't compelling enough to continue with.

[Teacher Terry]

I did it years ago when we were young & poor but it was alot of work and I never wanted to do it again. I think you don't know if you will like it until you do it.