Canning Your Organic Garden

Each year I enjoy the discovery and the ever changing garden-scape. But the icing on the cake is good wholesome food right from my backyard. For example, my neighbor gave me scores of carrot seedlings which I transplanted in the garden. And I planted a package of sugar snap peas. Later in the spring we had the ingredients for a classic springtime dish of peas and carrots.

We had a superb crop of peas which quickly outgrew our appetites. The pea plants grew to over 3 ft tall.  The peas were allowed to mature until they almost looked like they were drying out and the plants stopped flowering. To pick peas I find the easiest way is to pull up the vine and pick the pods off the vines. Once the vines have been picked they go to the compost bin. Once in the bin the vines are chopped up with hedge clippers to speed decomposition into garden compost for our organic gardens.

After picking comes the shelling. I like to use a knife which I insert along the spine of the pea pod. This cuts the connection between the spine of the pod and the pea. When I break the pod open and the fat green peas drop freely into a container. I find this easier than trying to break open the pods and scrape out the peas.

Once I finished shelling the peas I ended up with about 3.5 pounds of green peas. I decided to can these peas using a recipe from the Ball Corporations canning recipe site. The recipe requires pressure canning for 40 minutes at 10 pounds. Below is a photo of my canned peas and carrots with chives (ingredients are simply peas, carrots, a teaspoon of clipped chives and a half teaspoon of salt.)

In this effort I canned six pints of peas and carrots. I used my little pressure cooker and it’s matching canning kit. Since my pressure cooker can only hold 4 pints I had to do two batches at 40 minute each. At some point in the future I will upgrade to a multiple quart pressure canner which will allow better efficiency. Even though I had to cook two batches, which is inefficient, the nice thing about canned food is that once the process is over the food sits on the shelf consuming no more energy. On top of that, the jars are re-useable. The only items not re-useable are the sealing lids.

Interested in canning? You may want to know what the least expensive way is to begin canning. Boiling water bath canning is least expensive. A boiling water bath canning set can be purchased for less than $50. Of course used equipment could be purchased much less expensively. What can be preserved using the boiling water bath method? Here is a handy reference chart from the USDA’s Principles of Home Canning.

The chart shows that Alkali or low acid foods like meat, fish, green beans, peas, carrots or mushrooms must be canned with a pressure cooker. The results are fantastic. But the results from using the boiling water bath method of canning are equally good when used with high acid foods. I plan to have a cupboard full of jellies, jams, pickles and tomatoes…all of which can be canned using the boiling water bath method. Interested in pressure canning? A pressure canning set will cost about $100 or more if it is large enough to process multiple quarts of food.

With both a water bath and pressure canner you will be able to can almost any food. Everyone should learn to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables. Canning is one method of preserving food which is environmentally sound and makes use of the bounty of a harvest which might otherwise go to waste. Could there be anything more wholesome, educational and environmentally friendly than raising and then preserving food? Just think…food that begins in your backyard garden and travels a short distance to your kitchen cupboard; food on your table from your garden all year round.

Check out more organic gardening tips at http://www.redbayfarm.com or to chat directly with CarolinaJim, go to our Green Forum at http://www.greenearthfriend.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=586

Happy canning everyone!