As we are about to get cooking for this year’s canning season pretty soon, I thought I’d talk about what I do and don’t preserve. As I get more and more into eating seasonally and as I get older, I find myself taking a really pragmatic view of canning season: I want to focus on preserving food that will get eaten and not just sit on the shelf for years. I really want it to be worth my time and energy. I’ve been canning for ages now, and over time I’ve figured out what gets devoured and what just sits on the shelf. I’ve also learned how much we actually go through, and which things are pantry staples and which are just novelties.
But canning isn’t the only way to preserve food. I also dehydrate and freeze food. For each fruit or vegetable that I have access to, if I don’t have an idea of what to do with it already, I look up ideas online or in my preservation books. If you like a particular food, I highly recommend looking up ideas for preserving it. If you’re new to canning, try all the ones that seem delicious – try just a few jars or freezer bags full, or however you’re going to preserve it, and see which ones you family loves!
A little disclaimer before we get this pot simmering: I have a lot of dietary restrictions. And the big one that affects what I preserve, is that I can’t eat sugar. It will make me explode into a million pieces and I can’t walk for like two weeks after, and honestly I just don’t want to deal with the clean up. Also, my kids are older and set in their ways now and will never try new things, so while I’m interested in trying new non-sugary things, I still preserve just a few because I’m probably the only one who will like it. I’m sure none of you can relate. I’m really leaning in to small batch canning at this point.
Ok, first, let’s start with the foods that I don’t preserve – and why….
What I don’t preserve
Peaches, pears, and other fruit in syrup: mainly, this is because fruits like peach or pear halves, cherries, even mandarin orange wedges, need to have at least a light sugar syrup or the flavor just dissipates into nothingness. Even a very light sugar syrup is needed to maintain the flavors, in my experience. Also, peaches? They are the worst to can; first you have to blanch them to remove the skin, and that process will indubitably leave your kitchen covered in sticky peach fuzz residue for months and months and months. That stuff gets everywhere and into every crevice and surface.
Green beans: Now, I much prefer home-canned green beans to the over processed store bought canned green beans. But, I have just reached the point where there is so much in-season produce available during each season, that I just prefer to gorge myself on fresh green beans when they’re in season, and enjoy other seasonal produce when it’s in season.
Jams and jellies: again with the sugar! Plus my kids are completely un-kid like and they do not like the classic PB&J. I do can a few novelty types of jams that we serve for holidays and special occasions- like lavender fig and christmas jam.
Broccoli and Cauliflower: While we love these (at least I do), and we eat a ton, they’re available most of the year. In case you want to try, these are best blanched and frozen. There are definitely benefits to having frozen veggies around! If you like things made out of cauliflower – like pizza crust, it’s a lot easier to thaw cauliflower and use it from that state, rather than having to cook and cool it.
Cabbage: The main way to preserve cabbage is to turn it into sauerkraut. My kids just aren’t fans. Also, it’s a lot of work, and canning it can ruin it. Canning definitely removes the probiotic benefits! Cabbage is also available for pretty much the whole year around here. I use about a head of cabbage a week between topping my tacos, using as the base for my bowl meals, and making coleslaw!
Sweet Pickles: Sweet pickles take about 12 days of preparation before you even get to the canning stage. This doesn’t deter me. Basically, you boil vinegar and sugar together and cover the pickles. Then each day for 12 days, you pour off the vinegar/sugar mixture and reboil it and then add more sugar. Then pour the mixture back over the pickles. Once, I was doing this process, and my (ex)husband made fun of me because I set the crock of pickles on the floor to pour the boiling liquid over them. So the next day, I set the crock on the counter and promptly spilled boiling vinegar and sugar mixture all over my hands, the countertop, and the floor. So yeah. I unmarried that guy, and I don’t make sweet pickles anymore.
However, if you have the patience, I think you should try it because they taste AMAZING chopped up and mixed into tuna salad!
What I do preserve
Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries: Basically all of the berries! They are super easy to preserve- just rinse and lay them out on a baking sheet. Freeze, and then store in freezer bags. I *need* all the fruit preserved, because I absolutely love a little fruit crisp dessert every few nights. All this fruit is also great for flavoring kombucha or jun if you make it.
Tomatoes: tomato halves, and tomato sauce, and this year I want to try a home canned version of Rotel, because it’s just so easy to add to soups! I love all the fresh tomatoes in season for bruschetta, tabbouleh, caprese, BLTs, even a fresh pasta sauce. But we love a good spaghetti or marinara sauce all winter long. With a food mill and a few big pots, it’s super easy to can a simple tomato sauce with no seasonings. Then add spices when you cook to make pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or even enchilada sauce.
Speaking of tomatoes, you can also dry all the stuff that comes out of the food mill. Spread it evenly on a dehydrator tray. After it’s fully dry, run it through the food processor to create a powder. This works as a thickener to add to your tomato sauce or any soups or sauces that would benefit from a tomato flavor.
Dill Pickles: my favorite are just simple garlic dill pickles. I usually buy a 20lb bag from a local farm and that makes about 20 quarts each year. This is absolutely a pantry staple! I made a video last year of packing the jars and getting them ready to can!
Applesauce, and even better, Pearsauce: They don’t require sugar, so they’re perfect for me. I like a chunky applesauce that I use in my oatmeal. And I love trying new additions to my sauces – cranberries, orange juice, lots of ginger (I put ginger in everything i think!).
I also like to have a lot of applesauce around because it’s the best base for fruit roll ups. Simply mix about a pint of applesauce with a half pint of other pureed fruit and spread on a dehydrator tray to get a delicious snack. When you use other fruits without applesauce, they tend to get brittle. An applesauce base allows them to stay flexible. Simple dehydrate until the top whole thing is dull and mostly dry in sheen.
Dehydrating apples and pears are also very easy. Remove the peel, or not, and slice into ¼ inch slices and lay out on the dehydrator tray. Pears will always be a little flexible, but if you slice the apples a little thinner, you can make apple chips. They’re so good. Dried pears taste like candy. Store them in airtight jars.
Dried beans: we use A LOT of beans. We eat black beans all year long, and white and red beans throughout the winter. So I can beans whenever I’m able to. It’s also become about 100% easier since I was able to get my electric canners. Before I had those, I kind of dreaded spending 90+ minutes in the kitchen monitoring the pressure canner. Now I set them and get back to other tasks.
Broth: I mostly do chicken or mushroom broth, but I’ll make whatever i can get my hands on! I definitely do turkey around the end of November, along with packaging leftover turkey in the freezer for easy meals. A single rotisserie chicken will usually get me 20 pints of broth, as long as i have lots of veggie pieces (carrot ends, onion ends and papers, etc…) to add as well. This is another one I’ll do all year long, though we mostly use the broth in the fall and winter.
Tuna: Even though this isn’t produce, I wanted to add it because its so important for my family, and also to encourage you to try canning everything you’re able to! Home canned tuna is a million times better than grocery store tuna. The trick is finding the fresh tuna… to be fair, I don’t even know that – my parents always get it for us to can.
Cranberry sauce: this underrated fruit sauce is so lovely. Since i don’t use sugar, its about 1/2 cranberries, 1/4 pears, and 1/4 apples, and a little honey and orange juice. Its chunky and delicious, and makes some of the very best fruit roll ups.
Watermelon: Watermelon is a hard one to preserve because it has such a high water content. I’ve tried making watermelon pickles, which uses the rind – and my son loves them. I make him a few jars.
You can also dehydrate watermelon. You want to start with 1 inch x 2 inch chunks, and dehydrate until they are about a millimeter thick and still a little tacky, but with a dull sheen. I know I said dried pears are like candy, but um, no…. Dried watermelon is an amazing candy replacement!
Pineapple: As soon as December hits, and the pineapple is as close to ripe as it gets here, I start bringing a couple home each grocery shopping trip. I slice it into ¼ inch slices and dehydrate it. It’s like candy! Ok, apparently I think that all dried fruit is like candy. Since I don’t eat sugar, I’m guessing that tracks….
What else? What are you looking forward to preserving this year? Let me know what I missed and what you’re excited to preserve in the comments below!
