The 21st Century Homekeeper Radio Program, August 18th  

 

Here is my shopping report for the week.
Found at Healthy Harvest.com:
Freeze Dried Apricots
List Price: $167.70
Your Price: $139.95
a case is 6 – #10 Cans
a pail is a 6 gallon pail unless otherwise noted.
Definitely Autumn in the air even though it was hot today. Here are some things I do in the Autumn: make candles, can from the garden, bake ahead and freeze for school breakfasts and lunches, plant mums
decorate for Fall.
I will give you a couple of recipes I use in the Fall.  These are recipes that, as a home educating mom of 5, have been very helpful to me. Home canned products are superior to most purchased products in several ways:
Less expensive
Safer if you follow canning guidelines, no additives
Because they are less expensive you can have more on hand at one time
You can preserve your favorites

The biggest part of my canning is devoted to tomatoes and tomato products like spaghetti sauce, chili and vegetable soup.
Then the next largest part of my canning is beans followed by meat and jams and jellies, fruit butters.

Creating an efficient canning pantry
* Kosher or Canning Salt
* White and Cider Vinegar (5% acidity)
* Sugar and honey
* Pickling spice, black peppercorns, mustard seed
*  Bottled Lime juice
* Citric Acid
* crystallized ginger
* Pectin – powdered and liquid, Pomona pectin
A good storage place, cabinet or shelving is a great place to create a canning pantry.

Utensils/Tools:
* Jar Lifter
* Magic Wand or Tongs
* Jar Funnel – Use to keep jar rim clean
* Plastic Spatula –  Use to remove air and bubbles from filled jars
* Ladle & Thermometer

Get an up to date Ball Canning Guide!

Pickling or Canning salt – a fine-grained salt that is iodine-free and added ingredient-free.  Don’t use salt that has anti-caking ingredients or iodine. Those ingredients will cause pickled foods to be soft and off-color.

Canning Tips
Do not allow the jars to sit on the bottom of the canner without an insert or clean cloth under them.

Small batches of fruit are better than large ones.

Once you remove the jars from the water bath or pressure canner don’t jostle them or shake them until they are cool..

Label your jars with the contents and date the jar was sealed.

Be sure to always clean the rims of the jars before adding the lids and rings. Improperly cleaned rims can keep the lids from sealing.

2 tablespoons of vinegar added to the canner water will keep hard water spots from forming on the jars.

Dampen a clean cloth with vinegar to clean grease off rims when you can meat or soups.

Learn to recognize food that has spoiled in home canned products.  Look for mold, cloudy white liquid, bulging lids or an off odor. If it doesn’t smell right, don’t eat it!

Get the best dry spices you can find. Spices will go bad and loose their flavor after six months on the shelves.  I like penzeys.com

Home-Canned Bean Soup
2 – 16 oz packets of bean soup or mixed beans
4 medium onions, chopped
1 ½ stalk celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 bay leaves
6 large carrots diced
2 – 6oz can diced green chilies
2 – 8oz can diced tomatoes
4 cups of ham
1 large ham bone
3 T. of Kosher salt
3 T. of pepper
14 cups of water

Wash the beans and pick through them.  Combine the beans with 6 cups of water and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let beans soak for two hours.

After 2 hours, combine all ingredients and cook for 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Prepare canning jars, lids and rings

Remove the ham bone and ladle soup into jars leaving 1 inch of headspace.

Carefully remove air with a plastic spatula. Clean rims with a damp cloth. Place lids on jars, add rings and tighten finger tight.

Pressure can pints at 10 pounds pressure for 60 minutes. Quarts at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes.

Apple Pie Filling

(Also see this recipe for apple pie filling.)
I like to use a combination of cooking and baking type apples to make homemade, canned apple pie filling.

10 pounds tart apples – peeled, cored and sliced
5 cups sugar
1 cup Clearjel
1 T. cinnamon
2 1/2 qts water
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice

Place sliced apples in boiling water a few cups at a time, bring back to a boil and then remove from teh boiling water and drain.
In a stockpot, mix the sugar, Clearjel, cinnamon, nutmeg together. Add the water and  stir to mix well.

Bring to a boil and cook until thick and bubbly, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add the lemon juice. Fold apples into mixture.

Be sure to use a canning funnel and pack the apples into hot, sterilized canning jars, leaving a 1″ headspace.

Pour more of the hot syrup into the jars to fill to within 1″ of the rim.

Release air bubbles using a plastic spatula.

Wipe the rims and place the lids and rings on the jars.  Tighten the rings finger tight.

Process in a boiling water bath canner for 25 minutes.