Pressure canning questions

[farmerlor]

Ok so I have a related question. If you raw pack the veggies do they still come out mushy??? I would hate to waste my time and my veggies if they are going to be yucky.
thanks, g

I make a wonderful vegetable, tomato, bean soup that I can frequently. I basically make the stock and then throw the veggies in raw (including potatoes) and as it doesn't have any meat in it the processing time is shorter and all the veggies come out PERFECT. No mushy or unidentifiable things floating in my soup. I tried it once with a beef stew and really big chunks of potatoes but the potatoes still got sort of mushy though the rest of the vegetables were okay.

 

[country freedom]

Since this has that title for questions. I'd like to ask these questions....

How does anyone who works a part time or full time job, and has to take care of home and family go about canning their food?

Coming home after work, canning for a few hours those days?

On your days off work, canning those days?

 

[Beekissed]

I usually do it on days off. Some things need harvested before then, so I sometimes harvest and freeze to save myself some time.....like freezing tomatoes whole. Harvest, clean, freeze whole....when you get them out of the freezer and thaw, the skins slide right off...so no blanching and peeling. One step saved.

At times I will clean, chop and bag veggies for the fridge when I know I can get to them within a day or so for canning.

When you work, you just have to choose your days and block off some evenings for just a little canning here and there, prep time and save the veggies or fruit until you can get to it, etc.

Its challenging, to say the least. But I find it very worth the time and effort to get it done.

And sometimes.....ya just gotta let it go, mourn the lost veggies and resolve to do better with the next picking. When this happens, the chickens get a treat!

 

[keljonma]

I try to do a little each day as things are harvested. Try being the operative word. I don't pressure can, but I do water bath and I dehydrate and freeze.

If I have something I need to process, I might dehydrate it if I don't have time to do water bath canning. Depending on what the item is, it might just get processed as frozen.

Fruits that are going to be made into jams, jellies or preserves can be frozen first and then the jam can be made when you have a bit more time (usually winter here). Or you could make freezer jam (I haven't ever...but it is possible).

I find if I put up a little each day, I don't usually feel overwhemed. Of course that doesn't count the times I have tons of beans or two bushels of peaches sitting on the table calling out my name!

 

[big brown horse]

country freedom, (cool name)

Right now all I do is eat all I can as it comes in and freeze the rest.

I used to make lots of jellys, jams and sun dried tomatoes. I would just do it on my day off, when my daughter was napping. Sometimes when everyone else was in bed at night.

 

[2dream]

Fortunately my DH is a canning fool. He will can two jars of greenbeans if that is all we have ready. Its easy for us because we keep the canner set up on the front porch all the time during harvest time. This leaves the kitchen and house free of the mess and we can go back and forth. The porch can be hosed off. The kitchen probably would not fare to well with a hosing down. LOL

Sometimes its two quarts of greenbeans and the next day its 8 or 10 quarts. Some weekend days its the canner and the dehydrator both going at full blast all day long. And sometimes we are just to tired to even care. (Like Bee said, give the chickens a treat). I am fortunate that I can take my dehydrator t work with me and let it run. I only do that when I have things that I have to watch really close and I know that things will be coming off of it at different times.

Like Kel and probably everyone else. A little everyday keeps you from being overwhelmed.