Ready for the pantry!
I recently shared my tomato chutney recipe, but I didn’t mention that on the same day I also made marinara sauce. For those of you who have yet to tackle home preservation, I thought it might be interesting for you to see what a day of canning looks like. I started with 40 pounds of tomatoes – not a lot by my usual standards – and processed most of them in a little more than five hours. In the end, I added 8-1/2 pints of chutney and 7 quarts of marinara sauce to my pantry – not bad for half a day’s work.
- 1:00 start making chutney
- 1:15 chutney ingredients in pot, ready for 2 hour boil
- 1:15 move chutney to back burner so I can begin with the marinara sauce
- 1:16 begin chopping ingredients for marinara sauce
- 1:35 discover that I turned on the wrong burner for chutney; remedy the situation
- 1:40 turn heat on under marinara; start cooking onions, peppers, and garlic
- 2:45 finish chopping ingredients for marinara.
- 3:00 put water bath canner on to heat
- 3:10 wash jars
- 3:15 put lids and rings on to sterilize
- 3:25 put chutney in jars and set to boil
- 3:30 pour cup of coffee
- 3:40 take chutney out of water bath canner; turn heat down on canner while marinara continues to cook
- 3:41 tink…tink…tink as jars seal
- 3:45 clean up, wash dishes, continue to stir marinara sauce
- 4:45 fill quart jars with marinara sauce
- 4:50 set jars in boiling water bath; set timer for 30 minutes.
- 5:00 pour glass of wine
- 5:20 remove seven jars of marinara sauce from water bath canner
So, does this scare you off or make you think that it’s not as daunting as you expected?
This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday.
Why am I standing here reading about you canning when I’m elbow deep in canning?
This week I’ve done 32 quarts of peaches 10 pints of tomato soup concentrate, and today I’m doing apple pear sauce. I’ve also sliced and frozen 50 2-cup packets of peppers and frozen 5 batches of stuffed peppers. I still need to do corn, swiss chard, apple pie jam, some other things. Unfortunately at this stage of my life it takes a lot longer to do these things because I still have 5 little ones at home that I take care of in between slicing, peeling, chopping, boiling, prepping, filling and canning. Happy canning! Wish you were closer so we could swap goodies.
April recently posted..Guest Post at Attainable Sustainable
I forgot about pear slices. Those are coming too. I need a clone.
April recently posted..Guest Post at Attainable Sustainable
I hope you took a good nap when you were done.
Roxanne @ Champion of My Heart recently posted..Update Lilly’s Lump: Canine Adnexal Nevus
That sounds about right… although the 5:00 pm glass of wine might come a little earlier in the timeline for me!
Casey@Good. Food. Stories. recently posted..Do the Food Truck Hop
I just really like the fact that you forgot to put the correct burner on. I would have really felt good if you’d had a dish towel over the mistaken burner that subsequently took on a burnt … flavor. LOL Thank you for sharing – it sounds intense but doable for someone who hasn’t canned before.
Brilliant idea, Kris. Breaking it down this way makes canning seem way more doable to newbies like me. This is a preserving public service. Thanks muchly.
sarah henry recently posted..Food Day: Growing a Movement Around What we Eat