Always put hot food in hot, sterilized jars for safety's sake!

There’s a lot of talk today about the safety of canning food at home – something I am sure our ancestors did not fret over. Why? Because the art of canning was handed down from generation to generation making it possible for one to understand the art of canning on a much higher level than what many do today.

Wash all fresh fruits and vegetables before canning them, even if they were organically grown.

Cleanliness is one of the most important aspects when it comes to food safety. Anyone who has ever taken a home economics class can tell you that. In addition to clean pans, clean lids, clean caps and clean jars, the food must be cleaned too. Pesticides and other chemicals cling to the skins of fruits and vegetables. These must be washed off for safety’s sake. In addition to making sure all of your utensils are clean, the caps, lids and jars need to be sterilized. Do not skip over this step, even if you wash everything in a dishwasher. It only takes a second to dip the caps, lids and jars into the boiling water to sterilize them – and best of all, it means you do not need to heat the jars up because the sterilization process gives you “hot jars” to put “hot food” into.

Another important step is proper inspection of the jars. A tiny chip on the jars rim – one that might not be obvious to the naked eye – is enough to keep the jar from properly sealing. The best way to take care of these kinds of problems is to carefully run your finger over the top of the clean jar before filling it with food. If you feel something that doesn’t feel right, do a further inspection to make sure it is not missed food particles or rubber from a previous jar lid that was not removed when the jar was washed. If it is indeed a crack or chip, dispose of the jar. There are many recycling centers that accept clean glass jars.

Periodically check sealed jars in your pantry to make sure they remain sealed.

Finally, do not reuse the lids. The lids are the flat parts that seal the jar and contain a rubber ring. The reason for this is that the lids were manufactured to be used once and once only. Although the jar may seem ok at first if you use these lids again, later on the seal can break and that will cause your food to spoil. It is ok to use the caps, which screw down over the top of the jar over and over until they become too rusty to continue to use.

By following these simple safety tips when canning at home, you are sure to have a good experience both during the canning process and for months afterwards as you eat up the bounty you preserved.

More resources and inspiration can be found at culinary arts degree.org.

There is nothing that tastes quite as good as something you make from scratch in your own kitchen. This is true rather it is special meal, a dessert or something as simple as homemade ketchup.

This recipe, which can be canned for use throughout the winter months, is simply outstanding. Once you have a taste of this, you will never go back to store bought ketchup again!

To make a really thick ketchup you need to remove the tomato juice from the tomato paste. The easiest way to do this is to use a steamer juicer such as the Mehu-Liisa.

When the steamer is finished extracting the juice, bottle it and can it. This is tomato juice in its purest form.

The tomatoes that are left in the top of the steamer juicer are what you want to use. You can remove the seeds or simply blend the mixture until it is smooth, whichever you prefer.

Begin with 24 pounds of whole tomatoes. If you do not have that many, simply put the tomatoes you have on a scale to find out how many pounds you do have, then do the math to change the rest of the ingredients in the recipe.

While the tomatoes are juicing add three cups cider vinegar to a large saucepan. Cut a piece of cheesecloth and put 3 tablespoon celery seed, 4 teaspoons whole cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks into it and then tie it up. Put the spice bag into the pan with the vinegar. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and cover. Allow this to sit for 25 minutes then remove the spice bag.

Place tomatoes into the spiced vinegar, add one teaspoon of cayenne pepper and boil. Reduce the heat once the mixture begins to boil and cook for thirty minutes. The mixture should begin to thicken. Add ¼ cup canning salt and 1 ½ cups sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about 45 minutes. The mixture will reduce by half and be about the consistency of store bought ketchup. While it is cooking, add garlic powder, chili powder and black pepper to taste.

To preserve, ladle into hot, sterilized pint jars leaving ½ inch headspace. Wipe jar rim, place sterilized lids and bands on making sure they are snug. Process in a cold pack canner for fifteen minutes, remove canner lid, let the jars sit for five minutes, then remove them.

When the jars are completely cooled, check to make sure they are sealed. If not, use immediately or put on a new lid and reseal.

When you open a jar, be sure to keep it refrigerated. The open jars will last quite a while kept in this fashion.

When picking plants from the wild be sure you have the identity correct. Many plants look so much alike that you may think you are harvesting one plant when in fact you are getting something totally different. Take for example the common Queen Anne’s Lace or wild carrot. Daucus carota resembles the poisonous water hemlock which is deadly if ingested. If in doubt, take the plant to a local botanist or your local extension agent for a positive ID before eating it.

Once you are sure you have the true Queen Anne’s Lace, here is a recipe for jelly.

Fill a glass jar full of clean flower heads. You can use straight Queen Anne’s Lace flowers or use a combination of edible flowers such as violet, lilac, roses, carnation, peony or elderberry.

Once the jar is full, pour boiling water over the flowers making sure to cover all of them. Put a non-metallic lid on the jar and sit aside for up to 24 hours. The infusion should be allowed to sit for at least five hours minimum.

When you are ready to proceed, prepare a strainer lined with cheesecloth. Pour the water through the strainer making sure to remove all the flowers from the first jar. Squeeze the water out of the flowers in the cheesecloth. Then measure the amount of water you have.

You will need a minimum of 2 ½ cups flower water for one recipe. Put the flower water into a stainless steel pan, add the juice of one lemon and one package of pectin. Bring this mixture to a boil then add three cups of sugar. Stir and continue boiling until the sugar has dissolved.

If you prefer using honey in place of the sugar, remove the mixture from the heat and add 1 ½ cups honey. Stir just until the honey is dissolved.

Remove the foam scum that forms on top of the jelly, then pour the jelly into sterilized canning jars. The smaller 4 ounce or half pint jars work well.

Wipe jar rims, put lids and bands on making sure they are fingertip tight. Process for ten minutes in a cold pack canner, remove and tighten lids.

Set the hot jars on a secure surface. I lay an old towel on top of my table and set the canning jars on it. Remember these jars are hot so use hot pads and jar lifters.

Tighten the bands as tight as possible.

Allow the jars to cool overnight. When the jars are completely cool, remove the bands and check the lids to make sure they are sealed.

To check the lids, simply try to lift them up with your fingers. If they come off, set the food in the refrigerator and eat it within a week. If they do not come off, the cans are sealed. Replace the band and store in a cool, dark place.

Be sure to label the jars with the name of the food in them and the date.

Once your harvest starts coming in, rather it is flowers, herbs, vegetables or fruits, you will want to preserve it for later use. The most common methods of preserving are freezing, canning and drying.

Drying may be the simplest method and certainly requires the least monetary investment. Fruits and herbs can be cut up, laid on screens or racks and dried right out in the sun. Flowers and herbs can be bunched up into little bouquets of four to six stems, have a rubber band put around the stems so it is tight and hung in a dark, airy place to dry. If you want to invest in a dehydrator, herbs, vegetables and fruits can be put into that to dry. Flowers can be dried in silica gel and will retain their shape and most of their color.

Freezing herbs, fruits and vegetables may be the next easiest way to go. Get a good book on freezing so you know which ones need blanched and how long. A good book will also tell you how long the storage life is. Freezing takes energy and if your harvest is substantial, you may need a chest or upright freezer. The Ball Canning books generally have some information on freezing in them, especially the Ball Blue Book.

Canning is the next most popular method of preservation. There is cold pack canning which is used for most fruits and pressure canning which is used for most vegetables. This method does require a monetary investment. Even if all the canners, jars and bands are given to you, lids must be bought. The lids, which contain the rubber seal, are only good for one use. Get a good book on canning, such as one from Ball Canning, if you are going this route.

We all know bees make the best honey, however if you don’t have a beehive in your yard, there is another way to make honey, on the stove.

To make your own honey you will need white sugar, alum, water, fireweed blossoms, red clover blossoms and white clover blossoms. You may want to set aside a section of your yard to grow these plants in so you know they have not been sprayed with fertilizer or weed killer.

Once you have gathered the ingredients, put three cups of water, ten cups of white sugar and one teaspoon of alum into a large pan. Stainless steel is best. Bring this mixture to a boil. Keep it boiling for ten minutes.

While the mixture is boiling, remove the blossoms from the stems making sure not to leave any green parts on the flowers. The green stems and leaves will impart a grassy flavor to the honey.

Once the blossoms are removed, rinse them under cold running water. Shake the water off.

Remove the pan from the heat, and add the flower blossoms. Stir well, cover and steep for three hours.

Once the mixture is finished steeping, strain it through cheesecloth so all the plant material is removed. Reheat the liquid honey until it begins to boil, pour into sterilized canning jars and seal.

The jars can be sealed by processing them in a cold water bath for fifteen minutes. Be sure to check the seals once the jars have cooled.

The summmer of 2009 we received a Shiitake Mushroom kit from Fungi Perfecti. I set up the Shiitake mushroom kit in the corner of the kitchen and grew a few mushrooms.

Several months later I moved the Shiitake Mushroom kit to the greenhouse, setting it in a corner that was partially shaded. I refilled the saucer the kit sat in with rain water and waited to see what would happen. We noticed more Shiitake Mushrooms were beginning to form. Yesterday we removed those mushrooms noticing more were forming underneath of the ones we were removing.

Once the Shiitake Mushrooms were removed, we brought them inside and rinsed them under cold running water, then set them aside on a plate while we researched different methods of preservation such as canning, freezing and dehydrating. We decided dehydrating them would be the best choice for us.

The next step in the process involved cutting them into either 1/8 inch slices or 1/4 inch slices and removing any of the stem pieces that were tough.

My initial concern was that these slices looked pretty big and I was not sure they would dry quickly. The instructions I found on dehydrating mushrooms said they should dry within 6 to 8 hours.

Once all the Shiitake Mushrooms were sliced, it was time to put them onto the dehydrator tray. I have several dehydrators, some with fans, some without fans. I chose to use one without a fan that simply used a gentle heat only. Jerry felt this method would be the one that most resembled drying in natural sunlight.

I laid the pieces of the Shiitake Mushrooms onto the drying rack, making sure there was plenty of space around each piece so the heat could easily circulate and they would dry evenly. Every hour I would go in and turn the Shiitake Mushrooms over so the heat could heat both sides equally. Within about six hours, the mushrooms were dry.

I left them sit on the trays in the dehydrator overnight so they would cool and I could check to make sure they were done. I checked them for dryness by trying to bend one. It snapped easily, so I knew they were done.

From the dehydrator tray they went into a glass jar with a screw on plastic lid. The jar was labeled with the contents and the date, then put into a cool, dark cabinet for storage.

The Shiitake Mushrooms can now be rehydrated by soaking them in water or another liquid or simply tossed into a soup base where they will rehydrate on their own.

Store bought vanilla extract simply cannot hold a candle to homemade. If you are one of those people who grow vanilla planiflora you may already be wondering what to do with all the vanilla beans you will be harvesting. If you do not grow your own, do not fear, you can buy vanilla beans ready to use.

Begin by choosing three plump vanilla beans, split them in half and put them in a sealable jar large enough to allow the beans to be covered completely in liquid. A jar about the size of a pint, but a little taller and thinner, unless you want to cut the beans down in size, will work.

Once the beans are cut in half lengthways, put them in the jar. If they are too tall, you will need to cut them down so they fit in the jar. The beans should be covered by the vodka.

Cover the beans with premium vodka, 80 proof or higher. Fill the jar to the top with the vodka. Seal the jar and put in a cool dark place for six months.

When the six months are up, use this as you would any other type of vanilla extract. Do not remove the vanilla beans. The vanilla beans can be used for seven years. When the vanilla extract you made begins to run low, simply pour the remaining vanilla extract into a different glass container, fill the old bottle up with vodka again and wait six months for a new batch to cure.

These cherries are delicious and easy to make. You can buy sweet cherries at the store if you do not grow them. This recipe calls for 1 pound of sweet cherries.

Pit one pound of sweet cherries.

Make a brine out of 1 pint water and ¼ tablespoon pickling salt. Bring this to a boil so salt will dissolve. Allow to cool for ten minutes, then pour over the cherries.

Cover the bowl and let it sit overnight.

The next day, drain and rinse the cherries. Combine 1 pound of sugar, ¾ cup water and ¼ teaspoon lemon juice. Bring this to a boil and continue boiling until the sugar dissolves. Pour it over the drained cherries and let stand for 24 hours covered.

Drain the cherries taking care to save the juice. Pack the cherries into 4 ounce or half pint canning jars. Bring the juice to a boil, then remove from heat. Add 1/8 ounce almond extract and 1/8 ounce homemade vanilla extract, stir well. Pour juice over cherries.

Wipe jar rims, put lids and bands on making sure they are fingertip tight. Process for twenty minutes in a cold pack canner, remove and tighten lids.

Set them on a secure surface. I lay an old towel on top of my table and set the canning jars on it. Remember these jars are hot so use hot pads and jar lifters.

Tighten the bands as tight as possible.

Allow the jars to cool overnight. When the jars are completely cool, remove the bands and check the lids to make sure they are sealed.

To check the lids, simply try to lift them up with your fingers. If they come off, set the food in the refrigerator and eat it within a week. If they do not come off, the cans are sealed. Replace the band and store in a cool, dark place.

Be sure to  label the jars with the name of the food in them and the date.

If you are like most gardeners or canners, you will find that after making your recipe there is extra produce left. Not enough mind you for another batch, but too much to eat fresh before it goes bad. Here is a recipe to use up some of your extra summer fruit or to combine some of the fruit you have already preserved to come up with something a little different.

2 cups water

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup spun cinnamon honey

6 cups peaches

3 cups pears

2 cups seedless grapes

1 cup drained maraschino cherries, halved

10 fresh chocolate mint sprigs

Before you begin, wash your canning jars, lids and rings. Be sure to dip them in boiling water to sterilize them.

Fill your cold pack canner with water and begin heating it up. You will want the water in the cold pack canner to be about ready to boil before you begin making the sauce.

Prepare a bowl of water and add in Fruit Fresh or another preservative meant to prevent browning of the fruit.

In the meantime, peel the peaches and pears. Cut the larger fruit into bite size chunks. Make sure you remove all the seeds and pits from the fruit.

As you cut up the fresh fruit, put it into the bowl filled with the fruit preservative.

When the water in your canner is about ready to boil, put the 2 cups of water, the sugar and the honey in a stainless steel sauce pan.

Bring this mixture to a boil over medium high heat. Be sure to keep it stirred so it does not burn.

Once the mixture is boiling and the sugar and honey are melted, add the peaches, pears and grapes to the pan.

Return the mixture to a boil, being sure to continue stirring.

Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes.

Add the cherries.

Put two clean chocolate mint springs into each jar.

Using a ladle, add the fruit to the jar, then top the jar off with the liquid.

Leave 1/2 inch headspace. Be sure you use a knife to remove any trapped air bubbles from the jar.

Wipe the jars rim with a damp paper towel making sure to remove any spilled syrup.

Center the sterilized lid on the top of the canning jar.

Screw the band down so it is finger tight. You do not want to over tighten the band, just make it tight enough to hold the lid in place.

Place the jars in the canner filled with boiling water. The water should completely cover the top of the jar lids.

Put the lid on the canner and cook for 20 minutes.

Remove the canner lid, wait for 5 minutes, then lift the jars from the canner.

Set them on a secure surface. I lay an old towel on top of my table and set the canning jars on it. Remember these jars are hot so use hot pads and jar lifters.

Tighten the bands as tight as possible.

Allow the jars to cool overnight. When the jars are completely cool, remove the bands and check the lids to make sure they are sealed.

To check the lids, simply try to lift them up with your fingers. If they come off, set the food in the refrigerator and eat it within a week. If they do not come off, the cans are sealed. Replace the band and store in a cool, dark place.

Be sure to  label the jars with the name of the food in them and the date.

The first week of the year you should look for nuts. Look at the after Christmas sales. The nuts may be 50% or more off. The dry roasted ones store best, but you can freeze nuts as long as you put them into a freezer bag and keep them for a long time. Try to buy at least two pounds per person.

The second week of the year is the best time to look for cleaning supplies. An average is one gallon of bleach per person. The average person does 156 loads of laundry per year, so stock up on enough laundry soap to get by for the year. Also look for other types of cleansers at this time unless you make your own. If you do, take time this week to stock up on supplies you need to make your own cleansers for the upcoming year.

Week 3: This is a good time to stock up on needed supplies such as feminine products, Pepto Bismal, Vicks, cough drops and syrup, Tylenol, Calamine Lotion, Kaopectate, Ipecac, and sunscreen. Dispose of all outdated medications in your medicine chest. If you make any of your own salves, creams, etc. take this week to stock up on supplies you will need over the coming year.

Week 4: Is a good time to continue to stock the medicine chest with products such as Band-Aids, antibiotic ointments, Ace Bandages, steri-strips and other first aid needs.

Week 5: Is the time to stock up on personal products such as soap, deodorant, toilet paper, shampoo, lotion, hand soap, etc. An average on hand soap is fifteen bars per person. Again, if you make your own, use this week to stock up on supplies you will need.

Week 6: The only thing you need to stock up on this week is peanut butter. Buy ten pounds per person. Peanut butter has a long shelf life, so if you overbuy, it will keep.

Week 7: Stock up on oils, remember the FDA says 60 pounds per person per year. Solid shortening are less expensive than oils. Keep your oils and shortenings rotated so the ones that expire first are used first. These products have a long shelf life and will generally last several years especially if they are kept in a cool, dark place.

Week 8: This is a good time to look for 100% pure juice. Do not buy watered down versions. Go for the gold and get 100% pure lemon, orange, pineapple, whatever flavors you like. If you can your own juice, this may be a good week to look for canning supplies instead as fruit this time of year can be expensive. If you do find a good sale, by all means, stock up. You can juice fruit any time of the year.