Canning Foods at Home for Flavor

By Roberta Bailey
Updated on August 1, 2023
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by Rick Wetherbee
Fill the shelves of your pantry with food straight from your garden. Canning requires ust a few basic tools, including a water bath or pressure canner, empty jars and lids, and a jar lifter for removing jars from hot water.

Learn water bath and pressure canning skills to preserve fresh homegrown flavor by canning foods at home while saving your budget.

Editor’s Note: Mother Earth News works to preserve historical articles written as far back as 1970. However, science evolves, and this is especially true in regard to recommendations for home preservation. Ball Canning announced in 2014 that home canners no longer need to sterilize or heat canning lids because the modern plastisol sealant doesn’t require softening. Simply wash the lids to remove any dust or debris, then use.

We all can agree that there is nothing like the flavor of a homegrown garden tomato. But did you also know that there is nothing like the flavor of home-canned tomatoes — or corn, peaches or salsa? After 20 years of putting up much of my own food, I took a year off because I was moving. During that year — even though I bought high-quality organic produce, canned goods and frozen foods — I was shocked to discover how much flavor and natural sweetness was missing from these store-bought products. I wondered about their nutritional value.

Since then, I have resumed growing and putting up much of my family’s food. I appreciate the quality now more than ever, and in these times of fuel-dependent food distribution systems, I find comfort in eating food that did not have to travel more than a few yards to my table.

Although canning is extra work in the summer and fall, I have come to think of canned goods as convenience foods. To walk into my pantry at the end of a long day and pull out a jar of tomato and pinto bean soup, or to pop open a jar of strawberry applesauce for dessert, is a luxury well worth the summer work. There are many items that cannot be found in the supermarket, such as my own organic ‘Orange Banana’ tomatoes or raspberry fruit butter for our toast. And there’s a great advantage to canning foods at home: You will always get the best flavor and highest quality from picking food at its freshest and processing it the same day.

My approach to putting up food is to think about how I like to eat each vegetable: I eat beets pickled or steamed; I like carrots raw and peas fresh or frozen; and corn is good fresh, canned or frozen. There is no sense in canning 30 pints of peas or mustard pickles if nobody eats them. That’s why I tend to lean toward techniques that bring out the best in each fruit or vegetable, as well as toward those that require the least effort. Why can carrots, apples or beets when they store so well in a root cellar? The same goes for spinach and broccoli, which taste much better when frozen. Most fruits and vegetables can be canned, as well as meat, but for me, canning usually works best for soups, sauces, and salsas.

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