Adventures in Food Preservation

This weekend was one centered on food preservation.

My mom came down from Rochester w/ my cousin, her dog, and a butt-load of veggies.

I most certainly acquired my photography gene from my mother, who (no joke) captured my entire childhood on film. On events such as this, she sees more value in capturing the people rather than the process, which is what I'd prefer to show you. Since I took the hands-on approach, I have to give most of the photo credits to her & will preface these with an apology that my un-showered head is in most of them.

This weekend it was concluded that I would be the teacher, using my limited canning knowledge gained from the World Wide Web.

My great-grandmother, Chloie, was a whiz at canning, and her skills bypassed my Mom's interests at the time, and while I remember being a wee little gal & watching her in awe; I unfortunately did not retain any of the actual knowledge in the how-to department, either. By the time I was old enough to appreciate and attempt to remember the processes, she had passed.



Determined to revive this ability, I invited Mom and my cousin to come down for a shared lesson in the craft.




I started mom out with some chopping of the gang of banana peppers she brought down, while I started sanitizing supplies...

While my cousin started shucking the 52 ears of corn they brought down...















Mom & I eventually stepped in, to help.


Lesson #1 I learned this weekend : Preserving is much less daunting of a task with teamwork!








 













Lesson #2 : My horrible posture can result in pictures where I look pregnant. Trust me folks, no bun in this oven.

Before we really got into the thick of things, everyone had to apron-up! 

This included some modeling, of course.

                                          Then, we started processing the corn...

We formed an assembly-line type format for this process.


It worked surprisingly well, considering I have, what I call, an ass-to-ass kitchen. It is sooooo tiny that any two people in it at the same time, are, inevitably, ass-to-ass. Hence the name.

My cousin manned the blanching station and the timer on the microwave.

He then handed the ears off to my Mom, who covered the ice bath station.

All of this occurred in 4 minute increments, while I took care of the kernel stripping.

My mom had purchased the a tool similar to the "Kernal Kutter" (I can't remember if it was the actual name brand one, or a knock off) to aid in this process.

Let's just say, it worked fairly well...for about 12 cobs.

Then, POP!

The flaw in the design, which I'd spotted when I opened the package, turned out to be the death of this little gadget. I'm sure they make many kinds of these, and my only advice is to look for one with a solid ring, as opposed to this one that appeared to have two serrated strips of sheet metal fixed into a circle shape.

So, I went back to using a knife.

Just the way they've done it for years.

Lesson #3: Why mess with a tried-and-true method, right?

 

Once the final cob was stripped bare, Mom took charge of the bagging, while I flattened them, pushing out as much air as possible, wiping the bags clean, and dating them.

My cousin helped to distract Trixy, who had been anxiously awaiting something good to fall on the floor, during this entire process.

This made her happy.

Getting her picture taken, did not. 

Meanwhile, Mom and I celebrated our accomplishment. 

Once the corn was stacked neatly in the freezer, we moved on to stuffing the banana peppers into the sanitized quart jars.

I learned from my first go-around at this is not a process to be done gently.
My first two cans of these looked terrible & were a total waste of space. Once the peppers shrunk up, they only filled about half the jar.

So, I showed both my cousin & my Mom how to cram as many of these suckers in, as you can.

For this batch we used Mrs. Wages Kosher Dill Pickle mix for the brine, at the suggestion of my pseudo-sister-in-law. 

Mom is ever curious and learned that taking a big whiff of boiling vinegar & dill, was not as splendid as she'd anticipated. 

Once the violent coughing and laughter had passed, I proceeded to add a sprinkle of peppercorns, 2 cloves of garlic, & a few hot peppers to each jar; and fill them with the boiling brine. 

Here's a few of the finished products. We got a total of 7 quart-sized jars of sweet banana peppers.

By that point in the night, we were loosing a bit of steam (though the water-bath pot was creating plenty of it's own, making the whole house a bit balmy!) and finished off the night with baking 4 loaves of Zucchini Walnut Bread and M.M. stepped in and whipped up some Asian Cucumber Salad. Fortunately, the picture taking had ceased for the night, so I'll spare you the details of those, for now.

Afterthoughts:
1. As excited as you may be to jump into the 'meat & potatoes' of the canning process, make sure ALL the prep that you can possibly do in advance, is completed before you start the brine or begin stuffing jars.
2. Invite friends and/or family over to help. Make a day of it. Dividing up the work, helps; and it's good quality time with your loved ones.
3. As much as I'd anticipated doing something like this while I lived in LA, the primary thing I'd underestimated was the quantity of produce needed. If you want to purchase large amounts from local farmers, then maybe. But I've personally found small gardens (especially container gardens) provide you with an appropriate bounty to eat through the summer and fall, so enjoy it while it's fresh. Historically, canning was vital to families to survive; but also to ensure that NOTHING went to waste. I'm starting to appreciate these processes for their original purpose, as opposed to the hobby that it is to some. Knowing how to do it is important knowledge to have. But I think it  has turned into a bit of a fad for some, and once the novelty of it wears off, you can tell if it's something you're cut out to continue doing.
4. Start with some pint jars for your first go-around. I was alittle overly ambitious & bought/acquired 3 cases of quart jars. I definitely need to invest in some pints, for smaller harvests. I'm running into instances where I don't have enough produce ripe at the same time. Part of that is due to the size of my garden and the terrible quality of the soil. (see "bamBOO" post)
5. I'm also having to re-evaluate the space needed for all of these jars once they are full of goodies. Living in an awkwardly shaped rental house that doesn't afford alot of storage space and no basement, in addition to the impracticality of building any kind of permanent shelving space for them; has left me considering constructing some mobile shelving units. WHERE to put them is the next issue.
6. I recently tried one of the first jars I did (the one's I hadn't packed quite so tight) and found them to be VERY salty. I can only assume this is due to not enough peppers & too much brine?
I'm really hoping the rest turn out a bit better, but I'm learning through trial and error!

I'm learning volumes about all of this as I go & would love any input you might have!