Finally got the canning nook cleaned out!

[lalaland]

county extension offices used to check your canners for you - but in Mn they quit doing that.

main thing is to make sure the valve is clear, not clogged up, and to avoid pressure cooking food - not canning, I mean, just cooking food in it like a pot - that could clog the steam valve. things like beans and peas.

 

[Blackbird]

Bit late for the tips :/

Thanks everyone, we are mighty proud of it.

 

[lalaland]

lol, Blackbird, I surely didn't mean you needed any info on canning! I was drooling over your picks. also sorry, wasn't trying to hijack your thread - was absentmindedly responding to an earlier poster.

You grow apricots? Cherries? my-oh-my that is pretty amazing for MN. I'm zone 3, but planted a few cherry trees a couple of years ago, they are still growing and I got a total of 3 cherries from one of the trees last year. Crossing my fingers for more.

 

[Blackbird]

Its A-OK! I honestly know nothing about pressure canning so everything you said is over my head anyway!

YESSS! Cherries and apricots!

The apricots are Sugar Pearls and Goldcots. We had one year where we had tons, we had them coming out of our ears! The kitchen smelled like apricot for a week. But since then we really haven't gotten many, they go in cycles I guess.

Cherries.. we have a lot of wild choke, a bing, and two dwarf nanking I think? I would have to look it up to be positive.

The plums we grow are Aldermans, and I think we have a Superior as a pollinator, again, would have to look that up to be positive, but we have many wild plums around here as well.

 

[tamlynn]

Looks great! What a nice place to put it all too.

 

[big brown horse]

Morning BB! (Package is sent btw.)

That looks wonderful!

 

[ducks4you]

Yes, I'm showing off. We recently added hardwood flooring to our walk in. In the process we had to move some of the canned goods under the landing.

My mom and I decided that we needed to clean under it and add more shelves, clean out some of the older ones, etc.

So here it is - bit dusty on the outside, but yummy on the inside;
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/854_cannin.jpg

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/uploads/854_canned.jpg

I love all of the cinderblocks and bricks--reminds me of an underground bunker!

We still have to go through our wine and get all that stacked in and move the potatoes and squash, etc. in, but other than that we're mostly done!

A couple of decades ago DH's co-worker cleaned out the wine they had made and strored, because they were remodeling. Everybody took some. WE took 13 cases. They have made about 5-6 kinds of wine--MY personal favorite, Pinot Noir. It took awhile, but we made our way through it all.

 

[Ldychef2k]

Green....with envy ! What an awesome storage space and what a lot of hard work to set it up. Wish I had a basement or that I lived where it doesn't get to 110 in the summers!

 

[Blackbird]

But it DOES get to 110 here; er, at least it has in the past, it usually gets up to 100 though. We have both extremes here. Thanks everyone!

 

[Ldychef2k]

I had no idea that it would ever get so hot so far north. Wow, there's no escaping it, is there?

I am giving some serious thought to turning one of my bedrooms into a pantry. I have jars scattered everywhere and it's just not efficient. I would like to be as space conscious as you have been, while going as vertical as safe to go. Then I would black out the window and open the AC vent !!! You are really inspiring me!

But it DOES get to 110 here; er, at least it has in the past, it usually gets up to 100 though. We have both extremes here. Thanks everyone!