shortages

[Rammy]

If you follow the instructions in the Ball canning book, that shouldnt happen. I always sterilize my jars in the dish washer before use. Never have gotten sick from anythjng I canned.
Now.......the canned stuff from the store......

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

If you follow the instructions in the Ball canning book, that shouldnt happen. I always sterilize my jars in the dish washer before use. Never have gotten sick from anythjng I canned.
Now.......the canned stuff from the store......

I do the same, dishwasher and keep in oven on lowest heat until ready to fill. Rarely do I get a bad seal. I have only had 2 jars break in the canner in about 5 years.

 

[Mini Horses]

Same here...DW is great for this! I always keep fresh canned out for week and any bad seal will show by then....before going to long term shelves. Not had any problem in over 50 yrs. Just take care and do it! Clean prep always.

I'm so ready and anxious for this year's season!

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

I'm so ready and anxious for this year's season!

Me too! I bought the USDA canning book and am going to try a couple new recipes and spice some things up this year

 

[FarmerJamie]

All the things that could go wrong. Botulism, bad and moldy food, false seal, ect.

Can't be any more scary than birthing a baby or two

 

[flowerbug]

All the things that could go wrong. Botulism, bad and moldy food, false seal, ect.

know the pH of the items you are canning. for boiling water bath items of a low enough pH there isn't much risk at all of botulism. even if the seal doesn't hold you can either reprocess or keep the items in the fridge until you eat them. bad a moldy food shouldn't happen too often either. once in a while during processing you might miss a bit of something which might end up turning a jar bad but on the whole this shouldn't be a major problem if your food prep is ok.

if anything when you're going to do something you can ask for opinions here.

i don't pressure can here so all we put up are acidic items like tomato juice and tomato chunks, pickles, pickled beets, bread and butter pickles and then i also do some frozen things like freezer jam and frozen cooked items like beans, soups, or whatever we make where we have enough to do portions in the freezer.

in all the years i've been here there's been perhaps two jars that were canned that went off due to chipped rim of the jar i didn't notice or some bit of stuff in the jar that wasn't caught. normally i am quality control for canning so i'm going through whatever is cut up looking for potential trouble and remove it, but that year the tomatoes had a huge amount of inclusions in the tomatoes and they had to be cut out and i missed some of it so that jar spoiled. the rest of the batch wasn't affected at all. it should have been juiced instead then i would have avoided that.

 

[Cecilia's-life]

Can't be any more scary than birthing a baby or two

You’d be surprised how much you body does that for you. Though that part is somewhat alarming.

 

[farmerjan]

I have made relish and lots of other stuff. Have not had a garden in a couple of years because of the ankle and then replacement 2 years ago, and the knees and their replacement this past Oct. Plus the landlord used to help himself to the garden stuff when I had it... he would say "I got a couple tomatoes because you had so many that were ripe"... and then he bitched about the garden not looking NEAT alongside the house... he was all in to "looks"... just got tired of it. Hopefully, this year I will be back to gardening again with the knees healing and being in my own place where no one can tell me what or what not to do. But still, there are times when buying bulk items is still more practical for me. I agree home grown and home made is better and usually cheaper... I just bought a gallon jar of sauerkraut for 2.79 .... I mean, really..... It is insurance, on the shelf of food stockpiled.....

 

[Hinotori]

Before use look at the jar. Check for discoloration of food, bulging lid, heavy rust.

Always listen when you open a jar (or can) for air rushing in. That's warned me on store cans enough and was drilled into me as a little kid learning to cook.

Visually check open jar for any mold. Smell it.

All good means eat.

Full sugar jams and jellies can be a mold exception as you can carefully scoop out the moldy part if needed. Ive never seen pickles mold.

Over the years I've seen far more issues in canned goods from the grocery store than I've ever encountered in home canned.

Follow a known canning recipe and the processing times and temps.

I recommend starting with pickles or jams and jellies. They are pretty failsafe and easy to do. They are also self preserving so if you dont notice that it didnt seal for a day, nothing is going to happen. Stick it in the fridge and use it up. Pickles need to wait 2 weeks even then to actually pickle.

 

[Cecilia's-life]

I have always made blackberry jam but too afraid of something going wrong so I’ve stuck it in the fridge.