This post will share the canning tools that I use every time I can, recommend to you, and love for water bath canning and steam canning. 

This post contains affiliate links.

I use these wide mouth pints all the time and are the jar I recommend for a beginner. They are the most versatile because they are small enough to fit into a pasta pot water bath set up, the double as a drinking glass and two cups of anything is a sizeable portion. It isn’t that often that I need 4 measuring cups of jam at once. I like them especially for tomato sauce.

The other jars that I really like are for giving as gifts. These tiny 4 ounce jars are perfect for sharing a rich spread like tomato jam, a spicy hot sauce, or shipping preserves in the mail. Jars are heavy, and especially when shipping internationally they are expensive to mail, so tiny jars are essential in these situations. I made sunny Meyer Lemon jam for my cousins in Switzerland in these jars; talk about California in a jar! They use the regular size lids too, which I love. 

Want to watch the video version of this post?

Want the equipment checklist to get started? Download it for free here!

 

I recommend this jar lifter and funnel set. Normally, I’m in favor of recyclable items but this funnel is see-through which makes eye-balling the headspace really easy as opposed to impossible with an opaque funnel. A jar lifter is mandatory; you gotta have one to water bath can and really should have one for steam canning. If you skip the jar lifter because you are steam canning, you can get by with a hot pad, but be very careful. A jar lifter is still a must. 

You always need brand new lids. Used lids can be reused to store dry goods but CANNOT be used for canning. A used lid that is used for canning might give you  false seal which means it will seam sealed but on the shelf in a month or two, it will become unsealed. That’s a waste of your effort! Spend the few dollars and get new lids. Get new lids like these.

I LOVE this steam canner. If you already have a water bath canning set up and like it, that’s fine and dandy but if you don’t have a canning process OR if you find your traditional canning process slow and cumbersome, listen up: STEAM CANNING IS FAST. It is ready in 5 minutes, while a traditional water bath takes about 30 minutes to be ready. I’m not a math teacher, but that seems like a big difference, right? You can read my post about steam canners here but you’ll definitely want to get your own steam canner after reading. I love this one.

This YouTube video will explain what a steam canner does and show you how it will cut your canning time in half even if you have never canned before!

A food mill is not necessary to can, exactly, but I use mine in nearly every recipe. I use so often because it is so effective in creating a super smooth puree, it is easy to clean, it is not an appliance that is going to break and be expensive to replace, they are all or mostly metal (read: durable) and I love that mine has 3 plates that can be swapped out. You know the 4 sides to a box grater? That’s what the interchangeable plates do; you can have a super fine puree, or just a medium one. The best example of it’s utility is making applesauce. I can cut a whole apple- core, seeds, skins, stems, everything- into quarters, add water, and boil till the quarters are really soft, I can plop the quarters into the food mill and all the cores, seeds, skins, and stems stay on the top and all that falls through is smooth applesauce.

Here’s a video of it in action to show you exactly what it does!

A silicone trivet is a really versatile way of turning any old pot you already have into a water bath canning pot. You have to have a rack or buffer on the bottom of the pot to prevent the jars from breaking and the silicone trivet is an affordable and useful amendment. You can use it as a trivet, of course, when you aren’t canning, and when you are, it simply sits in the bottom of a stock or pasta pot.

You can get a traditional water bath canning pot like this but I’d only recommend it if you want to can really large batches of quart jars and you have lots of time to wait for it to boil.

Do you have what you need to start canning? Get the equipment checklist!

This post will share the details of canning specifically as they apply to busy moms. Get ready for a super simple, easy to understand beginner canning tutorial, Wildflowers!

Psst! Scroll down if you want to watch the YouTube version of this post! 

I know what you are probably thinking. Canning has a terrible reputation as being something that takes a ton of time, that might make you sick, that is super difficult, and that is way too complicated for a modern mom to tackle. I hear ya- I have NO interest in any of those things. Time-sucking activities have gone the way of the dinosaur in my house ever since I had kids.

I taught myself to can when I was pregnant with my first child. I grew up watching my mom and grandma can but as a teenager I had way cooler things to do then to can peaches. As an adult, I really was interested in learning so I could feed my baby homemade baby food and not worry about the junk like added sugar, preservatives, and allergens inside store-bought food. I learned how, and have been canning like crazy ever since. It has become THE tool I rely on to have healthy, homemade foods COOKED IN ADVANCE and it helps me save money and time.

I’m going to share with you today why canning can be fast, easy, and simple even if you’re an overwhelmed mom.

Canning is a way of preserving healthy fruit or veggies in glass jars using heat to sterilize the jar and to create a vacuum seal. That seal makes the jar shelf stable (on the pantry shelf, not in the fridge!) for up to a year.

The basic idea is that you put food (the preserve, such as applesauce, jam, whole fruit slices, pickles, salsa, tomato sauce, etc) into a glass canning jar, you put on the lid, and either submerge it into a boiling water bath OR set it on the rack of a steam canner (which I’ll explain in detail below and I have a whole blog post about here). You’ll set the timer for a set amount of time (dictated by a canning recipe, not your imagination) and then remove the jars from heat. The heat will seal the jar, and when the jars are cool you can store them to eat any time. It’s a science, not an art, which should be comforting to those of you who are more of type A, rule following, conscientious mom. If you’re the type B, easy going doesn’t ever follow recipes type of mom, hear me say this: You MUST follow a canning recipe because canning works because of several principles. One of these is that the contents of the jar have to be HIGH ACID. Canning recipes are all at a 4.6 acid level or greater. The inside of the jar will be too acidic for spoilers to grow. Canning creates an atmosphere inside the jar that I joke is like Mars. It gets really hot, there’s no oxygen, and it is really high in acid so nothing can live. By following a canning-specific recipe, you can be sure that the process will “work”, the jars will be safe, and your food will be delicious!

You might remember Great Aunt Nadine canning for hours and hours, working up mountains of peaches or bushels of apples. You don’t have to can huge batches, and after a batch or two, you’ll be able to can 5 or 6 jars of jam and have the dishes cleaned up in about an hour. I’m all about fast and I have many tips that will help you can quickly so you can get it all done during naptime.

Canning doesn’t take a ton of equipment. In fact, you probably have almost everything you need already! Here’s you can download a free equipment list for traditional water bath canning.

There’s a new kind of canning that you can try that I want to share with you also. The traditional boiling water bath is absolutely safe and effective so you do NOT have to try steam canning. But, steam canning saves a ton of time because you don’t have to wait for that huge pot of water to come to a boil. You also won’t need a jar lifter (one of the items on the list) and it is ideal if you are living on a sailboat, an RV, a tiny house, a yurt, cooking on propane or with solar heat, or any situation where you are short on time and heating resources. Here are the equipment list and fact sheet about steam canning that you can download for free.

Once you decide if you’ll try canning with a steam canner or a traditional water bath pot then you are ready to try canning on your own!

I know you are a busy mom and I totally get it. My kids are now 5 and 3 and I don’t have time to spend hours and hours in the kitchen. I want to help you learn how to can so you can have delicious and healthy tomato sauce preserved in jars for way less than it costs in the store. That tomato sauce can become countless dinners, and it is cooked way in advance! Imagine pasta sauce that is ready in five minutes that you MADE YOURSELF. Canning is the amazing means to do just that, Wildflowers!

Jenn from Home By Jenn and I have teamed up to put our collective genius together to bring you a super-affordable mini-course full of premium video instruction that will SHOW you, in a way a cookbook cannot, STEP BY STEP, exactly what to do when so you can can with success!

I’d like to introduce You Can Can!

Inside You Can Can you’ll find a 5 videos of me teaching you about the equipment you need, the way to set your stove up for success (What pot goes where?! Let me show you!), and the WHOLE process of canning. I’ll also show you how to set up a steam canner so you can preserve using that time-saving tool as well!

Enroll Now!

For the amazing price of just $25 bucks, you can get these videos, PLUS-

• A PDF of the equipment checklists
• A canning log
• A canning season planner
• A notes section for while you’re watching, and more!

Wildflowers, you are not going to believe the BONUS SECTION that Jenn from Home By Jenn put together for you all too! She’s sharing 7 of her BEST 20 Minute Meals and all of them are linked to canning recipes that are easy, beginner friendly that you can try out TODAY.

Enroll Now!

Get it now- for just $25 bucks, how could you afford not to?!

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This post will share a great recipe for strawberry jam that can be halved or doubled and can be pureed smooth or not. It is versatile and easy, fragrant, and fast. Enjoy and be sure to download the printable version of the recipe to have on hand! You’ll be making homemade strawberry jam for your family and friends in no time with this easy canning recipe.

Strawberry Jam is THE preserve to try if you’ve never canned because strawberries are so high in acid that the worst thing that could happen is that you’ll have thin jam, which is essentially strawberry syrup. When the worst case scenario is strawberry syrup, I feel like the risk is really, really low, Wildflowers. You can proceed with confidence.

Strawberry jam is delightful on quintessential peanut butter and jelly, in a jam & whiskey cocktail, dressing a banana split, in between layers of a cake, atop a cheesecake, on toast, on an English muffin with cream cheese, whisked with balsamic vinegar into a dressing, and so much more. 

Want to print this Strawberry Jam Canning Recipe? Get it here!

Notice that there are directions for both water bath AND steam canners; I explain a ton about steam canners in this post but basically, they are a really great pot that makes canning faster and easier.

**Edit: Thanks to reader Debi for mentioning that some beginners might not know or remember to check the top edge of the jar for any trace of jam. Because I use, and you should use a funnel to fill each and every jar, you probably won’t have much jam get on the top edge. However, you SHOULD check every jar with your eyes to see if there’s even just a smudge of jam and wipe it with a clean kitchen towel before applying the lids and rings. Any trace of jam might thwart a seal, and that’s a real disappointment. Check the edges, Wildflowers!

Not sure what tools you need to get started canning?

I had the great pleasure of demonstrating how both water bath and steam canner setups work at my friend Mary’s ranch of Five Mary’s Farms – we used this recipe and canned 4 big batches!

One thing we discussed during the canning lesson was that canning isn’t an activity for people who believe in perfection. Of course, canning requires the canner to follow directions closely and to understand that failure to do so is unwise and risky, but there’s a great amount of variability that can occur even when following directions closely. You might see in this impressive tower of delicious jars of jam (24 jars in a couple of hours!) differences in color; we picked the berries in the same place, cooked the berries side by side in similar pots and used the same recipe. One pot got cooked a bit longer but other than that they were essentially the same batch. But, you can see that they don’t look exactly the same. Canning is not about perfection. Some batches are firmer, or darker, or sweeter than others. There’s little sense looking back as you aren’t headed that way, I think, and I don’t spend much time worrying about it. Both batches tasted delicious and the ladies that I canned with today all get to share the joy of canning with their loved ones. Any day that I get to spend with friends preserving the fruits of the Earth for colder days is a good one indeed.

If you love strawberries, you’ll love my Canning Strawberries Recipe Book!

Canning strawberry jam truly is a great jam for a beginner and I want to hear if you try it! 

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This post will share the 4 actionable steps to creating a homemade pantry, including a helpful video tutorial that will walk you through exactly what steps to take to create a pantry that saves you time, cuts processed foods, and gives you freedom and choice at mealtime!

 

This post may contain affiliate links.

There are 4 simple steps to creating a pantry that is full of meal bases, snacks, appetizers, spreads, sauces, marinades, and more that will help you save time, money and sanity. A whole pantry may sound daunting but think of it like this: you can create a pantry jar by jar, batch by batch, shelf by shelf, and soon you will have a resource that serves you.

Watch this video to learn the 4 simple steps!

Yes! Get Instant Access!

 

This cranberry lemon jam is super smooth, perfect for Thanksgiving, even better on a sandwich the day after Thanksgiving with turkey slices, great on bagels with cream cheese, and the lemon makes it seem bright and summery too. It’s a perfect jam. You definitely can make this cranberry lemon jam and preserve it in a water bath process- you do not have to use a steam canner. Or you can make it and eat it fresh. Store it in the refrigerator if you do.

If you are reading this recipe thinking that you’d love to make the jam, but don’t know anything about steam canning, don’t worry. You can make the jam without knowing anything about steam canning. Read on for the recipe or read this post about steam canning!

This post contains affiliate links. 

Cranberry Lemon jam calls for

3 pounds Meyer lemons, washed well

1 bag or 1 ½ cup cranberries (okay if frozen from Thanksgiving time)

1 ½ cup sugar

Simmer WHOLE Meyer lemons in a large saucepan of water for about 20 minutes or until a fork slides into them easily.

Cool lemons until you can handle them easily, either by resting on a cutting board (slow) or submerging in an ice bath (much faster)

While the lemons cool, add the cranberries and sugar to a smaller saucepan and turn on low to medium-low. They will very slowly cook, bursting, and the sugar will dissolve. Stir occasionally.

Working over a bowl, with a knife and a grapefruit spoon or other semi pointy spoon, cut them in half, scoop out the visible seeds, and put the lemon halves into a food processor like this one

You can also use a blender to puree the lemon into a smooth mixture as well.

Or a food mill like this one-

just slice the lemons into quarters or even a bit smaller to lessen the effort required to work them up.

Once the lemons are super smooth, combine the lemon puree and the cranberry all together. Turn on medium-low to bring to a simmer. You want the mixture to be hissing, bubbling, and the bubbles bursting at the surface. This should be happening in about 10 minutes.

Prepare the steam canner.

Add the water to the steam canner, assemble the jars, new lids, funnel, ladle, and turn steam canner burner on low.

If steam canning is new to you, you can get the Steam Canning Mini Resource Guide- It’s a PDF equipment checklist + fact sheet about how to get started with steam canning!

One at a time, fill the jars with the simmering jam, leave a quarter inch headspace, apply a new lid and ring, and set on the rack of the steam canner. Repeat with remaining jars.

Put the lid on the steam canner and turn the heat up to medium-high. When the dial on the steam canner indicates you are in the “zone” start the timer for 10 minutes, remembering to adjust for altitude (5 minutes of processing time added for every 1000 feet elevation). When the time is up, turn the burner off and wait till the lid of the steam canner has cooled significantly. Lift the lid away from you, and be aware that steam will come pouring out from the canner.

If you are processing your jars in a traditional water bath canning process, just process for 10 minutes, of course adjusting for altitude.

Lids will seal immediately or as long as 12 hours after you remove them from the canner. Label sealed lids and store.

That’s it, Wildflowers! It is delicious with cream cheese on a bagel, stirred into a sunny whiskey cocktail, or on a meat and cheese sandwich.

I have a little secret, though.

The whole process of making this jam is part of my Steam Canning Workshop video course. That’s right… you can watch me make this jam, step-by-step, in the course, along with a bunch of other recipes chosen for which time-saving, Steam Canner techniques they’d teach you- learn more here!

Yes, PLEASE!