Can

This post will show you step by step how to can peaches in a vanilla syrup with a splash of whiskey. The resulting preserve can be eaten out of the jar plain, are perfect on top of a cheesecake, waffles, or ice cream, or are a flavorful alternative to plain ol’ peaches in a pie or crisp. Read on for the tutorial!

This recipe is based off one my grandmother tore out of the Sacramento Bee for me several years ago. I’ve changed a few things and added complete canning instructions, but this recipe was one of the first I tried where I canned with booze and I’m forever grateful to both my Gram and the good ol’ SacBee. It is so, so good.

The alcohol mostly if not entirely cooks off so you can feel safe feeding this preserve to those who are children or who abstain from alcohol. I’m actually very sensitive to approximately 10,000 migraine triggers and alcohol is one of them. I’ve never eaten these and felt like it caused one. So, pour in a generous ⅓ cup, make yourself a cold drink for the canning process, and relax!

The peaches in this recipe are not pureed or milled up the way I often process fruit. They are in halves if your peaches are freestone (the pit just comes right out with ease) or in chunks if your peaches are clingstone (no force in the world can pull the flesh of peach from the pit).

This brings up an interesting point about canning safety. The processing time (the time the hot food in hot jars is submerged in boiling water) is determined in large part by the density and/or size of the fruit and veggies in the jar. Larger, more dense pieces mean slightly longer processing time. This time is critical to observe because the center temperature of the jar MUST have time to rise above the 212-degree mark to kill spoilers. It takes a bit longer to get the center of a peach half that hot than it does in say peach nectar (same ingredients just more water and pureed thinly). Do not cut the processing time short, newbies or experienced canners. Keep the jars submerged for the prescribed amount of time, and don’t forget to adjust for altitude by adding 5 minutes of processing time for every 1000 feet you are currently canning above sea level.  

Get the Canning Essentials Workbook for $5 and be guided every step of the way making this recipe, and every recipe this season! The Workbook includes

• Canning Season Planner
• Pantry Checklist
• Equipment Checklist
• Acid & Canning Guide
• Canning Log
• Process Cheat Sheet
• Elevation Adjustment Guide
• Bonus Recipes

Here’s what you need:

4 lbs peaches (10-11 peaches)

2 cups water

2 ½ cups sugar (brown is good but white is good too)

Pinch salt

¼ cup vanilla extract (I make mine at home)

¼  cup good quality real maple syrup

⅓ cup whiskey

[Read more…] about Maple Whiskey Peaches

This post will share the canning recipe and tutorial for roasted chipotle salsa.

For this recipe, we Wildflowers have the distinct pleasure of enjoying another guest post from my friend and fellow canning enthusiast. Kimmy is an experienced canner, a lover of all things spicy, author of the Bread & Butter Pickled Jalapeno recipe, and is an active member in our Grow Like a Wildflower Facebook Group. Kimmy and I will be sharing recipes for years to come, I’m sure. There’s no one I’d rather have to help me educate you in your canning pursuits. Here’s Kimmy!

I love tomatoes, and I love canning. I recently made friends with a tomato farmer at my local farmer’s market and he has been giving me great deals on tomatoes when I buy in bulk. So every Wednesday evening I leave my house as my husband rolls his eyes at me. “More tomatoes? Really?” Heck YES! Who doesn’t love opening a jar of fresh tomatoes/sauce/salsa in the middle of the winter? It’s like summer in a jar! So when I lugged my 3, 25lb boxes this week, I decided to make one of my husband’s favorites. He loves all things chipotle, so it was easy to convince him to help me on a lazy Saturday morning.

Now, I like to get things done as efficiently as possible. Those of you that know me in person are probably smiling to yourself, because you know that’s an understatement. I do not like wasting time, so when he suggested that we roast the veggies for this salsa, I immediately thought, why? I knew it would take a lot more time than just blending the tomatoes whole, but he was willing to help. So we heated up my favorite cast-iron griddle and started roasting. I am so glad we did! This salsa has the best flavor of any salsa that I have ever canned. You want to roast the tomatoes, peppers, and onion just to the point where they look a little charred. Those black specs are actually beautiful on the finished product.

So for this recipe, we used 20 lbs. of tomatoes. I am one of those people who like to do a lot of canning all at once. You do not have to do this! This recipe can easily be cut in half if you just are getting started at canning and don’t want to spend a ton of time. Along with the tomatoes, we also roasted 5 lbs. of tomatillos, around 8 lbs. of peppers. I did a mix of what the farmer sold me at the market, some Italian sweet peppers, a few jalapeños, a few serranos, some bells, and some anaheims. Of course, if you want it really spicy, you will use more of the hot peppers, and if you don’t want it as spicy, you’ll use more of the bells and sweet peppers. We also roasted 4 lbs. of onions.

To roast, we did a combination of roasting on my cast iron griddle (if you have never used cast iron, it is time to start, but that’s another blog post for another day), and under the broiler in the oven. Once the veggies were nice and charred we blended them in batches. We also blended in a bunch of cilantro (use more or less depending on your preference), a can of fire-roasted chipotle peppers with the juice, a head of peeled garlic, 2 TBS cumin, 3 TBS salt, and 2 TBS black pepper.

Bring your salsa to a low boil and let simmer for an hour or so. This isn’t necessary, but it cooks off some of the water from the tomatoes for a stronger flavor. While your salsa is simmering, prepare your jars in your canning pot and get your lids and rings hot in another pan of boiling water. Once everything is ready, ladle your hot salsa into your hot pint jars, add ½ TBS white vinegar to the top of each jar. Make sure to wipe your rims to ensure a good seal and tighten on your lids/rings. Place in your water bath canning pot and process pints for 20 minutes.

This salsa is similar to a salsa that you would get before your dinner at a Mexican restaurant, but with a smoky, chipotle taste. You can add more or fewer chipotles/hot peppers depending on your preferred degree of spiciness. For what it’s worth, my husband’s comment about this recipe was, “It’s got a kick!”

My favorite thing to do with this salsa is to pour it over a pork roast in my crock pot. I add a can of black beans, a can of corn, and a can of diced green chilies. Then, I warm up some tortillas and have a delicious and easy dinner. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family has.

Recipe

20 lbs. tomatoes

5 lbs. tomatillos (make sure to remove the husk first)

8 lbs. peppers (Mix of sweet peppers, bells, jalapeños, serranos, anaheims)

4 lbs. onions

1 bunch cilantro

1 can fire roasted chipotle peppers

1 head garlic

3 TBS. salt

2 TBS. cumin

2 TBS. black pepper

1 cup white vinegar

Roast tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers and onions on sheets in the oven or on a cast iron griddle. Blend in a blender or food processor with cilantro, chipotles, garlic, salt, cumin, and black pepper. Simmer for an hour.

Download the canning process sheet to make these steps a breeze!

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Meanwhile, fill your water bath processing pot with jars and hot tap water. Remember to use a wire canning jar rack or a silicone trivet. You can get the canning equipment checklist here! Bring to a boil.

Put a corresponding number of lids and rings in a saucepan filled halfway with tap water. Bring to a simmer.

Have nearby countertop covered in a towel, and have a jar lifter, funnel, and lid lifter ready.

Ladle into hot, prepared jars. Add ½ TBS vinegar to each jar. Wipe rims, and put on hot lids and rings. Process pints in a water bath for 20 minutes, making sure to adjust for altitude if necessary by adding 5 minutes for every 1000 feet you live above sea level. Let sit on the counter for 24 hours before washing, removing rings and storing.

If you’re not sure if you have the equipment you need to make this recipe, watch this:

Thank you so much for sharing Kimmy! This recipe sounds delicious and I’m convinced that the flavor from roasting the veggies first would be well worth the time. I can’t wait to hear about how you serve this salsa, Wildflowers! Be sure to share in the comments below!

And if you’re wishing you felt confident enough to try this recipe…

Get the Canning Essentials Workbook for $5 and be guided every step of the way making this recipe, and every recipe this season! The Workbook includes

• Canning Season Planner
• Pantry Checklist
• Equipment Checklist
• Acid & Canning Guide
• Canning Log
• Process Cheat Sheet
• Elevation Adjustment Guide
• Bonus Recipes

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This post will share an easy, beginner friendly canning recipe for carrot pickles.

Carrot pickles are one of my favorite pickles because they aren’t cucumbers 🙂 I actually don’t care for cucumbers much, to be honest, which I know is really silly but they just don’t light my fire. Canning them isn’t as easy as you might think; cucumbers for pickles should be small, very firm, and very different than what you’d want sliced-up in a salad. Because of their mild flavor, you have to choose vinegar that really is tasty because it’s taste is what shines or screams. You have to use caution against boiling them too hard or too long for fear of making them mushy, and God knows no one wants a mushy pickle. This isn’t meant to discourage you but rather to educate and to offer an alternative if cucumbers aren’t your jam anyway.

Carrot pickles are my answer to those concerns. Carrots are deliciously pickled in vinegar; they are salty and crisp and they plate beautifully. They are easy to spice up or keep simple for those pickier eaters in your charge.

These are easy to keep crisp, & are a healthy, savory snack!

If you are feeling hesitant about canning, I have the perfect resource to help!

Get the Canning Essentials Workbook for $5 and be guided every step of the way making this recipe, and every recipe this season! The Workbook includes

• Canning Season Planner
• Pantry Checklist
• Equipment Checklist
• Acid & Canning Guide
• Canning Log
• Process Cheat Sheet
• Elevation Adjustment Guide
• Bonus Recipes

You will need:

2 pounds good quality carrots, scrubbed.

5 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1/2 small white onion sliced thin, or diced

1 cup of water

Optional seasoning:1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1 bay leaf per jar, 1 sprig thyme or dill per jar, shake of red pepper flakes to taste, about 1/2 teaspoon per jar– choose any or all of the above to suit your taste!

Get the canning equipment list HERE!

Cut carrots into sticks that are about 1/2 inch thick and no more than 4 inches tall if you are using pint jars. Let rest in ice water while you prepare your pots.

Heat the processing pot full of 4-5 pint jars and water to a boil. Bring a saucepan of lids and rings to a simmer.  

In the preserving pan combine the vinegar, 1 cup of water, salt, sugar, and any seasonings. Bring to a simmer and then add the carrots until they are just tender about 9 minutes.

Use the jar lifter to carefully remove a hot jar from the boiling water bath. Pour the hot water back into the pot, into the saucepan, or into the sink.

Using the funnel, pack the hot carrots into the jars (not tight, just full), and then ladle the hot brine carefully over the carrots, giving it a chance to seep to the bottom. You may have to distribute pieces of onion and garlic and seasonings jar by jar using a clean, long-handled spoon.

After one jar is filled with carrots and covered with brine, put the lid and ring on and return it to the boiling water bath carefully.

Repeat with remaining jars.

When all the jars are filled with carrots and brine, bring the pot back up to boil and process for 15 minutes, and add 5 minutes for every 1000 feet you live above sea level.

When the time is up, remove the jars carefully to rest and seal on the towel covered countertop. Label cool jars and store.

That’s all! Pretty easy, right?

Not sure you have the equipment to make this recipe? Watch this!

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This beginner-friendly post will share how to make delicious blackberry jam without any of the seeds.

Blackberries are a funny thing. They are probably my favorite berry, definitely, if we are talking about eating out of hand, and of course, they have the worst thorns. I suppose we can complain that a blackberry bush has thorns, or rejoice that a thorn bush has blackberries. Because they are so, so good, I’ll go with the later.

The only little complaint I have had about blackberry jam I have made in the past was that it was a little seedy. The seediness (or ratio of seeds to a pulp) is dependent on lots of things, including the weather, outside of my control. Much easier to manage is pushing the berry pulp through the food mill to remove the seeds.

You can absolutely skip the step of milling the berries and I would if I ate enough of the berries to think they weren’t particularly seedy. I was glad I did it because this perfectly smooth, spreadable jam has a wonderful flavor and because I added a box of pectin, is plenty stiff enough to stand up on a PB&J. And I don’t get seeds in my smile; canning for the win!

 Not sure if you have the equipment you need to make this recipe? Watch this!

10 cups of berries sound like a lot, and it kind of is but I picked 10 cups in about an hour with two small children milling about, asking questions, eating out of my bucket a bit, and being an average level of distracting.

If you need the canning equipment list, grab it here!

Smooth Blackberry Jam

10 cups blackberries

1 cup of water

3 cups of sugar

1 box powdered pectin

Combine blackberries and water in a preserving pan, and bring to a simmer until the berries are falling apart and are very juicy.

While the berries come to a boil, prepare your water bath processing pot. This recipe will yield about 6-7 measuring cups of jam On top of the silicone trivet or metal canning rack, place 4-5 pint jars or the equivalent. Fill the jars one by one with hot tap water, fill the rest of the pot with water, and add a splash of white vinegar if you have hard water as I do. It will prevent an unsightly but harmless film from forming. Bring processing pot to a boil.

Fill a saucepan halfway full with tap water and submerge a corresponding number of lids and rings. Bring to a simmer.

On the towel-covered countertop nearby, have ready your jar lifter, lid lifter, funnel, and ladle.

Pour the berries into the hopper of a food mill (like the one in the affiliate link below) and process into a large bowl or another preserving pan if you have it.

Return the berry puree to the stove. Add 3 cups of sugar for what should be about 8 cups of blackberry. Bring to a boil, stir often, and after about 15 minutes of boiling, it will have thickened a bit, and you can add a box of powdered pectin. Whisk it in and be sure to break up any lumps. It bears mentioning that seeds, skins, etc, have natural pectin in them and removing them makes the preserve softer, and not as stiff, which is why I added the pectin and was very pleased with the result.

Remove one jar from the boiling water with the jar lifter. Pour the hot water from the jar back into the preserving pan, into the saucepan, or into the stove. Set it carefully on the towel covered countertop. Ladle hot jam into the hot jar. Use the funnel and wipe the rim of the jar carefully if you get even a smidge of jam on the edge. Fill to a ¼ inch headspace. Use the lid lifter to add a new lid and ring to the jar, tighten, and return to the boiling water bath.

When all the jars are filled, return the processing pot to boil. Process for 15 minutes, and add 5 minutes for every 1000 feet you live above sea level. When the time is up, remove the jars carefully to the towel covered countertop. Label cooled jars and store.

That’s it! Wildflowers, I hope you can pick some berries this season, wherever you are, and enjoy every moment you are picking. Let’s rejoice that those thorn bushes have berries, shall we?

This post will share the recipe and a complete tutorial for canning tomato sauce at home. It is and continues to be one of my most popular posts and I have updated it for you all with additional instructions AND another video to help you even more.

Oh, canning tomatoes! Canning tomato sauce is one of the most satisfying tasks a home canner could ask for because of the versatility of tomato sauce. When people start preserving, they often make jam because it is fairly simple and of course delicious but I find the savory preserves, like this tomato sauce, are far more useful.

If I had to can ONE recipe for the rest of my life, it would be tomato sauce.

Canned tomato sauce can be dinner in about 5 minutes: Just open a jar of sauce, warm, and pour on top of pasta.

By investing an hour or two to can a batch of tomato sauce now, you can have a dozen or more jars of sauce ready to be transformed into:

• Tomato soup (just add a little cream!)
• Pizza sauce
• bread stick dip
• Spaghetti sauce
• Stromboli filling
• Lasagna
• Spaghetti squash topping
• Sauce for roasted vegetables like eggplant
• Stew and crock pot meals
• Sloppy Joe’s
• and more!

Before you get started, download the canning cheatsheet so the whole process will be a breeze!

This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

“Tomato, Tomahto” on Health Perch

Still feeling uncertain getting started? Here’s a great resource to help!