LET THE ONSLAUGHT BEGIN—of garden-fresh vegetables, I mean. The trick when it does: keeping up with every last one, getting it onto the table or into the freezer, canning jars or dehydrator in time. I’m offering three chances to win my favorite references on canning, preserving, freezing—all the ways to put up the harvest for delicious future reference: “Stocking Up III,” “Putting Foods By,” and the USDA guide to home canning. Meantime, though, a reference guide to my favorite online sources for food-preservation information anytime.
Win one of three, three-book sets that I’ve purchased to share as prizes—no, not my old food-splattered copies, above, but new ones–the latest edition of each book, promise! All you have to do to enter the random drawing is comment below. All the details are at the end of this post.
First, as promised, the resources for canners and would-be canners so you can get started right away stashing those peaches, plums, cukes, tomatoes and more:
USDA
The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning: The tried-and-true resource, revised in 2009. A must destination for all would-be and experienced canners. (You can buy a print copy from the Purdue University online store.)
The Extension Services
Most state Cooperative Extension Services have extensive online resources; your county office may also have classes available. Follow that link to locate the nearest office, or scan this list of 27 state links to find an appropriate one as a start. Some examples of the range of materials you’ll find:
- University of Georgia Canning Fact Sheets and a Self-Study Course: From basics like how to use a pressure or boiling-water canner to recipe-oriented topics like pumpkin butter or making vinegars, pdf’s features on canning, freezing, drying and pickling. Also: register for Georgia’s self-study online course that you can do at your own pace.
- Penn State University “Let’s Preserve” Fact Sheets: Topics covered clearly in pdf format range from preserving individual fruits and vegetables to quick pickles and even sauerkraut. Purdue has an extensive “Let’s Preserve” pdf series, too.
- University of California-Davis Agriculture and Natural Resources fact sheets include basics like preserving fruits and vegetables, but also some distinctive topics like how to pickle olives, or preserve oranges and garlic.
- From North Dakota State University, a thorough look at canning and freezing tomatoes, and making salsa (pdf).
- From the University of Illinois Extension, a roundup of links to some of their favorite resources from extension services around the nation.
Other Sites and Tools
PickYourOwn.org: Learn what’s in season when and where, and locate u-pick farms with their state-by-state tool, then get easy recipes for putting them up.
Weights and measures: Confused by converting weights and measures? Kitchen Math has a simple online calculator. Fill in any value, hit calculate, and all its equivalencies will instantly be computed.
What is pickling spice? I looked it up not long ago; some facts and recipes.
Using Ball jars? Getting Started Guide from the maker of Ball jars.
Using Weck Jars? They work a little differently; the tops don’t screw on, but rather have clips to attach them. Read up on how they work before using them.
Food in Jars website: A favorite resource for those interesting in putting food up. Blogger Marisa McClellan also teaches workshops, near her Philadelphia home and elsewhere. They have a great Facebook group.
Under Edibles–Recipes & Cooking in my site navigation, you can always browse my ideas for everything I put up one way or another.
How to Enter
TO WIN ONE OF THREE SETS OF THREE BOOKS, simply comment below by telling us what’s coming on strong in your garden or at your local farmstand, and any plans to put up any “extra.”
Feeling shy? Simply say, “Count me in” or the equivalent, and you’ll be entered. Entries close at midnight Monday, August 1, with winners to be emailed the next day about claiming their prizes. Good luck!
Oh, and yes, I’ll be making peach preserves with pick-your-own farm peaches, but pickles from my own garden. Can’t wait!
Tomatoes, chard, beans, cukes, summer squash, freezing and canning and sharing with neighbors. Fridays and Wednesdays my neighbor and I cook together – Wednesday my house, Friday her house and it’s lots of fun. We share the harvest from both our gardens and take the leftovers from dinner for lunch the next day!
Right now we have an abundance of cucumbers and zuchini, with the tomatoes about ready to pop which means lots of sauce!
Yes, please..do count me in..don’t have a clue how to “put up” but eager to learn..
I have Royal Burgundy Bush Beans and Leeks coming on. Stayed up late last night processing apricots. Going to serve them over a homemade angel food cake made with eggs my chickens have laid. I’m also picking green zucchini, yellow zucchini, yellow summer squash, yellow patty pan squash and cukes. Acorn squash and butternut squash are still a ways off. Popcorn is coming along. Red chard is very tasty.
Our fig tree had two crops this year. I put up 14 pints of preserves in June & canned 9 more pints last week. There are still more figs, but we are sharing our harvest with our woodpeckers, bluejays & dove population. Thanks!
I love canned tomatoes!
I’ve always wanted to be better about putting up. The heat and drought in this town are brutal right now. Everything’s baked…except the okra and cherry tomatoes. Maybe I could pickle them both?
i’d love to be the owner of one of your “food splattered” copies of the canning and vegetable gardening /recipe books–of course autographed by you! but i will most certainly settle for new copies as well.
we have a garden (late this year but will produce into early october here in central maryland) and have joined a csa which we share with a friend. needless to say i will have and am looking forward to an abundant crop of everything good to eat.
we look forward to your interesting blogs and wish we were closer to visit your gardens too.
Peppers are popping here Georgia! I throwing them into everything and eating the sweet banana peppers while standing in the garden.
Wonder giveaway idea! I own a very used copy of Stocking Up, tenth printing in 1975.
I learned everything I know about freezing and canning from this book.
Enjoying your blog and occasionally forwarding posts to friends who may benefit.
count me in
I’m looking forward to trying your refridgerator pickles this year,
thanks for sharing
Count me in!
I so need these books as tomatoes, zukes, corn are really producing. The tomatoes were having dry rot/ blossom end rot, we sprinkled dry milk around them and watered in, no more rot!!!!!! Please count me in on the books, I do so enjoy your newsletters, keep it up..marcella
Tomatoes and Peppers coming on strong….no sign of watermelons or figs though, that makes me sad.
I look forward to canning every year and love the hunt for the freshest produce from the farm stands. I love the rhythm of the art of canning. I still use tried and true recipes from both my mother and grandmother as well as a couple of new ones gleaned over the years. Just finished dill pickles, bread and butters, beets, and a 5 days pickle that I call Sweet and Sour. All those lovely filled jars are sitting on my kitchen island still being admired.
Love the website.
Please Count Me In! I would really like to win a set of books to learn more about canning and storing all my fruits and vegetables :D
I only have herbs this year, but I’m sure I’ll be making lots of pesto to freeze. I do want to go to the market to get some roma or marzano tomatoes to make sauce, but it seems to me all the farms have lots of heirloom, but no sauce tomato. I feel wasteful using heirloom for sauce!
If I had the know-how to pit cherries, I would freeze them in a heartbeat! Tons out here in the Seattle area, also raspberries and blueberries.
Ooooh these books looks sooo cool. Last year I canned some tomatoes and they turned out lovely. I’m growing a whole bunch of different heirlooms to can again this year. I’d love to can more stuff though.
Would love to start freezing and canning tomatoes and peaches. There’s so much being produced and sold at our local farmer’s market so I’d like to take advantage and have some for when the winter time comes. Nothing’s worse then eating apples, carrots and canned goods for 6 months straight…
I would love to “put up” some fig preserves – our fig tree/bush is bearing nicely, even in this 100+ heat! – if the squirrels leave some figs for me! They zip along the fence, jump to the tree & pick a prime fig, then dance back to the spot on the fence in front of my window to eat the stolen fruit!
Count me in. I hope to can tomatoes.
Yes, count us in! How can we save our sweet peas we are picking here in Minnesota?
My 10 year old and I keep eating them as we shell them! Laughing…
Lettuce, green peppers, and , of course zucchini!!!
I’m having a sad summer- no garden, no canning! I broke my foot and then had surgery, so I haven’t been able to garden- except for a few onions that mysteriously appeared in a flower pot- and still can’t stand long enough to do any canning, but I’m looking forward to next year!!!
Please count me in! Thanks….
I’m having nightmares of squash chasing me around – HELP!!!! ;0)
Count me in, I’d like to can – perhaps next year, here it is rather cold and wet (soutern Bavaria) and the slugs are far more successful in harvesting than I am…
Things are a little slow here but I’ve frozen my cherries for pie later and started some cherry cordial. Most veggies are just starting to come in and I’m counting on my heirloom tomatoes for pasta and pizza sauce all winter long. Mmmm!
Sadly, I’m not overwhelmed with anything yet. But when the tomatoes hit, they will be canned. I already made a bunch of jams earlier this summer.
I am starting to can peaches, apricots, rasberries this weekend. They are so welcome in the winter time. On Aug 5th , I will be smoking at least 100#s King (Chinook) Salmon slightly and then canning in pint and 1/2 pt jars. These will become part of my Holiday gifts, that people look forward to. Never completly smoke the fish because they become more like kippered hard bits. Soon venison and elk will also be going into quart jars , also.
Just a tip to pass on -
Check out Lehman’s Hardware for reusable canning lids for Ball jars that are also BPA free. Loads of other great stuff for canning including Weck jars. It was my source for everything when I started putting up. Here’s the link: http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen___Canning_and_Preserving___Jars__Lids_and_Rubbers___Reusable_Canning_Jar_Lids___1141085?Args=
No garden this year except for a few containers. The herbs are doing well. My peppers aren’t ready yet. I’ll be planting a fall garden so hopefully I’ll get a second chance this year at canning. I made a couple of quarts of pickles for the first time and will be planting more cuke plants …….the pickles turned out so good.
In spite of the 100 degree weather, I have the best garden ever in this particular spot. I began with typical east Tennessee red clay soil. After adding two seasons of compost for 6 years, the soil now will crumble through my fingers. The soil is black and full of earthworms. My only problems has been the Japanese beetle and the squash borer. I have staved off the squash borer by faithfully, twice a day, removing the eggs. Sometimes I have even killed the adult flying insect by keeping a plastic fly swatter handy in the garden! Love to “dig in the dirt”!
We have been enjoying the first of local Nebraska sweet corn. Although no canning is required, I plan to freeze several bags to enjoy this winter.
I just started a batch of saurkraut this morning.
Years ago, a woman I knew and her husband, who were in their late 70′s, sold their acre to a developer. They had built an 11′ x 21′ english style glass greenhouse out of clear cedar in the 60′s on the property. They hadn’t used the thing in years and now it was going to be bulldozed! I begged, no, BEGGED, involved knees and things, to be allowed to take it down and haul it away. The husband agreed and I spent 5 long days, beginning January 2nd that year, taking that thing apart, labeling it so I could put it all back together again and hauling it home. When I got the green slime covered pieces home my husbands face was in horror! What have you done now??? I said honey it will be ok, you’ll see! For my anniversary present he built the foundation that year! I have loved every minute of having that thing and would do it all over again! This year I’m trying greenhouse cucumbers in there from Territorial Seeds. I definitely need to know more about canning…please count me in!
I’ll be putting up spiced peaches this week!
I have an abundance of chard – I don’t know what to do with it!
I have two ancient pear trees that produce hundreds of pears, but the squirrels/birds/deer get most of them before they’re even ripe. I gather the unspoiled ones, but they’re green and small. Is there a way to preserve them without having to peel them? Arthritis in my thumbs makes the task of peeling them all before stewing them too daunting.
The weather has been very wet and cool.( Washington State) Still picking my peas and freezing them to make cold pea and parm. cheese soup for later. Freezing kale and cabbage for soup for fall
Count me in!
Raspberries! Just canned raspberry chocolate sauce…delish on ice cream!
Just purchased some vintage ball jars at a rummage sale. I too am a glass lover. Now I need to put them to use!
Peaches, peached and more peaches!
Just veggies available to me at my local CSA farm-right now lots of cukes, tomatoes and zucchini along with assorted leafy greens. I tried pickling some cucumbers last year but I wasn’t successful so I need a new approach. I’m also hoping to buy some of the juicy peaches and nectarines available at the farmer’s markets. If I didn’t eat them so quickly I may be able to preserve them for the fall and winter so count me in!
I have learned to garden and can these last 3 years. Now with the help of my patient husband and the Master Gardener classes in Lewis County, I have taken “1st and 2nd awards at the state Grange and am entering the county fair this year. What a hoot to pick fresh vegetables from our garden (or the local farmer’s market) and can them up., Our family and friends just love “shopping in the pantry” for food to take home. I love canning and would love to see more recipes that will help me increase our knowledge and production.
Thanks for all the great information on each email.
Pat Bower
Picked another half bushel of tomatoes tonight and will can tomorrow. That will make 42 quarts this year. We’ve been giving away baskets full daily. Earlier in June we canned dill pickles and bread and butter sweet pickles too. For the first time my brother planted a new type of corn called Incredible and it is fabulous! We froze 21 pints and will enjoy that all winter too. Figs are in and lots of all kinds of peppers and beautiful eggplants! The okra has been late this year, but is coming on now. And I have beautiful green bean vines that have bloomed for over a month without producing a single bean! The garden has been good this year without a deer problem as in the past. And our dinners have been especially good with all of our vegetables.
ME! Count ME in!!