Canning, Take One

Saturday, July 16, 2011 marked an epic day in the homesteading lives of Eric and Gretchen Dalquist. Being the brave pioneers that we are, we made strawberry preserves and tried our hand at canning for the first time. It was somewhat of a day-long event, starting with gathering and cleaning our supplies:

A metallic lid lifter, can tongs, a wide-mouthed funnel, and rings for the cans;


and, of course, full and three-quarter pint jars (salvaged from jams purchased from the farmers' market; as a side note, The Bruce Company, Blain's Farm & Fleet, and Willy Street Co-op are all good local choices for canning supplies).


I cut and cleaned four pounds of strawberries (thank you, Costco!) and used our wonderful food processor (this was originally a purchase to make baby food, but it has been invaluable to my housewifely homesteading endeavors) to pulse the strawberries to jam-like consistency (it took four batches of about 12 pulses each). Then, into the slow cooker they went, only to be removed to the LARGER slow cooker, which allowed for the voluminous space required of SEVEN CUPS of sugar (plus a tablespoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt; I'm sure that salt makes all the difference in the world).


The jam cooked on low for four hours, and, meanwhile, we put Miss Elsa to bed so the real fun could begin! That is, the fire and boiling water portion of the evening.

Eric rigged up a very manly canning station outside on the deck. It consisted of a canner with a wire rack, a burner from a long-ago Thanksgiving turkey fryer, and a propane tank (oh, and a fire extinguisher close at hand).


In the meantime, I transferred the jam goop into a pot on the stove, brought it to a boil, and added 3.5 ounces of pectin. I boiled it in one-minute intervals and checked to see if it had set using the "frozen plate test" (drop a bit on a frozen plate, tilt the plate, and watch to see if the jam runs or not; if it doesn't, it's done; if it does, cook it some more).


I think it took about 20 times for the jam to set, but that's OK; we used the time to sterilize our jars and rings in the canning contraption, and the lids in warm water on the stove. (Oh, and did I mention that lots of sampling also occurred during this period? I had to make sure the folks at America's Test Kitchen really knew what they were doing. They do.)


Then, Eric used our handy-dandy jar tongs and brought in [very] hot glass jars, and I used the wide-mouthed funnel to ladle jam into said jars - we ended up having enough for seven cans. We wiped the rims to make sure no jam would prevent the vacuum-packed action to come, and used the [also very] handy dandy lid lifter to transfer the lids out of the hot water and onto the jars. We added the rings and back into the canner the jam went!


The jars enjoyed their hot water bath for ten minutes, and were then again brought back into the house. And, I am happy to say that while writing this, I've heard the glorious "pop" of seven lids sealing themselves. Hooray for successful canning (and by that, I mean no trips to the emergency room were required in the making of this jam)!