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 It’s harvest season. Time to stock up at the farmers’ market or home garden, then can some fall produce for the long, cold winter. Without canning or freezing, in most climates you’ll find it nearly impossible to keep your carbon footprint low by eating locally throughout the year. Even if it weren’t environmentally important, canned tomatoes and vegetables are a wonderful taste treat—and reminder of summer—all year round.
With plenty of help from the eternally reliable and useful Colorado State University extension and the US Department of Agriculture, here are the basics of safely canning (or “jarring,” to be more precise) vegetables at home.
Home Canning Steps
Home canning is not difficult, but it is important to follow all steps to ensure safe food at the end of the process. The beautiful and versatile tomato is the most commonly canned food, and the one with the highest danger of spoilage. Thus, many tips apply particularly to tomatoes, as noted.
- Buy and use a pressure canner that holds at least four one-quart jars. The results will be more nutritious and less likely to spoil. No sense skimping on a useful gadget and ending up with rotten food after all of your work.
- Check the pressure canner for a tight lid, working safety valve and accurate pressure gauge.
- Choose Mason jars and two-part lids with no cracks, chips or rust. Wash them in hot, soapy water and rinse well.
- Choose undamaged, disease-free, firm and ripe (but not overripe) produce for canning.
- For all canned tomatoes, add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or ½ teaspoon of citric acid per quart to ensure safe acidity. Vinegar is an effective alternative, but it might make the tomatoes taste sour. (You can add sugar to offset this.)
- Peel tomato skins the easy way: Dip tomatoes in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds until their skins split, then dip them in cold water. Cut out the stem and the white core underneath. Peel off the skin. Trim bruised or discolored parts.
- Steam or boil most vegetables, then pack them with boiling water. Tomatoes don’t need to be fully cooked.
- Add canning salt to taste.
- Fill jars. Remove any trapped air bubbles by moving a non-metallic spatula up and down along the edge of the jar. Leave between a ¼ and one inch of space at the top of the jar. Tomatoes typically need ½ inch. Most vegetables need an inch. To be sure, check this table for tomatoes and this one for vegetables.
- Wipe the rim with a clean, damp paper towel to remove food particles. Place lid on the jar.
- Vent pressure canner for 10 minutes to drive out trapped air.
- Follow directions for pressure canner. In general, put jars on rack in two to three inches of hot water. Fasten lid and exhaust steam for 10 minutes, then close vent.
- Can at the proper pressure for your altitude (10 PSI plus ½ pound per 1,000 feet).
- Check appropriate canning times on this table.
- Remove jars and place on rack or dry towels.
- Let jars cool for a day, then check the seal by observing the tops—a slight concave indentation indicates a correct seal.
- Remove screw top to prevent rust.
- Enjoy peak-of-the-season vegetables in winter.
- Refrigerate or re-pressurize open jars.
Other Canning Hints
Instead of just asking a friend, use reliable canning books and recipes published after about 1985, when the US Department of Agriculture did extensive tests and updated their guidelines. The above information was updated in 2006. Here are some other tips:
- Don’t reuse the flat covers, buy new ones.
- Table salt contains starch and clouds the brine. Use pickling salt.
- Freezing is a safer, simpler option for many vegetables, but will create a different, sometimes inferior, flavor. (As a rule, fruits handle freezing much better than vegetables.)
- Encourage your friends and make the process efficient by hosting a canning party.
- Don’t eat anything in a jar that smells sour upon opening or has a flat (not concave) top.
- To save money, use heavy, empty spaghetti-sauce jars marked as Mason jars. They also make nice drinking glasses. Don’t use other commercial jars, which can crack under pressure.
When it comes to canning: “Yes, you can.” It’s safe and relatively simple if you know how. Moreover, it’s fun and reaps big financial, gastronomic and environmental rewards.
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Additional resources:
How to Make Fruit Preserves
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