Boiling bath vs Pressure canner?

[save$]

Do what ever you can to avoid bringing home plants from the box stores. You don't want to import bugs and desease that may weaken you garden. I brought home white fly once. Now I am having a hard time getting rid of them.
I bought some potting soil for use next year. I'll leave the bags outside to freeze hard this winter. Less chance of importing a problem that way.

 

[smokinj]

I started with crap coil a rail road track set on top of where my garden is for 125 years. Then it was strip of the top soil after that. I have been using 40 bales of straw to block the coop over winter. Once the garden up I mulch between the rowes with it and our chicken coop mulch. Then plow it under in the spring leaving the plants in the ground over winter. Last season we used oats as a cover crop.

 

[rideau]

Wow man- you're ambitious.How do you store seeds- just dry area, or in the freezer?

My garden is only about 30' x 15', and there's just 2 of us eating from it. I've found that the more I mulch with leaves/compost without tilling, the easier it is to pull the weeds that do grow because the soil is so rich the roots don't hold at all. The only downside to it is that the soil is super loose and plants need good support to stand well. A small price to pay

I store my seeds in my storage room on the third floor..keep my canned goods there too, West facing, two large double hung windows. Keep the thermal curtains closed and the door closed to the house. Except the hottest two months of the summer room stays between 40 and 60, 40 on those 30 below days. Used to keep seeds in my dry, cool basement, until the mice found them....now i find the mice. Only time I put them in the fridge is to break dormancy or to start a cool crop (spinach, beets for instance) mid-summer.

One disadvantage of keeping the curtains closed: I went in one day last February and the room was cold as H...went over to check the windows and found that something (pressure, wind?) had caused the locks to unfasten on the windows and both upper windows had slid down a good 8 inches. Warmed up really quickly once I got those windows closed and left the door to the hall open for a while. Believe me, I check the windows now....don't want fauna or weather in the house.

 

[TMonter]

Here is the water bath canner we use for most of the busy season for fruit and tomatoes. We have a All American 921 we've had for about 8 years we use for non-acid foods that gets used on the same setup.



The canner is a 15 Quart capable unit that we pretty much have to use outdoors until we get a gas range in the next couple years. Actually during the summer having it outdoors is pretty nice.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

That's pretty serious. It seems like for a lot of the acid foods the boiling bath is almost as quick as the pressure canner anyway as you have to wait for it to vent before cooking and to cool down and rest before opening the pressure system

 

[save$]

Here is the water bath canner we use for most of the busy season for fruit and tomatoes. We have a All American 921 we've had for about 8 years we use for non-acid foods that gets used on the same setup.

View attachment 74885View attachment 74886

The canner is a 15 Quart capable unit that we pretty much have to use outdoors until we get a gas range in the next couple years. Actually during the summer having it outdoors is pretty nice.

15 quarts! That is very time saving. I like doing much of our canning outside on the deck and screen room. Very easy to clean up, lots of room to spread things out. We use our camp stove to boil water. Garden hose to rinse hings down. Stii use the kitchen stove for processing. We will be doing more pressure canning now. That I have figured out how to stop the jars from boiling out. (Fill the jars with hot content, then pressure can)

 

[oppirs]

I just picked up this old All American 18 qt.at a garage sale for 8 bux. Seems complete even has a book but no copyright for the year.

Anyone know if this is safe to use? Have not fired it up to see if it can relieve pressure!

Book looks from the 40's, even mentioned how to cook an old hen, pix added.

 

[TMonter]

I just picked up this old All American 18 qt.at a garage sale for 8 bux. Seems complete even has a book but no copyright for the year.

Anyone know if this is safe to use? Have not fired it up to see if it can relieve pressure!

Book looks from the 40's, even mentioned how to cook an old hen, pix added.View attachment 75220View attachment 75221View attachment 75222View attachment 75223

Okay to use for cooking but not canning, you can't hold a reliable pressure for canning with that setup. I believe you can buy a conversion from all american though which would be a nipple and the weight to turn it into a 921 basically.

http://www.allamericancanner.com/allamericanpressurecannerparts.htm

The vent pipe and the weight should make the conversion relatively easy.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I just picked up this old All American 18 qt.at a garage sale for 8 bux. Seems complete even has a book but no copyright for the year.

Anyone know if this is safe to use? Have not fired it up to see if it can relieve pressure!

Book looks from the 40's, even mentioned how to cook an old hen, pix added.View attachment 75220View attachment 75221View attachment 75222View attachment 75223

I'd think that as long as you get the gauge tested, then you could use it as a dial gauge canner. The weighted canner is really easy, however.

 

[TMonter]

I'd think that as long as you get the gauge tested, then you could use it as a dial gauge canner. The weighted canner is really easy, however.

Yeah, I just think it would be easier to convert the unit for ~25 bucks myself.

http://www.simplycanning.com/pressure-canner.html

 

[laynes69]

I have a trillion seeds, when we had our small greenhouse (portable). Last year it split so we put it away. Eventually I want to build a permanent greenhouse, and go back to growing our own plants. Last year a woman I work with said she didn't waterbath her tomatoes when canning, so I asked her how she did it. She just boils the tomatoes, and adds them to a sterilized jar and lid and that's it. We tried it last year and had better results than using a waterbath. We do have a large pressure canner, which we do beets, beans and other non acid foods. When it comes to pickles, we pour boiling brine over the pickles and water bath for 5 minutes. It's not the recommended time according to the FDA, but we have crisp pickles. It was a good year for the garden, hopefully next year brings more rain. Peppers are the only thing left standing, and not for long. Everything was mowed down, plowed under and disked. I added a little lime, a little fertilizer and planted winter rye and medium red clover. Should take care of most nutrient requirements next year.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I have a trillion seeds, when we had our small greenhouse (portable). Last year it split so we put it away. Eventually I want to build a permanent greenhouse, and go back to growing our own plants. Last year a woman I work with said she didn't waterbath her tomatoes when canning, so I asked her how she did it. She just boils the tomatoes, and adds them to a sterilized jar and lid and that's it. We tried it last year and had better results than using a waterbath. We do have a large pressure canner, which we do beets, beans and other non acid foods. When it comes to pickles, we pour boiling brine over the pickles and water bath for 5 minutes. It's not the recommended time according to the FDA, but we have crisp pickles. It was a good year for the garden, hopefully next year brings more rain. Peppers are the only thing left standing, and not for long. Everything was mowed down, plowed under and disked. I added a little lime, a little fertilizer and planted winter rye and medium red clover. Should take care of most nutrient requirements next year.

I am extremely wary about using methods because someone else did, or our grandparents did. There's lots of horror stories about things exploding- never mind the poisonings.

The canning guidelines, from what I can tell, are like a seatbelt. Do you need it every time you get in the car? No. Will you wish you had it on when you get in a good accident? Ya, pretty much.

 

[laynes69]

I've done 1000's of jars of food and never had any problems. I still use a waterbath on some things and pressure canner on others and some things are open kettle. I do use citric acid or lemon juice for tomatoes to bring up the acidity. Common sense has to be used when canning. Everything has to be sanatized and handled correctly as well as the correct foods being picked for canning. Those guidelines are there if someone didn't sanitize the jars, or lids or mishandled things incorrectly. When eating canned foods whether guidelines or not were followed use common sense. If it's discolored, the lid is swollen or smells funny pitch it. We remove bands as soon as things cool, if it spoils you know it when you grab it. I will say though I ferment pickles, peppers, corn and cabbage. Things most people won't touch. If you have a method that's proven then stick to it.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I've done 1000's of jars of food and never had any problems. I still use a waterbath on some things and pressure canner on others and some things are open kettle. I do use citric acid or lemon juice for tomatoes to bring up the acidity. Common sense has to be used when canning. Everything has to be sanatized and handled correctly as well as the correct foods being picked for canning. Those guidelines are there if someone didn't sanitize the jars, or lids or mishandled things incorrectly. When eating canned foods whether guidelines or not were followed use common sense. If it's discolored, the lid is swollen or smells funny pitch it. We remove bands as soon as things cool, if it spoils you know it when you grab it. I will say though I ferment pickles, peppers, corn and cabbage. Things most people won't touch. If you have a method that's proven then stick to it.

Right- and the approved methods aren't outrageous. You can acidify and use a water bath, and there's an approved method for it.

 

[rideau]

I have a trillion seeds, when we had our small greenhouse (portable). Last year it split so we put it away. Eventually I want to build a permanent greenhouse, and go back to growing our own plants. Last year a woman I work with said she didn't waterbath her tomatoes when canning, so I asked her how she did it. She just boils the tomatoes, and adds them to a sterilized jar and lid and that's it. We tried it last year and had better results than using a waterbath. We do have a large pressure canner, which we do beets, beans and other non acid foods. When it comes to pickles, we pour boiling brine over the pickles and water bath for 5 minutes. It's not the recommended time according to the FDA, but we have crisp pickles. It was a good year for the garden, hopefully next year brings more rain. Peppers are the only thing left standing, and not for long. Everything was mowed down, plowed under and disked. I added a little lime, a little fertilizer and planted winter rye and medium red clover. Should take care of most nutrient requirements next year.

Problem is, you can't always tell from appearance or taste if tomatoes are bad. They are the one food I would NOT cut corners on. If you don't want to water bath or pressure treat, why not freeze?