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Gardening! I love my garden. this is the second year and I planted to late but I still have corn, tomatoes, beans and peppers, should have some pumpkin soon
I need to learn to can.

Making your own tomato sauces? I've been doing that for years! You all need to catch up.

Ok, I'm going to bed now.

gardening and canning rules! but you don't need to join a stupid forum, just google some shit about canning. read some cookbooks. go to the library. forums are for suckers. and pedal nerds. but that ketchup is going to need some kind of sweetener, don't be deterred by pedal nerds. i'm way too lazy to type out a bunch of shit about canning when you can easily find it yourself. be warned though, freezing is not always so good. it can change the consistency of things. my girl makes salsa all the time. usually she cans a big batch and it rules cause we have it all the time. earlier this year she decided to freeze a bunch cause it was easier than doing the canning. it was still alright but IT WAS WEIRD, cause freezing changes shit. can that ketchup. you can figure it out. don't freeze that shit.

yeah i don't know how you make a tomato sauce without some type of sweetener, I am not going to freeze the ketchup I am just going to give it all away to friends

You can, can, them without a pressure cooker. It's been a while but you put the jars with the ketchup into a large pot and heat the water. Then put them on the counter and put the lids on. As they cool it will actually vacuum and seal the lids, pulling down the little center that pops. My mom used to do this with salsa all the time.

ok, that's how we did the blueberry jam but I heard that things that have less acid are tougher
although the only advantage of pressure canning is the high temp
and I can just work with everything hot

hbombgraphics wrote:ok, that's how we did the blueberry jam but I heard that things that have less acid are tougher
although the only advantage of pressure canning is the high temp
and I can just work with everything hot

you should look up some shit, but i'm pretty sure that with lower acid foods you may just need to keep it at a higher temp for longer when canning. and yeah, it's easy to can without a pressure cooker, you just need a big pot. you can get a big canning pot for fairly cheap. most folks don't just have pots laying around that are big enough to do very many cans at once.

oh I have pots!!

I have been making 5 gallons of sauce at a time so I have the big pot

sounds like I just have to buy some jars

hbombgraphics wrote:what do you mean by stupid sugar?
can I use molasses?

Yep. I usually make a green tomato chutney with molasses. It rules. I'm just about to open one from last year. I use these jars My basic premise is that I'd rather do more smaller jars than a few big ones, because without certain preservatives in there they aren't as resistant to bacteria as commercial stuff. The logic being that smaller jars = use em up quicker, less time for shit to go whack after opening.

I just wash the jars with normal dishwater then leave them in the oven at around 100 degrees centigrade for 15 minutes (or until I'm ready to jar stuff). I mostly do chutneys and pickled vegetables (in vinegar). Really keen to do a lactic acid pickle but am too lazy at the moment. The important thing is not to use salt with iodine in it, and not to use mineral salt, as they can affect the preserving process (or in the case of a lactic acid preserve the iodine will kill the bacteria and you won't get any lactic acid at all). Just straight up, boring, NaCl.