Plums jam is easy to make; all you need is fresh, ripe plums, sugar and a bit of lemon juice. From start to finish, you will have plum jam in less than an hour. Plums are a diverse lot; they range in color from green to yellow to red to purple to blue to black…
Preserve
Canning, freezing, and drying - you can have harvest fresh flavors on your table all year long. Here are our easy tips to can, freeze, and dry your favorite vegetables, herbs, and fruits for future meals. And visit the Index to see a complete list of all of the articles at Harvest to Table.
How to Can Green Beans for Beginners
Green beans are easy to can. You pick them, quickly snap or cut them in half or short pieces, simmer them for four minutes or less, pack them in jars, and process them in the canner for less than half an hour. Canned beans are delicious and versatile; they can be served as a side…
How to Can Pasta Sauce for Beginners
A tomato-rich sauce for pasta is a variation on a theme. You know your favorite pasta sauce and when the tomato harvest comes in summer, you have the opportunity to can your favorite tomato-based sauces for the year to come and capture the flavors of summer. There are quick ways to put up pasta sauce…
Canning Peaches for Beginners
Canning peaches is simple. You will need just ripe peaches that are not soft or mushy, and you will need about 45 minutes of preparation time and about 25 minutes of processing time. Peaches are easily prepared for canning in a hot-water bath canner. You will need about 17½ pounds of peaches for each canner…
How to Make Dill Pickles for Beginners
You can turn cucumbers into pickles in about 40 minutes. It’s not difficult. My favorite pickling cucumbers are County Fair, National Pickling, Pickle Bush, Regal, and Saladin. Pickling cucumbers are short–4 inches is about the right length–and compact with tender skins. Longer, larger cucumbers such as Marketmore and Bush Champion are best for fresh eating,…
Canning Sweet Pickle Relish
Sweet pickle relish combines cucumbers, green or red bell peppers, and onions from the summer garden. This is the classic relish to enjoy on hot dogs and hamburgers. Half pint jars are probably the right size for canning sweet pickle relish. Once opened you’ll want to keep this relish refrigerated and use it up within…
Beginner’s Guide to Canning Peppers
Can sweet bell peppers and chile peppers—which can be sweet or hot–to preserve your summer harvest? Can peppers after deciding if you want to preserve sweet or heat or a combination of the two? Sweet green, yellow, orange, or red bell peppers are large and thick fleshed. They have a sweet, crisp flavor. Chile peppers—such…
Freezing Blueberries and Other Berries
Freeze just harvested blueberries and also raspberries, elderberries, currants, huckleberries, blackberries, boysenberries, loganberries, mulberries, and strawberries for thawing and using just as fresh next winter. Freeze blueberries and other berries individually—called dry pack—or in sugar and syrup or unsweetened. Use thawed berries in desserts, in pies and other desserts and in smoothies. You will need…
Blanching Vegetables Before Freezing
Blanch just harvested, fresh vegetables to set their color and seal nutrients and flavor. Blanching is a method of partially cooking vegetables in boiling water or steam—usually for a few minutes; it’s also called parboiling. Blanching is used to seal the flavor and set the color of vegetables before freezing. Blanched and frozen vegetables can…
How to Home Can Tomatoes for Beginners
Canning is the best way to enjoy fresh, flavorful garden-grown tomatoes long after harvest time. Canned tomatoes are ideal for use in soups, stews, and casseroles. You will need 22 pounds of fresh tomatoes for a canner load of 7 quarts and 14 pounds of fresh tomatoes for a canner load of 9 pints. That’s…