Well friends, we finally did it! We conquered the pressure canner and now that we have used it successfully and have worked through our fears, I think I am finally ready to dive into our pressure canner debacle and how we overcame it.

A couple of months ago, we had a HUGE harvest of kale and we thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to use our new pressure canner to be able to store it for winter. Pressure canning offers many benefits over water bath canning and allows any fruit or vegetable to be canned without the addition of acid or other preservatives, resulting in highly nutritious and shelf-stable food. So, the 20 lbs. of kale I harvested was the perfect candidate for pressure canning. After a couple hours of blanching the kale, preparing and filling the glass jars, and finally getting the canner started we were prepared for our first pressure canning experience. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into getting the pressure canner up to the proper canning pressure, we experienced a scary “explosion” when the pressure canner’s overpressure plug blew out of the top of the canning lid, hitting our wood ceiling so hard and fast that dust was covering every inch of our kitchen and we were scared half to death. Both Jack and I were in the living room/kitchen when it happened and we grabbed Kade to run out of the house because we were afraid the entire canner was going to explode. We were stressed out for days after that happened and vowed never to pressure can again!

Ha. That didn’t last long though. After the initial shock wore off and a month or so later, we started discussing trying the canner out again, only this time we would do something easy and in a much smaller batch. So, this week we got the canner back out, with the overpressure plug replaced, and I canned homemade chicken broth. Luckily, the canner worked perfectly and we were so impressed with the results that yesterday I canned our first home-grown tomatoes! We had 23 lbs. of beautiful tomatoes that I canned (pictures below) and I could not be more excited about having them canned for yummy recipes I can make this winter. I am hoping I will be able to do another batch later this summer as more tomatoes ripen, but the first experience went perfectly and I can’t wait to experiment with different fruits and vegetables. There is something so rewarding about not only growing your own food, but being able to store it in such a shelf-stable way. We consistently have power outages where we live and knowing we have shelf-stable food items that do not require refrigeration or freezers feels amazing. If you have a garden, or even if you frequent your local farmers’ market, I would highly recommend looking into canning and learning how to preserve your own food. It feels good to have food security and by canning or preserving your own food, you get to be the master of your own kitchen and recipes! And, it is just really fun to do, too!

With that being said, it was definitely a big moment for us to overcome our fear of the pressure canner and here are a few things we learned and have done to make us feel just a little bit safer during the process.

Steps to Overcoming Pressure Canning Fears:

1.      Test your canner BEFORE you use it. I honestly think there was something wrong with the overpressure plug that came with our canner and believe if we had tested the canner prior to starting with the canned kale, we may have avoided the mishap and hours of lost work.

2.      Heat up your pressure canner slowly. We have large gas burners and I think our heat may have been too intense the first go-around. We error on the side of lower heat and building pressure more slowly now.

3.      Wear protective goggles! Seriously. This makes us feel more comfortable and in case of another overpressure plug exploding, our eyes will be safe.

4.      Have 1 person in charge of the pressure canner at all times and all other people get out of the house. This makes us feel more comfortable since the kiddo isn’t in the same room so if anything went bad, he is already safe from harm.

5.      KEEP CALM AND CAN ON! Canning is fun and taking our time to get re-introduced and more comfortable with the pressure canner will be beneficial for our family for years to come. We are so happy we overcame our fears and now have so many more food preservation options and recipes for the future.

Until next week,

Farmer Kinzie