Green Options

“If you can make a batch of cookies, you can can.”

If the idea of home canning leaves you in overwhelming, uncomfortable culinary territory, take heed of the above advice from Linda Amendt, a woman on a mission to help us rediscover the joys of homemade preserves. Winner of over 900 awards in state fair culinary competitions and author of two cookbooks — Blue Ribbon Preserves: Secrets to Award-Winning Jams, Jellies, Marmalades & More and 175 Best James, Jellies, Marmalades and Other Soft Spreads – Amendt focuses on keeping things simple and satisfying.

Here are four starter tips from Amendt on getting started in canning homemade preserves, the easiest route for novice canners.. While the summer fresh produce season is – sniff – behind most of us, fresh apple cider is still available and makes a great beginner project (recipe after the jump) and creative holiday gift.

We are having an amazing flush of fall strawberries this year, and the colder nights make the berries super sweet.  Given the state of the economy, I feel more pressed to preserve the abundance of food growing in our garden.  Making organic strawberry jam is easy, and it is one food item I can easily provide our family a year’s supply of with the help of my children.  This recipe makes about 5-6 cups of jam, so I like to double it. You don’t need a pressure canner to can jam; just a big pot will do.  You will need to purchase pectin; I like sugar-free, citrus-based Pomona’s Universal Pectin.

Organic Strawberry Jam

In preparation for canning:
Sterilize your jelly jars. You can do this by placing them in boiling water or in your dishwasher. Also, heat up the rings and lids in a pot of water until little bubbles begin to appear, but do not boil. Heat a really large pot of water for canning. The jars must be completely covered by the water. Place a lid on the pot to help the water heat faster.

To make the jam:

• Pick or buy 2 quarts of berries
• Clean the berries, remove the green tops, and mash gently.
• Add 2 teaspoons of calcium water (included in pectin package) to mashed berries

Back in the days before refrigeration, freeze-drying, vacuum-pack processing, aseptic packaging and even canning, savvy cooks invented ways to store food for future use. Salting, smoking, pickling, confiting, canning and drying were the most common methods of food preservation, especially on country farms. Root cellars for storing vegetables like potatoes, parsnips and carrots, and fruit like apples, were also common, and a necessity.

Today, in some sense, we’ve come full circle, seeking greater flavor, taste and control of what we eat and how it’s raised, grown, processed and preserved. Happily, we can take advantage of the freezer - it really works now. We’re rediscovering methods of preserving foods that were common over a century ago. Preserving the harvest dovetails perfectly with the concept of sustainable cooking, since it’s all about using what is produced or raised locally, what’s in season, and storing it so it can be used in the future.