I’m preserving summer by canning veggies: carrots and kohlrabi.
Theresa
If you’re curious about canning veggies, you’ll want to know a few things that I learned canning carrots and kohlrabi.
We have a farm share at a local farm called Pennypack. If you aren’t familiar with farm shares, here’s the deal: we pay the farm a set price every season for a certain number of shares, and then we go pick up fresh produce every week that total the number of shares we purchased.
And we love the fresh produce that Pennypack Farm grows, but in the winter season it’s mostly greens. So when my friends at Ace Hardware asked if I’d like to try canning vegetables, I was psyched to learn how to extend the enjoyment of vegetables through the winter months.
As a vegetarian for my entire adulthood, canning is something that I have thought about over the years, but I always thought it sounded complicated, time-consuming, and messy.
But canning carrots was way easier than I imagined. And I was able to get everything I needed, the ball mason jars and an electric canner, at Ace Hardware. And you can definitely can vegetables without the electric canner, but the one I found also is a multi-cooker. I love a tool that has more than one use.
Yes, it’s very true that I’m not an expert at canning. I wanted to share my first attempt at preserving vegetables, so you can see what it’s like to get started from a real novice.
If you are a canning aficionado, we would love to read your tips and insights in the comments section below.
Check out my canning carrots how-to below.
Step 1: Picking out the veggies.
This is what greets me at my local farm. I look on the board to see what is available that day, and strategize how we will use our farm shares.The produce at Pennypack farm is fresh from the ground, and is simply displayed in crates labeled with the name of the item and how much we can get for one share.My 7-year-old Jack likes to look at the vegetables, and especially items that look different than at our grocery store.Jack wants me to can carrots, and I agree, so canning carrots is what we will do.The kohlrabi looks interesting. I’ve never eaten or cooked kohlrabi. I’m told that it’s as easy to can kohlrabi as carrots, so we grabbed a few.Weighing the carrots determines how many we can take from the farm. The carrots are fresh from the ground, and are interesting shapes. Not like the bags of baby carrots at the grocery.Now that the vegetables are home, I like to admire the colors and shapes. I’m a design-geek.
Step 2: Setting up the canner and jars.
The first step in using an electric canner, is making sure all of the pieces are in the box. And checking the instructions to make a list and gather other items needed.Since this is my first time canning, I chose to use pint size jars. You may notice that one jar is already missing. Jars are used for so many things in my home and workshop, so they tend to get used quickly.
Step 3: Veggie prep.
The first step to canning is cleaning the vegetables. With carrots, it’s important to wash them before peeling.I love saving time. We compost at our house, so I peel the carrots right into our countertop compost bin.
Step 4: Jar prep.
Next I’m going to start the canning process by cleaning and then heating the jars.After the pot and jars are clean and dry, I place the canning rack at the bottom of the pot.Then I can place the jars on top of the canning rack.
Step 5: Let the canning begin!
The carrots look delicious, but I’m sticking to my plan of canning, and won’t eat them all now.Since I’m new to canning, I want to make this simple, so I’m just slicing the carrots and not adding anything. There are tons of recipes for canning carrots and other food. Next time I will try one of those.After the carrots are chopped, it’s time to take one jar out of the pot to fill it and lid it.It’s important to leave about 1 inch of space at the top when canning vegetables. I love how this looks. The carrots look really pretty in the jar.Since the water is warm, I’m using a towel to put the canned jars back in the pot. I repeat this step until all of the jars are full.
Step 5: Bonus round of kohlrabi.
And then I hit an opportunity. I didn’t have enough carrots to fill all of my jars, so I’m thinking kohlrabi would be fun.I was told at the farm to only use the inside of the kohlrabi, so after peeling, I’m slicing it for the jars.The kohlrabi looks really good in the jar. I’m very curious how it will taste. When canning vegetables, it’s important to press down and push out air bubbles with a plastic spatula or spoon before sealing.
When all of the cans are in the pot, I add hot water to the pot so that there is about an inch of water above the cans. The inside of the pot has lines marking how high it is safe to fill the pot with water.
After all of the jars are full of vegetables, I put the steaming and diffuser rack on top of the cans. It adds to the heat efficiency and helps reduce any splattering water.
Who’s the girl canning? Yes. That’s me putting the lid on my first canning project.
It’s easy finding the right temperature for canning. It’s right there on dial. I turn the dial to canning, and wait about 30 minutes.
While I’m waiting for the vegetables to be ready, I compost the peels in our backyard compost bin.
And these are my first canned vegetables. They are cooling for about 12 hours, and then the rings can come off. If the lid comes off with the ring, then you know you didn’t get a tight seal. Just eat those veggies now, and store the rest for later.
I’m so happy Ace Hardware asked me to try out canning, because it only took a few hours, from prep to clean-up and I have vegetables safely stored for up to one year.
Note: Ace Hardware has provided me with the product used within this project. I was also compensated for my time and this blog post. All opinions and positions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Ace Hardware. For more information about canning or other home improvement projects, please check out Ace Hardware online.
