I buy mine in gallon jars!
I buy mine in gallon jars!
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
“As a general rule, the earlier you recognize someone is trying to kill you, the better off you’ll be.”
"You think a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a sheet of glass."
Sounds great.
I've just started canning recently, and have been super careful about what goes in the water bath and what goes in the pressure canner. Quick and dirty search, http://www.healwithfood.org/chart/pr...vegetables.php , these folks suggest pressure canning Okra.
I just pickled some cayenne peppers from the garden, My aunt used to stuff them with anchovies and preserve them in oil, and I always enjoyed them, she made loads and they'd keep for a year...But I used vinegar to be safe...have to say, not as good.
It's very important to follow the newest recommendations when canning- at least, until you understand the process AND the reasons behind the various methods. I still can pumpkin puree according to the "outdated" instructions from USDA... they no longer recommend it, and consider it "unsafe". However, rather obviously, commercial plants can pumpkin puree all the time, and they are using the exact same basic processes. USDA, sadly, is attempting to make home canning absolutely "foolproof", but the fools just keep getting more numerous and dumber all the time!
That said, my Amish neighbors water bath EVERYTHING- including meat, homemade sausage, beans, corn... you name it. Scares me silly, but their processing times are like 4-5 hours in a water bath canner. I doubt they fully cook everything before eating, either. If a jar is contaminated with botulism toxin, bringing it to boiling temperature and holding it there for 10 minutes will deactivate the toxin and make the food safe to consume. (if it IS contaminated, however, it will foam up and smelly pretty darned funky while boiling... any food that foams when I heat it is automatically dumped in the burn pile, not consumed or left anywhere animals could eat it)
Preserving foods in oil, especially those which grow in the soil (garlic comes to mind first) can be very dangerous, without an "acidification" step. Garlic in oil is actually the most common cause of most of the (very rare) botulism cases in this country. That's because the oil provides an essentially anerobic environment, so the spores can break dormancy and begin to reproduce and start releasing toxin.
For newbies, the best idea is to look for recipes with USDA approval, or look for the various cooperative extension sites from different states. Some of the recipes from various blogs, etc I've seen on the 'net quite frankly are scary, they're so dangerous.
Summerthyme
He said to them,"But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." Luke 22:36
Thanks Summertime and SunnySide, its great to have feedback from experienced people