Canning Garden Vegetables | At Home With P. Allen Smith
You know, canning is a simple way to get themost out of your garden, and it can be a pretty
creative and fun process as well. Just lookat all of these peppers. You cannot believe
what my garden has produced his year. Withthese cayenne peppers, 8 plants produced 12
pounds at one picking of cayenne peppers.So, it's time to get creative and come up
with some gifts that I can give at Christmas-- I love pickled peppers and all sorts of
things made with tomatoes. There are so manydifferent recipes and they're all really easy.
To get started, all you need to do is prepyour canning jars by washing them thoroughly
with hot soapy water, rise and drain them.You don't need to dry them, but you do wanna
discard and jars with cracks or nicks in thembecause they can break during the canning
process. Next, you wanna place a rack in thebottom of boiling water canner to separate
the bottom canner from the jars. Then filleach jar with about 2/3 full of water, and
then fill the boiling canner until it's about2/3 full as well. Cover the canner and bring
this to a simmer. And you're just gonna hitthis for a least 10 minutes. Then take the
lids and heat them in a small saucepan andlet them simmer. You see, you wanna get them
both up to about 180 degrees. It's not necessaryto put the screw tops in the water. You can
just set those aside. And here's somethingto keep in mind: The lids and jars must be
hot when putting any sort of hot canning contentin these jars. This will prevent them from
breaking the glass. Now, after the jars havebeen heat tempered in the boiling water canner,
you can pull them out with a jar lifter andpour the excess water back into the boiling
water canner. Next, just set the jars asideto put the contents in them. At this point,
this is where you want to add, in our casewith this recipe, the peppers. I'm using three
types of peppers -- I'm using cayenne, sweetbanana peppers and these hot cherry peppers.
And they've been coarsely chopped and I justpack them into the jars until they're about
half an inch above the rim of the top of thejar. With them all packed down and evenly
distributed over the 6 containers, then it'stime to pour in the solution of vinegar and
water. What I used here was a solution of6 cups of vinegar, 2 cups of water and 3 garlic
cloves that were coarsely crushed. Now, thereason I used the garlic in the vinegar was
just to infuse that vinegar with that garlicysort of taste. It just sort of gives the hot
pepper sauce a little better flavor. Simplylet the vinegar and garlic solution come to
a boil. While it's still hot, you wanna pourit into the jars and cover all of the peppers.
Once that's done, you're ready to put thelids on top. And then take the screw bands
and just gently twist them on until they'rejust snug -- you don't wanna tighten them
down too much. Now the canning jars filledwith the peppers go back in the hot water
bath and you wanna pour water over until there'sabout an inch over the top of them. Bring
that to a boil for 10 minutes. Once they'veboiled for 10 minutes, you can take them out
let them cool. Now, you want them to coolslowly. So what I like to do is set them on
a tea towel. And then get them all lined upand then lay a tea towel over them, so it
slightly insulates them so it slows down thecooling process. Let them sit there for 24
hours. Don't jostle them around or anything,just leave them alone. And then you can check
the seal by just taking the ring off and holdit like that. And if it's firm and holds just
like this, you're in good shape. You can enjoythem or give them away as gifts and they will
delight your friends. Give it a try. If you'veenjoyed these tips on making the most out
of your garden's harvest, check in with usregularly. We've got a lot of them. And subscribe
to eHow Home.
Like this canning tip? Thumbs up above and Subscribe: http://bit.ly/WESiLs There's more tips from Allen were this came from: http://bit.ly/Re297M Want more helpful ideas from Allen? http://bit.ly/X53iR1 Don't know what to do with all the vegetables from your garden? P. Allen Smith shows how to safely can your garden bounty. Canning is a great way to preserve vegetables and makes a great holiday gift as well! Have any questions for P. Allen Smith? Leave your comments and questions below! Practical tips for style, comfort and sustainable living from designer and lifestyle expert P. Allen Smith. Allen dissects style and function to reveal the tips that will take your home and garden to the next level. More from Allen: http://www.youtube.com/pallensmith More home tips: http://www.ehow.com/ehow-home P. Allen Smith is an award-winning designer and lifestyle expert and host of two public television programs, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, P. Allen Smith's Garden to Table and the syndicated 30-minute show P. Allen Smith Gardens. Smith is one of America's most recognized and respected design experts, providing ideas and inspiration through multiple media venues. He is the author of the best-selling Garden Home series of books published by Clarkson Potter/Random House, including Bringing the Garden Indoors: Container, Crafts and Bouquets for Every Room and P. Allen Smith's Seasonal Recipes from the Garden. Allen is also very active on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Allen's Blog and YouTube as well as on the new eHow Home channel debuting January, 2012. His design and lifestyle advice is featured in several national magazines. Learn more at http://www.pallensmith.com. Some More P. Allen Smith Videos You Might Like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHPSSdoUACk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OivmnM3usk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THHhYjKYhW4