Starting Canning Season Right

On our homestead, we can a lot. I’m not talking about making just jams either. Not only do we can individual items like corn, green beans, peaches, etc but we also can meals like chicken noodle soup, beef stew and chilis. But as we go through these jars of delicious foods, we tend to just wash them and stack them up. This creates a problem during canning season.

Getting Ready For Canning Season

Canning season isn’t just about making sure you have plenty of jars, though that is definitely important. You also need to make sure you have plenty of rings, lids and your tools. You need to make sure you that you have your ingredients like vinegar, lemon juice (or citric acid), and cook or canning books. Another thing I like to make sure is ready are my canners.

Prepping Jars For Canning Season

As I said above, normally we just wash and stack our jars in the basement. Though we are slowly starting to fill jars with water before storing them. Making sure that the jars are clean and ready is key for a successful canning season.

If your jars are not not clean before starting your season, you be trying to wash jars AND can at the same time…. This creates a problem when I’m canning full force and putting up dozens of jars a day. So how do we go about getting all of our jars ready now while we wait for harvest? Every single case of empty jars comes upstairs, including all the lids, rings, and other odds and ends.

I go through each jar and make sure that they all in good condition, no chips, cracks, dips or dings. Then I go through all the rings and sort them. I will keep the rings that have rust but they go into a different bin to use on a different project. I will also take inventory on my jars and see if I need to buy more. Then I start the washing process.

I use vinegar instead of dish tabs because I’m cheap and I think the vinegar does a better job at cleaning them. Once they are clean, they get a fresh lid and ring. Back in the box and stacked up in the dining room. While this will create issues when I’m not canning, it will ultimately make everything easier when it’s time to can.

Getting Your Tools Ready

Finding out in the middle of a canning session is not the time to figure out that your funnels are broken or missing. Do yourself a favor and gather all your canning tools and make sure that you have everything.

Check to make sure that all of your strainers, ladles, and canning funnels are in good shape and you have enough of them. I have four funnels and I’m getting ready to buy a couple more that are much wider. I ordered this one. The reason is because during soup season, when I need to dump the last remaining goodness in that jar? I don’t want to spill it everywhere.

Go ahead and grab one or two more jar grabber thingy’s. Nope, I don’t know what they are actually called but I know when I start looking for mine, it’s usually hidden under all the towels and hot jars.

Also, make sure that you have PLENTY of lids. I usually can about 1,000 jars or more every year. While I do reuse lids, I am not about to learn the hard way that I have run out. Every year I purchase about 1,000 For Jars lids. I don’t always use them all, but a couple years ago, it was damn near impossible to find lids.

Lastly, make sure that all of your rags, hand and bath towels are clean and ready to go. I will blow through all of my rags and hand towels in 1 day if I’m not paying attention. My rags are for cleaning messes, hand towels for hands, and bath towels to help protect counters, tables, and other places I put my hot jars.

Start Stocking Up On Ingredients

Get your vinegar, garlic, salt and other herbs and spices for canning season. Remember, every other canner in your area is going to be getting these same items. Especially, if they did not stock up in the spring like you are doing.

We purchase salt by the 50# bag from Azure Standard as well as bulk order herbs that we can’t or didn’t grow from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Another tip is to make sure that you have all your recipes on hand and ready to go. I love this pressure canning cook book. In fact, I have copied several recipes out of it and have laminated them! Actually, to be fair, I laminate all of my favorite recipes so that I don’t ruin them with the mess that is canning season. This is the laminator that I use and love.

Checking Your Canners For Canning Season

Not everything revolves around jars during canning season. Weird, I know. But the jars are just the vessel that you are using to preserve your harvests or good deals. You also need to make sure that your canners, both pressure and water bath are in good condition and ready to go.

Peak canning season (June to September for us) is a terrible time to find out that the gasket on your pressure canner is cracked or the regulator broken. Go ahead and check those things now and order replacements if needed.

You can also take your canner to your local extension office and have them check it for you. I don’t do this, however, I do keep extra gaskets, weights, and timers around to make sure that I don’t lose one mid season… which I inevitably do.

Mentally Preparing For Canning Season

This is my final, and arguably the most important of all the prep work that you are going to do for canning season. Canning is a HUGE under taking. It involves a TON of work. You are going to be hauling potentially hundreds of jars up and down the stairs. You are going to be washing produce until your fingers look like raisins. The amount of cuts, scrapes and bruises will be mind blowing. And the very last thing you will want to do after putting up 200 jars in one day, is cook dinner.

But having the right attitude when you start canning is key to being successful. All of those things I mentioned above, happen to me every year. One year, I damn near cut my finger off. But I finished that round of canning and then went to get stitches.

But when I tell you that the emense pride you will feel when you walk into your basement and your canning shelves are filled to bursting with all that delicious food? It is worth every single ounce of effort.

These are just some of the things that you can do to make sure that you are ready for canning season. If you think of anything I missed, please comment below!

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