Page 34 - Valley Table - Winter 2023/2024

need jars designed for canning, such as Mason Jars, plus canning lids, which consist of a flat metal disk and a screw band. Together, the disk and band will create
a vacuum seal while the jars boil. And of course, you need a canner. “It’s a big pot for boiling the filled jars,” says Polmateer. Your last must-have is a rack to rest at the bottom of the pot to arrange the jars upright so they won’t bump into one another.
Play it Safe
How long each batch of jarred preserves should boil depends on what’s inside.
With safety at stake—improperly canned preserves can harbor dangerous bacteria— it’s best to find reliable canning recipes. They’ll explain how to clean and ready
lids and jars, prep fresh foods, and gauge if preserves are acidic enough to be jarred (if not, you’ll need to add ingredients such as lemon or vinegar). Polmateer recommends the recipes on the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s website (nchfp. uga.edu). Leiss’s blog is a great resource, too (farm2chefstable.com/blog). If you prefer a book, “The biggest one is the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving,” says Leiss. As for how preserved foods taste, “there will always be a flavor change from the fresh food, since you have to add vinegar, salt and sugar,” says Polmateer. But, she says, the same thing happens when you cook fresh foods using other methods.
One primary rule is that after you boil the filled and closed jars, you should listen for each lid to make a popping noise while they’re resting. It means the vacuum seal has occurred, and the preserves will then last in your pantry for up to a year or more. And as you remove the jars from the water, don’t tilt them, which can ruin the seal.
If you’ve done everything right, but a jar doesn’t seal, you can use a new lid and try again. (Clean jars can be reused, lids can’t.) Otherwise, just refrigerate the would-be preserves and enjoy them fresh.
Either way, you’ll have made the most of amazing seasonal produce. Leiss is all for it. “It’s imperative we have a conversation about canning,” he says. “We have to start preserving [annual harvests] so we can enjoy them all year, as opposed to buying strawberries in the winter. Our ancestors preserved food out of necessity. We don’t always do it for that reason, but it’s kind of cool to see it come back full circle.”
32 TheValleyTable | December2023-February2024
PHOTO BY ZIGZAGMTART/ADOBE STOCK