Home & Garden Highlight: Canning & Preserving

Written by Rebekah Gonzalez

The harvesting season for fruits and vegetables has peaked, and you have more abundance than you can reasonably eat.  What do you do with all the extra produce?  Rather than letting it rot, it can be canned and preserved to be enjoyed all throughout the year.  Below are recommended readings with recipes and instructions to guide you through the process.

Recommended Reading

Canning & Preserving: 80+ Simple, Small-batch Recipes, book cover

Canning & Preserving: 80+ Simple, Small-batch Recipes

A beginner's guide to canning and pickling with more than 80 simple, small-batch recipes from America's most trusted test kitchen. Making your own great-tasting canned goods is wonderfully easy . . . and a delicious pleasure, too. Good Housekeeping Canning and Preserving teaches you all the techniques you need to get started, such as preparing mason jars and canning equipment and how to form airtight seals. More than 80 recipes feature all-time favorites such as Freezer Strawberry Jam and Classic Dill Pickles, as well as Caramelized Onion and Bacon Jam, Blackberry Preserves, Blushing Apple Butter, Fig Chutney, and more. Plus, you get recipes to show off your creations—including Chutney-Glazed Pork Tenderloin; Spicy Tuna Sandwich with crunchy, pickled green beans; and Prosciutto-Melon Panini made with Cantaloupe Jam.



The Ultimate Guide to Preserving & Canning, book cover

The Ultimate Guide to Preserving & Canning

In one concise volume, you can learn - and master like a pro - all the ways to put up food in jars, from water-bath canning to pressure canning, from pickling to jam-making, and beyond! The Ultimate Guide to Preserving and Canning includes delectable canning and preserving recipes from traditional to modern, with expert guidance for canning rookies, as well as creative new directions for experienced veterans. In one concise volume, you can learn-and master like a pro-all the ways to put up food in jars, from water-bath canning to pressure canning, from pickling to jam-making, and beyond! Whether you are a gardener, a fan of farmers' markets, or just someone who likes to browse the bountiful produce at the supermarket, canning and preserving are easy, fun, and affordable ways to enjoy fresh-grown foods all year long.



The Farmer's Wife Canning and Preserving Cookbook: Over 250 Blue-ribbon Recipes!, book cover

The Farmer's Wife Canning and Preserving Cookbook: Over 250 Blue-ribbon Recipes!

The spiced peaches and icebox pickles, dilly beans and tomatoes in every shape and form, the blackberry jam and hot pepper jelly--it’s summer, and a whole world of summers past, in a jar. Pack the pantry the way Grandma did, and put away the sweetest fruits and preserves, the most tender savory vegetables, the taste of the sunny day and the scent of the crisp harvest air, with more than 250 blue-ribbon canning and preserving recipes culled from The Farmer’s Wife magazine. A reliable resource for the farm wife, the new mother, the suburban transplant, the magazine shared recipes that made the kitchen sing and the family sigh with contentment. Along with instructions for canning and preserving fruits and vegetables from your garden or the farmer’s market, this wonderful cookbook, like an old family friend, offers recipes for using the tomato sauce, raspberry jam, peaches, and other tasty fruits and vegetables that you’ve “put by.”



Better Homes and Gardens Complete Canning Guide: Freezing, Preserving, Drying, book cover

Better Homes and Gardens Complete Canning Guide: Freezing, Preserving, Drying

This is the book for everyone who wants to preserve food—from novice to pro—with step-by-step explanations of techniques, ranging from the basics of canning to freezing, drying, fermenting, and pickling. Readers can preserve a range of produce including fruits, vegetables, herbs—anything in season can be “put by” to enjoy later. Included are techniques and recipes for jams and jellies, conserves and fruit butters, condiments, dried treats like fruit leathers and veggie chips, and freezer recipes. Also find recipes for pickles, sauerkraut, relishes, soups—even syrups. And when the tomatoes ripen all at once, check out a chapter on smart ways to preserve them.



The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest, book cover

The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest

Food preservation is one of the most intimidating aspects of homesteading, yet one of the most important. Although there is a plethora of websites, books and blogs dedicated to learning how to preserve the harvest, people must search multiple places in order to gather the necessary information. For a beginner new to the world of preserving this leaves them frustrated and quite discouraged. The ideal tool for a newbie is a detailed reference guide, one such as The Farm Girl's Guide to Preserving the Harvest, that shares the basics on canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting, curing, and smoking, and how to use the right tools for each method. Homesteader and blogger Ann Accetta-Scott guides readers at the beginning, moderate or advanced levels of preserving.



Further Reading

Preserving , book cover
Weck Small-batch Preserving , book cover
Foolproof Preserving, book cover
Fiery Ferments , book cover
The Culinary Herbal , book cover
Preserving Italy , book cover
Preserving Wild Foods, book cover
Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning , book cover
The Joy of Keeping A Root Cellar, book cover
Ball Canning Back to Basics , book cover