Fall is the time I can

Tomato sauce in Weck's glass canning jars

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Canning is a great way to preserve your own harvest.  You can also buy organic produce that is on sale from your local grocer or from your local farmers market.  When the produce is in peak season, it is the most healthful and the least expensive of the year.  I freeze all my extra tomatoes, then come fall, I can all the frozen tomatoes from last year. 

When you can, you have to follow the recipe exactly to make sure it is safe to eat.  When canning acidic foods like fruit or tomatoes or anything using vinegar or sugar, you can likely use only a water bath.  All other canning requires a pressure canner to get to high enough temperatures to kill off the bacteria that cause botulism.

Here are some web pages and resources to use:

Mother Earth News canning tips

Mother Earth News “How to Can” app

National center for home food preservation  http://nchfp.uga.edu

USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning http://goo.gl/pwrxd

“Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving” book

“The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving” book

This week I canned all the extra frozen tomatoes from last year and canned deer stew meat.  Tomatoes can be preserved with a water bath while any type of meat requires pressure canning for food safety.  All you really need when canning high acid foods like tomatoes is a tall stock pot with lid, tongs, a stainless steel spoon, a towel to put the hot jars on, a cutting board to stage the hot jars, and your canning jars.

Here is the recipe from Ball’s “Complete Book of Home Preserving” for tomato paste:

9 cups of pureed tomatoes, 1½ cups of chopped sweet bell peppers, 2 bay leaves, 1 teas salt, 1 clove of garlic.  I'll also toss in some of my dried mixed herbs for flavor.  About a tablespoon or two per batch.

 

I put it all into a large pot and let simmer until it is the consistency and taste I like, about 2.5 hours.  Remove the bay leaves and garlic.  Boil the jars, lids, and seals as the sauce is close to done.

 

Add 3 teas of lemon juice to each hot pint jar, fill with the hot tomato sauce to within ½ inch of the top, and seal the lid, following the instructions for the type of jar you are using.  Place all the filled jars in a large pot, insuring they are fully covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 45 minutes.  Remove from canner.  Let cool.  Test the seal after the jar is completely cool.  It should not lift off.  That’s it!

I also use water bath canning for pickled garlic, pickles and pickle relish.

Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

Make your own pickles without a store bought seasoning mix

Make pickle relish

A concern many of us have nowadays are all the chemicals in our food.  Read on for my quest and answers to non toxic canning.

Many of the lids in today's canning jars contain BPA or other chemicals.  BPA is a chemical that studies show act like estrogen in the body and babies and young children are especially susceptible to its effects.  In 2012, BPA was been removed from baby bottles banned by the FDA, but is still found in many products including conventionally canned foods.  Even those that advertise BPA free can contain other substances that are just as harmful.

My Granny canned during the summers I spent with her when I was little.  We were growing tomatoes in our little flower/veggie garden and my husband loves those big slice pickles on his burgers.  I wanted to learn how to put away our extras like she did. 

My handy Ball canning book revealed that tomatoes, fruits, and pickles are high acid so they do not require a Pressure Canner; only a water bath was needed.  Makes it an inexpensive experiment.

I read that many canning lids also contain BPA.  So, what other options were there?  I found these beautiful glass lids in an antique store.  I also bought the jars with the wire closure.  All I needed now were the rubber seals and some directions!

Old fashioned canning jars, 1946 canning pamphlet, Weck's glass canning jar

I searched the web to see if I could find any instructions on how to use old fashioned canning jars.  No luck.  Then I went to Amazon to see if there were any books on it.  I found a 1946 pamphlet “Steamliner Pressure Cooker-Instructions for Cooking and Canning.”  Success!  It was great fun browsing the pamphlet.  It was also very thorough in its instructions on how to use the old fashioned canning jars.

I went on line and ordered a variety of seals, sticking with ones that were not made in China and were natural rubber.  I wasn’t able to find any that fit well with my cool, old fashioned jars.  I also learned that the glass lids needed very tall rings to seal properly to modern Mason jars.  The modern rings you can get today were just too short to close properly.

I went antiquing again to get tall rings.  I found some in antique stores and on eBay.  The rings are harder to find than the lids as they do rust.  I probably have twice as many glass lids as I do tall rings.  They can be used on any regular mouth sized jar.  Wide mouth jars were not being made at that time so I haven't found any wide mouth glass lids..

Then, I ran across an advertisement for these beautiful glass jar with glass lid made in Germany-Weck’s (it is the second from the right in the pic).  Finally, a modern non-toxic canning jar!  They come in a variety of sizes.  I have pint (half liter) and quart (liter) size jars.

Later I discovered a plastic lid that is also BPA free that can be used with modern jars made by Tattler, made in the USA since 1976.  They are a seamless replacement for the metal lids with today's canning jars and shorter rings.  I stick with the glass lids.

The Weck’s work great.  Easy to use, easy to know that the seal is good, and beautiful to look at.  I highly recommend them.  Since I started using these glass jars, I have seen other European makers of all glass jars and lids available, like Terrina Ermetico and Bormioli Rocco.

The antique glass lids with tall rings work well but are a little more finicky in the proper way to tighten and loosen the seal before and after canning.  I use both the antique glass lids and Weck glass jars since I have so many of the antique lids.

Happy canning!