Canning

 Canning food on our Homestead.

Have a seat and let's begin enjoying a day of canning together.

I like to stock food to help get us through winter seasons. My Husband works seasonally and this seems practical to me to helps us. People Can for many reasons, I can for a season others can for longer periods of time. 

This canning session is for Mandarin oranges ( clemintines). I will add I only use safe canning methods, such as canning books ( can be purchased online, stores like Tractor Supply). Another good online site for safe canning is National Center for Home Food Preserving ( nchfp). This time I went with a seasonal fruit, I absolutely love mandarin oranges, but not fond of the tin canned ones from the stores and the glass ones can be expensive. Canning your own gives you two great benefits, less added shelf preservatives and you know what's in them adjusted to your taste and liking on the sugar levels. These mandarin oranges were purchased from a store and canned for a winter stock. 

9lbs gave me 10 pints of canned mandarin oranges. Here is how I did it. Using the nchfp site online ( Google search), this is a water bath canning method. This is the syrup chart used for your liking, from very light to heavy. 

it gives you a list for pints or quarts. As mentioned earlier I used pints. You can refer back to the nchfp site for further details listed under grapefruit and oranges search catagory if you want qt size.

You want firm yet ripe oranges, wash, peel and remove as much of the white pith as possible in the center of the orange segments and outside of them. You will be breaking them down in segments ( this will take some time so prepare for a full day), or you can leave them whole if you choose to. Prepare your canning jars by washing them with soap and water and placing them in your water bath canner while heating your canning water in the pot, I will fill my canner just below the second line of the canner. You do not want to boil your water just yet while heating up your jars. I use the rack to set my jars on while heating. In an small pot add your lids and rings in water not boiling water to help soften the seal. In another stainless pot I will add the water and sugar for the syrup (refer to the chart above for your liking, I use the light syrup). Bring to a boil. 

This is as simple as, once the syrup is boiled get one of your hot jars, pack it with your whole or segment oranges up the 1/2" mark (using a canning measuring tool, will make another post on these items or how to tell on your jars where the 1", 1/2", 1/4" marks are). Add your hot syrup up to the 1/2" mark, debubble using a chop sticks or measuring tool gently insert in jar and along sides gently press releasing bubbles on two sides inside your jar. Add more liquid if needed back to that 1/2" headspace mark. Clean off your rim of the jar, place your lid on top and ring ONLY sealing to figure tight.  Add back to your canning pot and repeat until all your oranges are finished. If you have oranges left over that does not fill an entire jar. Just eat them and enjoy, you always want full jars never half way. 

Once finished lower your rack into the water bath canner gently and slowly, make sure you have at least 1" of water above your jars. Top with the lid, and bring the canner up to a full rolling boil. Once it reaches that point, using a timer  set it for 10 minutes. Leave the lid sealed and wait until the timer ends. Once finished turn off your burner, remove lid and set timer for 5minutes leaving the jars inside. Once finished using a canning tong, remove jars from your canner on a towel and leave your jars sit in disturbed for 12-24 hours and completely cooled, you will hear the pops from your lids as the jars cool. You now have your own canned mandarin oranges. 

Until next time, enjoyed having you in the kitchen with me, having canning friends is so much fun. Leave a message and let me know what you think, or if you have questions. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a post.