Planning a Garden / Canning the Produce

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77mommy
77mommy Posts: 9 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So, I'm starting to think about my garden for this year and I'm looking for ideas for this amazing MFP group!

Our typical garden has green beans, beets, lettuce, zucchini, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, carrots, dill and basil. I want to do a significant amount of canning so I can have a variety of homegrown vegetables throughout the year, but I don't have many ideas of what to do.

The only thing I've successfully canned in the past have been pickled beets and dilly beans. I'd love to make my own spaghetti sauce, but how can I get it to taste like Ragu without adding a ton of sugar or using artificial sweeteners. I've heard that possibly adding pureed carrots and other "sweet" vegetables could work, but haven't been able to find any information supporting this theory. I've tried canning pickles, but oh my, they always turn out soggy...yuck. What other vegetables can be canned and still taste yummy?

Any ideas for additional vegetables to plant to give me more of a variety of canned foods and any recipes for canning would be greatly appreciated.

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  • life1979_24
    life1979_24 Posts: 147 Member
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    ive never canned but i am thinking of trying this year...i will check back to see what others say.
    my best friend does corn relish, pepper relish, cabbage, and salsa
    i freeze green beans, zucchini, potatoes, onions, green peppers, squash, carrots, corn, chillies,
  • 77mommy
    77mommy Posts: 9 Member
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    Still looking for some ideas...
  • crzymmaah
    crzymmaah Posts: 4 Member
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    bump
  • cheshirechic
    cheshirechic Posts: 489 Member
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    I LOVE spaghetti sauce, and Mario Batali has a super-easy recipe here:

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/basic-tomato-sauce-recipe12/index.html

    Since you're using fresh tomatoes, just dice them raw beforehand. A true blue gourmet would concasse the tomatoes first, but I'm lazy and would just chop them whole and add 'em, skin and all. There are all kinds of nutrients in the skin and guts.

    If you wanted it smooth, use an emersion blender to smooth the sauce out before canning.

    Best of luck!

    EDIT: I'm so inspired and impressed by your canning and gardening! I definitely want my own garden at some point, but I only have a teeny balcony for now.

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