Fall Canning Tips for Greenhouse Gardeners
One of the inevitable side effects of a love for gardening is hours spent in the kitchen preparing all those fruits and veggies for storage. Until a few years ago, I simply froze all of my garden veggies, but then I decided to give canning a try. Boy, am I glad I did! If you are new to canning, these time saving tips might prove to be very valuable. Give a few a try and see what a difference the extra effort can make!

1. Invest in a food processor. This is the first year I have used a food processor and I was simply amazed at how much time it saved. Veggies are ready for canning in seconds and the entire machine cleans up with a rinse in hot soapy water. My fingertips are very thankful that I won’t be scoring them repeatedly while slicing up cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and beets this year.

2. Buy a pressure cooker. I know, most pressure cooker manuals do not include any instructions for pressure canning quarts and pints, but the FDA encourages home gardeners to use pressure canning for all low-acid foods, like beans and carrots. You can find pressure canning time tables and instructions online if your pressure cooker doesn’t come with canning instructions.

3. Compost your food scraps. Those snap bean ends, tomato cores, and corncobs make great fertilizer for next year’s crops.  Mix your layers of food scraps with coffee grounds, grass clippings, and leaves to create the richest compost. Be sure to water it well and turn it over often to increase airflow for better decomposition.

4. Enlist help. Recruit your kids, spouse, or friends to help you pick, clean, prepare and can your crops. The work will go twice as fast and you can reward them a few jars of the finished products.

5. Always label your jars. You may think it’s a no-brainer that jar contains this year’s beans, but in 12 months, your memory may not be so clear. Sometimes jars get missed from year to year and labeling them with the date canned helps keep you from wasting food and getting spoiled jars.

6. Stock up. Always buy an extra set of jars and several boxes of fresh lids to keep on hand. It can be frustrating to have a hot jar of produce ready for processing and realize you are out of lids or bands.

Canning your fruits and veggies from the greenhouse can be an immensely rewarding experience. Canning takes a lot time, and the lengthy process is often daunting for many gardeners who are new to canning, but taking a few time saving tips can help make your first canning season a pleasant one.

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, the garden crops tend to get ahead of us. There are only so many hours in the day, and when other responsibilities encroach on your treasured gardening time, you can find yourself stuck with a boatload of work. Here are few ideas to help you make the most of those busy gardening moments.

Overripe Cucumbers
Ah, the lovely cucumber! One vine can produce tons of cukes, long into the growing season. The leafy vines often hide growing cucumbers from your sight, resulting in overgrown, or overripe cucumbers. Overgrown cukes are long, large, and often yellow. The flesh is porous, less crisp than young cucumbers, and the seeds are large and plentiful. Many cooks will tell you these cucumbers are not suitable for pickling or relish making. So, what are you to do with these garden giants? Well, you can make them into a sweet treat. Pickled Cinnamon Cucumbers taste a lot like candied apples and the rich cinnamon flavoring makes them immensely appealing as an after-dinner treat.

They take about 3 days to process and the finished product is jar filled with richly colored red rings of sweetness with a cinnamon stick in the center. These jars are nice enough to give away as gifts or enter into the county fair. You can find the original recipe here: http://www.scrapbookflair.com/oklahomadawn/Cinnamon_Cucumber_Rings/Page1 .

CINNAMON CUCUMBER RINGS
2-3 gallons cucumber rings
8 1/2 qts. cold water
Red food coloring
1 tsp. alum
2 c. water
8 cinnamon sticks
2 c. pickling lime
1 c. vinegar
2 c. vinegar
10 c. sugar
1 pkg. red hot candy
Mix 2 cups pickling lime and 8 1/2 quarts cold water. Pour over cucumber rings. Let stand 24 hours. Drain. Wash and put in cold water. Let stand 3 hours. Drain. Mix 1 cup vinegar, red food coloring, alum, and add enough water to cover. Simmer 2 hours. Drain.
Mix 2 cups vinegar, 10 cups sugar, 2 cups water, 1 package red hot cinnamon candy, 8 cinnamon sticks. Bring to boil. Pour over cucumber rings. Let set overnight. Drain off; heat and pour back over cucumbers. Do this for 3 days. On 3rd day, pack rings in jars; seal.

Another option is to go ahead and make them into pickles with a special recipe that calls for overripe cucumbers. This recipe includes brown sugar and vinegar, making an unusual, yet palatable pickle. The original recipe for these pickles is here: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1636,149170-226205,00.html .

 MOTHER’S RIPE CUCUMBER PICKLE
Large ripe (yellow) cucumbers
2 lb. brown sugar
1 pt. cider vinegar
2 tbsp. whole cloves
2 tbsp. stick cinnamon
Cut cucumbers in half lengthwise. If very large you may need to cut crosswise also. Cover with alum water (2 teaspoons alum to each quart of water). Heat gradually to boiling, then let stand until clear. Remove cucumber from water and chill in ice water.
Make a syrup by boiling 5 minutes the sugar, vinegar and spices (tied in muslin). Add cucumbers; cook 10 minutes. Put cucumbers in jars and pour syrup over them.

Books on Canning:
Preserving the Harvest
The Beginners Guide to Preserving Food at Home
Keeping the Harvest: Home storage of fruits and vegetables

It is now September – last chance to harvest – and while you may have the proper tools to harvest your prized crops, there are some other gardening supplies and accessories that you may not have considered to help keep and store your hard work for later use.

Canning
Canning is a great way to store fruits and veggies from your garden for later use. Canning works because it heats foods to kill bacteria while sealing them in a glass or metal container, preventing them from spoiling. All air that would allow bacteria to grow is forced out of the jars during the canning process.

Having canning supplies handy during harvest time means that you can keep more of your food fresh for use during the off-season. Here is a list of supplies that you will need to install an outdoor canning kitchen in your greenhouse – if you don’t have a greenhouse, you can use these same items indoors on your stove, as well.
• Boiling-water canner – Basically just a big pot with a tight fitting lid, mainly used for canning fruits or high-acid vegetables.
• Pressure canner – Similar to a pressure cooker, the lid locks down to keep steam in. This canner is great for vegetables and low-acid foods.
• Canning jars – Commonly called Mason Jars, these are the glass jars that come with metal screw on lids. They create very tight seals and are perfect for canning just about anything. You can choose from pints, or quart-sizes, and regular or wide-mouthed varieties.
• Lids and bands – Lids, sometimes known as “flats,” should be new and never reused because they may not seal properly the second time. Bands thread onto the jars to hold the lids in place during the canning process. These can be removed after a pressure seal has formed and the jars cool for 12-24 hours.

Dehydrator
A Dehydrator is another useful gardening accessory. The ability to dry herbs and fruits can come in handy for use during the winter season. Dried herbs go much further than fresh herbs and can last for many months without going bad. Dried fruits make for great snacks by themselves or can be used in cooking, cereal, oatmeal, or even smoothies. Once dried, you always have the option of partially dehydrating your fruit by putting them in a bath of warm water for a few minutes. A good dehydrator will have several large racks and a temperature dial that ranges from about 80F to around 150F.

Canning supplies and a good dehydrator are essential elements to your gardening tool kit. They will help you preserve and store your hard work for later use and not to mention, the use of both gardening accessories will fill your house with the wonderful smell of your garden. Bon Appetite.