I had to hang out around the phone last night waiting for a call about a starving horse, so I didn’t get much done up at the barn. What I did do, was wonder out to the garden for the first time in days and found the first five ripe tomatoes of the season! It’s about darned time! None of them made it to the house for a photo shoot, sorry. I also picked the first of the Ancho peppers
I finally harvested the potatoes last night. I planted less than 5 lbs of blue and red seed potatoes this year and never got around to hilling them, fertilizing, or covering with Remay. I think the harvest did okay anyway! The blues definitely beat the reds in quantity, but the reds were generally larger and more uniform.
There were a bunch of very small potatoes, so I ended up canning them for the first time. The recipe I followed said to peel the potatoes, but I’ve also read several that didn’t peel them first and they turned out okay. And honestly, peeling them just seemed like way too much work.
Scrub and clean potatoes and cut any larger ones up so that each piece is generally the same size. Throw the cut pieces into a bowl of water so they don’t brown. Boil all the pieces for about three minutes, so that the pieces are heated through, but not mushy. I added a little vinegar to the boiling water so the potato pieces would keep their color. Drain the potatoes and hot pack into jars, then pour fresh boiling water and cover potatoes, leaving 1/2” headspace. Pressure can quarts for 45 min and pints for 35 at 10lbs of pressure.
I still have a basket full of potatoes to put away and have no idea where I’m going to keep them where they won’t sprout. Looks like I may be canning more soon!
4 comments:
Canning potatoes, I have never heard of before. How would you use it? Can it be used for roasting once it's canned?
They look very colorful!
I've never tried roasting them, but they're much like the canned "new" potatoes you can buy in the store. I like to throw them in a pan with a little olive oil, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and kielbasa for a cold-weather meal. I also dice them up and make hashbrowns, or boil them a bit and mash them for quick mashed potatoes.
I don't have a great place for storing root veggies without them either rotting or sprouting, so canning, freezing, and drying are my preferred methods of preserving. One of these days I'll have a root cellar... :)
Thanks for the info. The truth is I have never tried any canned potatoes before(not even buying them from the store).
Now is pressure canning the only way or hot water bath way is ok too?
Hot water bath is for high acid recipes only, like pickles, applesauce, and tomatoes (even with those you usually want to add some lemon juice for added acidity). Anything with no or low acidity, like potatoes, carrots, greens, beans (in water), etc need to be pressure canned.
Post a Comment