5 Interesting Canning Tips and Tricks

"Home canning puts the pleasure of eating natural,

delicious produce at your fingertips year-round."

~ Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

1. If you have hard water like we do, add 1/2- 1 cup of vinegar to your boiling water bath canner. This will keep that filmy residue from forming on your jars.

2. You can transform any pot into a canner by making your own custom sized canning rack using regular sized canning bands and some zip ties, wire, or produce bag ties (example here). This might also be useful for canning with smaller jars which wouldn't require such a large pot to boil in (therefore saving time and energy and water). Make sure your jars would still be covered by 1 to 2 inches of water when choosing a pot. 

3.  If you have extra space in your canner when preserving, fill up the remaining slots with jars of water (and process like you would with whatever items you are canning at the time). Some people recycle lids for this project to make it more economical since you aren't canning high risk foods. You can add these jars of canned water to your emergency food storage as an instant and safe drinking source. 

4. Use your leftover boiling-water-bath water for washing up any dirty dishes (once water has cooled a bit).

5. Don't leave your canning rack inside your canner for over 24 hours. Your rack will start to rust. If your rack is already rusty, you can replace the rack by itself without having to buy a brand new canner (or make your own as shared above). Just make sure to measure the inside of your canner so that it will fit.

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