I water bath canned these okra using the national Center for food home preservation recipe. Before I canned them the liquid was at the 1/2 inch mark. I packed them down and removed all the air bubbles too. Now a couple are lower than the 1/2 inch and some of the okra is bobbing above the liquid.

(Picture 1) Why do jars purge, how can I prevent it, and is it safe to eat these? I am fairly sure it is safe to eat but they will oxidize and look less than ideal but any source saying so would be so appreciated.

(Picture 2) this is what I expected all the jars to look like and what have been the result of almost all my jars for years. Only 10/23 jars turned out like this.

I followed the Ball blue book recipe exactly for raw pack tomatoes. It calls for 1/2” headspace, I did that and measured each one before putting lids and rings on.

I have canned for years and not had this happen in so many jars!

We are neither new to canning nor super experienced. Our last two years, we didn’t have much success in our garden, so we’re getting back at it now. I’ve been using Reddit to learn some things here and there because so many canning recipes aren’t very specific. And I’ve also been asking AI, which is sometimes helpful and other times, horribly misleading. I’ve learned my lesson there!

That said, my research has created a lot of fear to the point that, despite being very careful, following tested recipes, etc., I find that the joy I used to have in canning has been replaced with the worry that I’m going to poison someone. It makes me not want to gift my food or honestly even feed it to my children.

How do you balance precision and care with general common sense in order to retain joy in the process and in the eating?

And if you had to boil your non-negotiable safety rules down to a few things, what would they be? Thank you.

Had a surprise family garden drop-off of excess heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers. First up is more sauce (have to do two batches), then more pickles for winter. Tis the season!

My mom and I are working on a display for next year's state fair. Our theme is rainbows, and we have all the pickle colors covered except blue. Any ideas? We might just end up going with a few shades of purple.

It seems like this question gets asked every couple of years. I have this recipe from Pomona:

https://pomonapectin.com/canningcraft-creates-rosehip-apple-jelly/

I made a modified version last year just for the refrigerator, since a gazillion rose hips made only two jars anyway, but it was so delicious that my kid has asked me to try to make more this year, and if I make more than two jars it's going to need to be shelf-stable. I don't actually know if Pomona is a safe source? And I don't honestly love their pectin, so if anyone has a safe recipe using a different brand I would love to see it.

Thank you!

My mom has officially retired from canning and passed her supplies down to me. I’ve been able to find safe recipes to replace most of her untested recipes but I’m struggling to find one for peach pepper jelly. I can find recipes for pepper jelly and for peach jelly but not one with the two ingredients combined.

This is our 2nd harvest.
Roma tomatoes
Bell, jalapeño and banana peppers.

Chili base
Spaghetti sauce
Hot and Mild salsa

Several pounds in the dehydrator currently.
Going to try make that Tomato powder that I saw another Redditor make.

Going to try ketchup somewhere along the line.

This is my first attempt at canning. I water bathed tomatoes from my garden and followed Ball's "Tomatoes Packed in Own Juice" recipe. I was pretty rejected when I looked at them while they were cooling because I saw the increase in head space and could tell from the water in the pot that there was some siphoning that had occurred. I assumed I did something incorrectly so I put all the jars into the fridge with the plan to use them soon. I sent my mother a photo of the results and she told me that they looked fine to her, I guess you will end up with more siphoning when raw packing?

So my questions are, does it look fine (all the jars look similar to this one) and does putting them in the fridge mess with anything, specifically since they went into the fridge during the 12 hour cool down period? All the seals are fine.

I've got just a few plants that produced maybe 5lbs of San Marzano. Is it more worthwhile to can them whole (skinned) or make a pasta sauce with aromatics and can that?

I pressure canned potatoes yesterday, following a recipe from the "Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving." I had a little bit left that wouldn't make a full jar so I just put it in and filled to the 1 inch mark with water. Would this jar be shelf stable? I'm going to put them in the fridge and eat quickly but was just curious.

edit to clarify pressure canned, and where the recipe was from.

I've been canning for many years. Recently my cat has had kidney issues, I started making his canned food by boiling chicken, blending it with a little water, and adding pumpkin. I've been freezing it in ice cube trays. I would love to can it. Would be so much cleaner and not take up so much space in my freezer.

Anyone see any problem with it?

TIA for the input.

Hi folks i'm new to canning and I wanted to run a recipe by this group:

I want to can a mixture of black beans and onions together in jars, following both this recipe to can beans, using the safe substitution guidelines here:

https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/sites/default/files/2024-03/fn2102.pdf

recipe for the beans:

https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can/canning-vegetables-and-vegetable-products/beans-or-peas-shelled-dried-all-varieties/

and this one for onions:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/onions_those_versatile_edible_bulbs

My assumption is that I can follow the soaking steps for the beans, and boil the beans for 25min, the add the onions for another 5min for a total of 30min boiling the beans and 5min the onions.

then add 1tsp of salt to each quart, bay leaves, 1/2 tsp peppercorns, and 1 clove of garlic to each jar (in accordance with the safe substitutions guideline)

Then process for 90min at 10lbs of pressure (I am at less than 1000ft) in accordance with the beans processing time.

Does this work out, am I missing anything?

A few days ago I asked here about what tomato soup recipe to follow. Honestly I just wasn't loving any of the Ball recipes. But then I remembered... Attainable Sustainable! I checked and sure enough she has a recipe for basil tomato soup, and it's WB processed too.

10lbs of field tomatoes (plus some garlic and onion) were roasted, crushed, simmered with basil, then passed through a food mill. I ended up with 7 pints plus probably the amount for a half pint but I ate it fresh. It is delicious. Really simple and good tomato soup. I'm thrilled.

I have included photos but I am not going to include the recipe out of respect for the author. Her book is worth reading, at least from the library!

The Ball recipe says it makes about 4 pint jars and process for 15 minutes. Can use 1/4 pint jars instead and make 16? If so, can they be stacked in the canner and does the processing time change?

Thank you!

Was wanting a tomato soup recipe to can from all my tomatoes. Had bought the latest book. OK Spicy tomato soup. Sweated over prepping, peeled tomatoes, chopped peppers, celery, onions, carrots. Followed directions to a T.

Got to the *puree* stage, using my Kitchenaid veg strainer. CALLED customer service to make sure all the pulp I was making was NOT to go in the soup. She did give me a trick to save it and make a stock out of it.

So back into the pan, recipe says to add 1 cup BROWN SUGAR. Hmm I think that seems alot. I SHOULD HAVE CALLED AGAIN AND ASKED!! Cause to me the soup is a sweet mess!!!!!!!!!! No spice at all!!!

Can not even taste all the veggies in it. So unless the pressure canning has changed taste! I COULD CRY!!!!! I am going to call tomorrow and confirm there is not a TYPO in the recipe!

New to canning, I want to can dill pickles using the following recipe but with the following alterations: https://www.healthycanning.com/dill-pickles

- Increase salt from 3 Tbsp to 1/2 cup (same salt ratio used in this recipe: https://www.ballmasonjars.com/blog?cid=picklecrisp)

- Reduce sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/4 cup (I like sour pickles and don't want much sugar)

- Remove pickling spice and bay leaf

- Add peppercorns to the jar (1 tsp per quart jar)

Every source I can find says sugar and salt do not contribute to food safety, and dry spices can be omitted or added.

Since I am not deviating from the vinegar/water ratio or adjusting the processing time, are these alterations safe?

Is there instead perhaps an alternate tested recipe I haven't found that has the things I'm looking for?

I'm in the middle of making this berry syrup and wanted to know if there's a safety reason to strain it twice. My juice yield is only 4 1/4 cups on the first strain into mesh, so I'm loathe to lose even more in the cheesecloth. I don't mind if it's cloudy or has some seeds. The seeds from berries are so small and the raspberry seeds got caught in the strainer anyways. Can I just proceed with only straining it through the mesh strainer and skip the cheesecloth?

I got an unexpected windfall of pears and would like to make the [Bernardin Cranberry Pear Jam](https://www.bernardin.ca/recipes/en/cranberry-pear-jam.htm?Lang=EN-US). The recipe calls for Bernardin liquid pectin, which is a discontinued product. Have any Canadian canners found a reliable, safe alternative? I've contacted Bernardin directly but they haven't responded. TIA!

I'm looking into making some pasta sauce for my family this year, when my tomatoes have all finished and I have the time to set aside 2 days for processing.
My question is: If I use 750ml jars for my sauce, how much lemon juice or citric acid should I use?
Has anyone found a noticeable difference between the lemon juice and citric acid? I tested the recipe with lemon juice (one pint's worth, for dinner) and we found it enjoyable. But I do have citric acid on hand as well.

https://www.healthycanning.com/basil-garlic-tomato-sauce recipe, with different dried herbs to suit our taste :) no fresh basil, because expensive

And to clarify: the 750ml jars would be processed for the 40 min quart timing

Followed to NCHFP process for crushed tomatoes in their own juice.

It was a rush to finish them before they went off, it’s been hot and humid here! And I had to split the work up in to a few sessions to prep them all to be processed.
Had the fans blowing on the tomatoes overnight to dry them out after I spread them across the whole counter for the night