Wecken or Canning

Hey all,

Now that it seems that I’ll have a kitchen garden soon, I’m looking into the process of wecken or canning. I k now it can be time consuming, but I’m looking forward to saving the food I’ve grown in Spring and Summer for the Winter. And it also gives me the opportunity to make nice cooking gifts for birthdays, Christmas and an event we have here in the Netherlands: Sinterklaas. He was a holy man who made sure that children had little gifts. He died at December 6th and we celebrate his idea at December 5th. It’s kinda like Christmas where everyone gives gifts too.

Anyway, I’ve been looking into the canning process and I think it’s very interesting. There are several things I need to have:

• Canning kettle
• Canning jars
• Thermometer
• Rubber rings for the canning jars
• Canning recipes

Another thing that apparently works too are jars with a screw lid. Right now I’m saving the old jars I get from the vegetables and fruit from dinner. That way I already have a basis to start with. And with fruit, vegetables and more as a harvest from my future Kitchen Garden, it will be wonderful to be able to save it all!

I read on a blog that the author was wondering whether she should freeze everything or can it all. Apparently canning is on the long run also cheaper, both for your wallet as for the environment. And I want my kitchen garden for both reasons Also, freezing means I’ll probably would need an extra freezer, which would take up a lot of space and before I’d be able to cook it, I’d have to defrost everything. While something that is canned doesn’t need to be defrosted. I can use it immediately. So, that’s another reason to can.

Granted, I’ll need to have a place to store all the jars….. Now that might be a slight problem, kinda like with the Freezer. But perhaps I can convince my hubby to help me to make a place to store all the jars. I think a rearrangement of the house is coming up

For now I don’t really have anything yet, but I’m going to make a list of everything I need for canning my future food. Hopefully I can find a few second-hand kettles and jars for canning. That would be nice. I think a new kettle (or more) would simply be too expensive.
I know that there’s a museum where you can follow a workshop for canning, so I’m going to see if and when I can do this workshop. That way I’m already prepared. And of course I can use vegetables and fruit from the supermarket for practice. Just to see how it works.

I am already looking forward to seeing shelves filled with jars with fruit and vegetables!

Have fun everyone!