Monday, May 14, 2012

Canning Greens


Remember the mustard seeds that I glued to paper napkins to show everyone how to make seed mats. I am so glad that I did that because it came a huge rainstorm the next day and if those seed had not been glued down I would have been picking mustard at the bottom of that hill. Needless to say that the mustard mats germinated and are now ready to pick and can. You can follow along in the Ball Blue Book, 100th Anniversary Edition, page 67 for the recipe.


We picked 4 large laundry baskets of mustard greens and put them one at a time in the big laundry sink to clean. We changed the water several times and added salt just in case there were any bugs left it would kill them. Surprisingly there were very few bugs in the greens.


You want to wash them well and remove the ribs on any of the larger leaves. 


To remove the rib simply turn the leaf to the back side and fold the leaf in half, pinch the rib where it starts to get large and pull down. As you see in the picture above it simply tears right out.  



Then you are left with a leaf minus the tough ribs or stems. 


Once all the leaves are cleaned you are ready to can. I had containers of greens all over my kitchen : )


In the Ball Blue Book they suggest putting in a large pot and cooking the leaves until wilted and then cutting them in the pot.  (Have you ever tried cutting something in a Big Boiling pot.) I prefer to drop my greens in boiling water in my spaghetti cooker. For wilting and blanching vegetables this is the handiest pot in my pantry. An old pot found at a sale of a school cafateria closing down it has served me well through the years. 


Once the greens are wilted which takes about 4 minutes if your water is boiling good, you can simply lift the upper part of the pot out of the water and let it drain for a minute.  


Then dump greens in large colander and let drain.  We had many batches. Once the greens are drained then run a knife through the hot greens to chop them to smaller pieces. We wilted all the batches and drained them, cut them into smaller pieces then added enough back to the pot of water for a cooking which is 7 quart jars.  Then I heated the greens back up to boiling . Do not be tempted to put the wilted greens directly in the jars because they will suck all the water back up and you will be left with jars of greens with no water at the end of your canning cycle.  Put them back in the water and bring back to a boil always..


 I learned this the hard way : )


Then with a slotted spoon dip the greens out of the boiling pot and put in jars. Add hot greens to hot quart jars then add 1 teaspoon of canning salt to each jar.


Now add boiling water from the pot you cooked the greens in over the greens leaving 1 inch headspace. If I am short boiling water I simply stick some in the microwave to top off my jars. 


Quick tip instead of using a ladle I use one of these to pour my boiling water  from my pot into jars instead of a ladle. Quicker and more precise pouring.  It is actually a Tupperware pitcher for pancake batter. Atleast 25 years old.  It's like everything else I own..it keeps popping up on Pinterest as a vintage item. I think they want me to feel old. Is Tupperware still around? 


Now release bubbles...


Wipe rims....


And apply hot lids and rings. Finger tighten only.


Now put hot jars in hot pressure canner  and process at 10 pounds pressure for 1 hour and 30 minutes for quarts.


I will warn you now that we picked 4 large laundry baskets of greens. By the time they were cleaned, stems removed and wilted, we got 14 quarts of greens. They SHRINK that much !



And if your jars come out of the canner with the greens floating above the water that is okay as long as they seal. They will sink in time and if not it doesn't hurt anything.


Blessings from The Holler 
The Canned Quilter 

23 comments:

  1. This was a great tutorial, and good reference to the Ball book. Your camera makes all the colors look wonderful too, very vivid.

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  2. I didn't know mustard greens would can well. Great tutorial. I grow mustard greens but, we eat them fresh. If I can find some canning jars, this would be a good one for me to try.

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  3. After they are canned, what do you use them in? I am one who loves fresh greens but every time I have had cooked greens they are slimy and yucky! I think partially I don't know how they are supposed to be used!

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    1. Our favorite way of eating these greens is to saute a few onions and maybe a half slice of bacon sliced into very small pieces then put a jar of greens with them and salt and pepper and simmer for about 5 minutes to warm completely. If your greens are slimy you are thinking spinach greens. There are plenty of other types of greens try mustard, collard or turnip greens none of which are slimy.

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    2. If you do not use a pressure cooker and use the old fashion can cooker how long do you let them cook?

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    3. If you do not use a pressure cooker and use the old fashion can cooker how long do you let them cook?

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  4. Can you do spinach this way? I dont eat the other greens but we love and grow spinach.

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    1. To quote the Ball Blue Book this recipe is good for Beet, Chard, Mustard, Poke, Spinach and Turnip. We also eat alot of spinach but prefer ours raw. But we can many mustard and turnip greens and occasionally beet greens.

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  6. I can all kinds of things. I never knew you could can greens. Don't know if my picky eaters would eat them though. I would love them!!

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  7. I agree with Kathy beautiful pictures and beautiful greens. I admire you and all of your canning.

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  8. NEATO!!!! Can you come link up at my new DIYLinky party at www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com? Would love to have you.

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  9. Thank you for linking up to the Carnival of Home Preserving!

    Great post CQ. I have canned turnip greens and mustard greens. Could you do kale like this or is that just better to eat fresh or dried for kale chips (the two ways we usually eat kale)?

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  10. I've really enjoyed reading your post about canning greens. I needed chopped spinach today for a recipe my daughter was making, so I love the idea of having some (greens) canned and on the shelf for later on. Glad I found your site. :)

    Blessings,

    Sherry

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  11. I've looked for your post about making the seed mats but cannot find it. Would you mind providing a link to that post? I'll be planting mustard for a fall crop and would love to have it stay where I plant it. :-)

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  13. can you can kale like this? i have learned so much from you and you blog. jody

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  14. Is it okay to season the greens before canning? We use Better than Ham bullion paste in our greens. I'm new to canning so I don't know about adding seasoning.

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  15. I have noticed that the processing times for greens are quite lengthy....is there a particular reason for this?

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    1. I believe it's because they're not acidic - you're not adding lemon juice or anything like that. The longer process time makes the food safe from botulism and things like that which would spoil it. Here's another reference for canning greens: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/spinach_greens.html

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  16. What if I want them seasoned? Salt pork, onion Etc? So I can open, heat and serve.

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  17. I just canned 9 quarts of collard greens. The concern is that most of the liquid was lost during the canning process. Now, half of the greens have no liquid covering them in the jars. Do I need to throw these greens away or will they still be good in 6 to 12 months?

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  18. Canner is cooling. Thank you for the step by step instructions and pictures.

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