If your garden is booming, or you just found a great deal at the market – sometimes you get way too much produce all at once. I often do it on purpose so that I can actually take what we wont use immediately and can and process it for later. With everything so up in the air right now, when I see a great deal on produce that can be preserved, I jump at the offer and buy a good amount to stretch our meal budget even further for the leaner months that might be coming.
Thankfully, our favorite market is doing whole sale pricing and a drive through market right now. Yes, Eastern Market in Detroit has gone contact free! As much as I love visiting Eastern Market during the summer – in a time of social distancing I’d rather do my shopping from the car and have the food placed in the trunk of my car.
But what I wasn’t prepared for was the size of the produce I was getting! Yes, I understood wholesale produce meant a lot of product, and since the produce suppliers can’t sell as much to restaurants right now, they have a lot of surplus. But with carrots that were over a foot long and over 2 inches wide – I had a lot of work to do!
I don’t think we can even describe how big these carrots were. Those are standard 8 inch cucumbers sitting on top of the bag just to show how big those bad boys were. This 25 bag, besides being a great deal for us, also meant that we have enough canned carrots for side dishes and soups.
What I really love about this canning recipe – it’s so easy! Although it took me a long time get through the full bag of carrots, canning these would be a great pressure canning starter recipe! It will give you the confidence to can more often and to use your pressure canner more often!
What You Need
- Pint and Quart Mason Jars
- Pressure Canner
- Canning Funnel, Lid Lifter, Jar Remover
- Cutting Board
- Chef Knife
- Peeler
Ingredients
- 5 lbs (or more) of Carrots
- Salt
- Hot Water
Directions:
- Peel and clean all of your carrots. Be sure to remove the root end and the tops.
- Slice and chop the carrots into bite sized pieces. Fill clean jars to about 1 inch from the top.
- Add 1/2 tsp salt to each jar
- Ladle in hot water leaving 1 inch head space.
- Place the lid on the top of the jar and tighten the band by hand.
- Process with pressure canning instructions below.
Canning Instructions:
- In a large pot sanitize your jars. Place your jars in and fill with water. Simmer on medium (do not boil) until they are are warm.
- In a smaller pan place your lids in water. Place this on low until you’re ready to use them.
- Prepare your pressure canner – place the rack at the bottom.
- Fill your jars with your sliced carrots, add salt and ladle hot water over top leaving 1 inch of head space.
- Add your lids and finger tighten the bands.
- Place your filled jars into the canner and pour in hot/boiling water around them until the canner has about 3 inches of water inside.
- Put your lid on and put the burner on medium-high heat. Have your lid at the venting position, until you start to see steam coming out of the lid. Let the steam come out of the vent for 10 minutes, Reduce your heat to medium then switch the dial to the 1 position (8 lbs). When steam starts coming out again start counting down your processing time of 25 minutes for pints, 30 for quarts.
- When your processing time is over turn off your burner and let the canner naturally depressurize.
- Remove your cans from the canner and place them on a dry towel on the counter. Allow to cool and wait for those wonderful pops! After 12-24 hours check to see if the seals are good.
