35+ Homemade Canning Recipes to Can Your Garden

Home Canning Recipes

What do you do with all your garden vegetable goodies?  Do you make just enough for the summer or enough to last all winter? If you grow enough to make it through to the next year (or 2), you need to read on.  Check out these 35+ canning recipes.

You can can your goodies with these easy recipes.  I follow the Ball Canning book for direction on what to do (mostly). I provide instructions with my life experience from using these recipes with helpful tips I’ve learned from canning.  Growing up, I (sometimes) helped my grandma can. Canning tomatoes and making jelly were something they both always did. And now that I’m an adult, I find that canning saves us a lot of money on things we would have to buy at the store.  You can your garden and use the food all year long.

We enjoy taking the foods from our garden and canning in the Summer, so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor for the winter and maybe even longer. This is a simple way to homestead with the foods you grow. There are many things to know to start canning too.

Canning Methods

We use 2 canning methods: 1. water bath and 2. pressure canner/cooker.  The pressure cooker has you put the jars in water and process under presser.  Pressure canning is used for fruits/veggies that do not have acid (like carrots, corn, potatoes)  It takes longer as you have to wait for the canner to release pressure naturally (if you don’t the jars just leak everything out).

The water bath is processed by heating the water to a boil for a certain amount of time. Water bath canning can be used for tomatoes, pears & peaches.

If you are just starting out canning.  Pick 1 or 2 things you use most and start with for the year.  As you get comfortable (or addicted to canning), add another food to can.

Preserving Food We Love

Here are several different options for canning at home.  If you have these items in your garden or can get them from the local farmers market, you will save yourself money throughout the year.

Be sure to label your foods with the month and date that you canned the item. Most items should only be kept for 3 years, before they are not good to consume. This is also why you don’t want to make more than you can use in a year or 2.

Fruits

apple butter
apple cider vinegar
apple maple jam
apple pie jam
apple pie filling
applesauce
chunky applesauce
cinnamon apple slices/chunks
apple pie filling
cranberry juice
cranberry-orange jam
concentrated concord grape juice
peaches
pears
pickled watermelon rinds
pineapple

Jams/Preserves

apple butter
blackberry jam
candy apple jelly
cherry jam
cherry, freezer jam
Christmas jam
cranberry juice
concord grape jelly
corn cob jelly
lemon marmalade
orange marmalade jam (small batch)
orange marmalade jam
peach bourbon jam
pina colada jam
raspberry jam
strawberry lemonade jam
strawberry jam, low sugar
watermelon jelly

Meats

beef (stew)
chicken stock

Other

caramel sauce
chive vinegar
lemon slices, candied

Vegetables

carrots
corn cob jelly
sweet corn
crushed tomatoes
green beans
pie pumpkin
potatoes
spiced pickled beets
stewed tomatoes
tomato sauce with basil
tomato sauce with San Marzano tomatoes
tomato sauce
tomato juice
whole tomatoes

How Much Should You Can?

You don’t have to can a lot for your family.  Plan to make 12 quarts or pints of what you like for the year (jelly would possibly be in smaller jars and things you need more of may be in quarts).  This would give you the opportunity to use the canned goods 1 time a month.  If you use something more than 1 time a month, can more of that item.

Most items can only be kept for 3 years before you should toss them out. Putting the date on them will help you know when it is time to toss them.  You can also keep a chart of how much you used each year, so you know how much to make next time.