I think your canner is fine. My weight often jiggles more than required. That just means that it's releasing the pressure over 10 lbs. That's the nice thing about the weight, it's self adjusting.

Yes, you can turn it down to conserve heat, but excess jiggling won't affect the sealing ability.

Do you have hard water? I often get a mineral film on my jars from my heavy iron in my water. It may also be from a small amount of liquid escaping from the jars (bean juice in this case). As long as your beans are still covered with liquid and the seals are good, you're fine! Just wash the film off the outside gently.

Enjoy!!

Deanna

My Mirro is suppose to jiggle 2-4 times per minute. Rather impossible to keep it at that. If I turn my gas down or up, depending on wanting more or less jiggles, I could spend 90 minutes adjusting. Now I let it jiggle steady for the entire length of time. It is not a hard jiggle though, just a soft steady one. I marked my burner knob and turn it there when I hear the first jiggle. Am I the only one confused reading what I just wrote?

Thank you Deanna and Shirley! Yes, we do have hard water here. I just wiped the jars clean and put them away. There is still enough water covering the beans. Whew! I feel better! I was afraid that 4 hours of shelling lima beans and all the processing time was down the drain! LOL. I still have more beans to can...will do that later today!
Thank y'all again.

Nanahanna

My old Mirro had a gauge and weight. The weight jiggled gently through the whole canning process as does the one on my new Presto canner. Where did you get your heavy duty canning element? Did you buy it locally?

Yes, hard water high in calcium and minerals will leave white coatings. Add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the canning water to counteract that issue. A little jiggle is just as good a bigger jiggle. Its always going to keep the right pressure with a weighted gauge, but as mentioned it can reduce heating expenses a little. When I did limas, I blanched and froze them. I just can't seem to get past the faded color and soft texture of canned beans of any kind. Suggest you search the web for the maker or find a manual. They have very lttle info in them anyways, except maybe a few replacement part numbers for things like gaskets, etc.

There won't be one heat setting for the entire canning process. In the beginning the canning jars will be absorbing heat so the heat input requirement will be larger. Later in the process the jars are the same temperature as the surrounding steam and less heat input will be required for optimum energy savings.

Zeuspaul

Thanks ksrogers and zeuspaul. I called the 1 800 number for Wearever and they are emailing a copy of the manual to me. We'll see what it says but I think I can manage it with it rocking continuously and somewhat slowly. Thanks for the vinegar tip!

Nanahanna

8 inch Element for most NON hotpoint stove. Raised, and with heat shield, as well as thicker support struts so they don't overheat and soften the steel, then sink into the burner hole. Always make sure the stoves element sockets are in good condition too. If the socket is old, and regular burners are not getting as red as they used to, the socket also needs replacement. Aout $8 at Home Depot for the socket. Unplug the stove, one screw holds the socket on the stove, and you just disconnect the two small wirenuts then connect the two wires of the new socket on, twist on the wirenuts. Replace the single holding screw, plug in the canning burner, and your all set. Burner is raised about an inch and a half higher. If the drip pan below is black or rusty, replace that too.. Your stove will run like brand new!

Dont waste your time or money with those 1000 watt external hot plates that just can do the job as they are only 120 volts at 1000-1200 watts. Stove burners are rated 1000+ watts at 220 volts. MUCH more heat and power!

Here is a link that might be useful: Heavy duty canning element.

Thanks Ken, at $58 plus S&H it will have to wait. I'm discouraged from ordering online anyway. I still haven't received the Ball Blue Book or tomato squeezer thing. :*(

The costs of EVERYTHING is not cheap anymore. We are at a 200% inflation rate almost every month now. Not going to get any cheaper! Bought my burner 3 years ago for $41. Try eBay? But make a wise choice? My montly medical premiums and copys for Medicare costs have now more than DOUBLED as of 7/1. $180 less in SS disability. $1000+ oil bill this winter.. Electric went up $40 more per month. I only drive 12 miles a month now, unless i have 3 dr. appts. Low fixed income, $1000 a month mortgage, 12 year old oil leaking junkbox car, that needs new radiator.. What else?? Maybe a money tree planted in the back yard?? Na, only death and more poor..

Since you enjoy gardening and canning so much can't you sell some of your products for a little extra income? Maybe to a small Mom and Pop store for resale, or farmer's Market? Maybe a small restaurant that wants fresh produce from locals? I don't know how you can afford all those things on a SS check. Our SS checks only go so far and our house is paid off for several years now. Every time we get ahead something happens such as the washing machine dies or the mircowave gives up the ghost.... plus I'm saving up now for a trip back east to visit my son and grandson. I buy my clothes at the Goodwill store since retiring and use coupons at the grocery store. We sold one of our vans and now share the other. I don't know how you do it, how you can afford all those kitchen and canning and gardening extras on a SS check.

On a Mirro, it needs to jiggle 3 to 4 times per minute. If it rocks more it is OK, just not less than that or the food will be underprocessed. I taught a class tonight to 48 people in another city on pressure canning. I read the books prior to it and found they need to jiggle 3 to 4 times per minute.
If the liquid is cloudy, it may be the salt if you did not use canning salt. It is a must to use. Other salts can cause cloudy foods. However, cloudy liquid can also be a sign of spoilage. So, be sure you know the cause of the cloudiness.
Good luck to you.

Garage sale- $2.00 a pint for jelly. Cost of jars and making, $2.00. Quart of pickles $4.00, customer says too expensive, and can get at local sumermarket for half that price. Even fresh garden veggies are sold, and these cost many times the price paid at a supermarket. Today, people want good stuff cheap, which ALMOST used to be possible, not now.. Fixed income, and low pay for many many years has been a factor for me, a budget is always in place even when I was at a wage of $3.00 an hour, doing without also helps.

I must now, seriously consider having all my windows replaced, as glass is falling out badly. The old storm windows are no help anymore, and in the end its much more expensive heating costs. Bite the bullet, do without, and get new windows that last beyond my lifetime is the only solution.
Back on track..?

Thanks LindaLou....I used canning salt.

Ken, I know how you feel...my husband recently retired and I am on disability. That is why we are growing some veggies and buying fresh from friends and canning! Trying to save money and have better quality too.

Nanahanna

My husband and myself are retired now and the cost of everything going up is putting the pinch on us. Fortunately we don't have a mortgage or rent to pay. We're hoping we can grow most of the veggies we eat starting next summer. We're going to enlarge two of the gardens and concentrate on what can be canned, not just eaten fresh like summer squash and watermelon. Butternut squash does well here and keeps all winter in the utility room. To save space and my back we're switching to Kentucky pole beans next year. The cukes will be planted along the field fence and out of the way. I have BIG plans....... :)

Get some samples of the soil tested this fall. You might besurprised at what the dirt needs and doesn't need. Here, phosphorous has always been quite high, but iron and nitrogen the opposite. Its been gradually going back to noramal and has remained there quite well. Admittedly home gardening is expensive as is home canning, but if you dont factor in all your 'labors of love', its just normal operating costs on a yearly basis. The expensive investment into high quality tools and equipment in the first year or two is danting, but after a couple of years, the need for specialized tools is far less, and supplies take over as primary needs. This is another reason that BULK purchasing of some of the ingredients is something everyone faces. Think of a better home canning future as opposed to a cheaper past. If I were to suddently decide to to can just now, its expected that 99% of my costs would be just for all the equipment and supplies. After so many years and my parents insite, this is a nice way for me to enjoy the fruits of my labors with less money poured out evey year just to help keep it going.

Today, the high costs of everyting is not going to 'magically' disappear, its a fact of life for all, and we all have to do some very innovative things just to survive physically, mentally, and financially. Big plans can be blown apart by the lack of resources, so start small and work slowly and carefully, it should eventually pay off in the long run, and maybe in a few years from now.

I wholeheartedly agree with Ken about getting soil samples. We put our tiny little garden in the spot where my MIL's mobile home sat and husband just tilled the soil and added a little fertilizer. I have tomatos and bell pepper but they are so slow growing and he says he should have tested the soil and added ammendments. He will do that next year. He has gardened all his life but got tired of it and quit....but now that we are both retired we want to try it again and see if we can supplement our food budget. We have all the tools and we also have a huge lot beside our house where we had a huge garden years ago that we could till up again for a larger garden if need be. But if we did that our children would have to want some veggies too 'cause they'd have to help with the work!

Nana

Most of the changes Ken will be in the size of the gardens and what we grow. Much less of what can't be canned since freezer space is so limited, and a lot more that cans well. That wont effect our cost too much. If that lady keeps her promise, we wont need to buy more jars. This fall I'm going to grow more beets for canning, and turnips. I never canned turnips but they keep awhile, like potatoes, from what I understand. In short I'm going to "get serious" about my planting, harvesting and preserving. Now with the tom' squeezer I don't think there's anything else I need for canning my home-grown produce. My husband is agreeable to buying anything necessary so when I see something in the store or read about it here...... I just may buy it. :)

nanahanna

I agree with the soil testing. Everytime I had it tested in the past it was low in all three - NPK and magnesium plus alkaline so the iron was tied up = hence Ironite (not cheap). Every year I add these things and we get a bountiful harvest. This year I think the peppers being so slow is due to the neighbor's trees shading them too much. One garden is becoming more shady every year due to the growth of those trees. Eventually that garden will be useless for anything but shade lovers and not vegetables. It's a shame because all the years of compost has the soil rich, dark, full of earthworms and wonderful for crops. We're going to try the greens there next year since they don't need the all day sun the other crops need. Although we have a little over an acre, much of it is only a few inches over limestone rock, the house and driveway, the outbuildings, or too shady to garden. I'd love to try canning greens but canning them for 90 mins will surly turn them into mush.

I used Iron Sulfate, which was in 50 pound bags. Cost a bundle, but I had bought 200 pounds of it for future years (BUY BULK!!). Also, no 'real' minerals or micronutrients were ever added to my old tired soil, so I bought about 600 pounds of humate. Really black stuff that is mined and has brought back a LOT of life to my soil. The iron sulfate I used has a tendencey to lower soil pH a bit to much, so a dose of lime was also needed. The lime got a bit too close to a few blueberry bushes again this year, so they were berryless again. Since I just realized that, I added a really good dose of elemental sulfur and Holly Tone ferilizer for all my blueberries that had none on them. They should bounce back next year again. Since I sprayed the pepper plants with Harpin this week, I did notice quite a lot more flowers are popping open. Same thing on the cukes, as there are now dozens of flowers. Next to the peppers, every grape tomato branch has at least 8-10 flowers on each branch. Shade crops, cole types, and peas, as well as many other choices are good for shade areas. Make a deal with the neighbors if the trees are also over your land. My next door neighbor had two 60 foot oaks with many branches hanging over my roof and my greenhouse. Winters would cause these to bang on my shingles. I split the cost of cutting some down ($800). Out front, a huge, and very sick Norway maple with a base trunk over 3 foot in diameter. It was a big hazard as it dropped a big dead limb a few years ago, and that crushed the roof of my car. My insurance would not even cover it, so I gave the bills to the neighbor as it was mostly on his land. I got paid back. Limestone rock is a bit bad if its only a few inches belw the soil surface. Some have that problem and mak raised bed, bu that taks a lot more effort. My garden is a tiny .24 acre size, so you have plenty of space.

The neighbors want their trees for shade. This is a very hot climate and most people value trees. If he were to take them down his back yard would be unusable is summer. I understand how they feel about their trees and shade. The trees are also healthy and quite beautiful. I'll have to move my sun-lovers to another spot.

We don't buy in bulk for two reasons Ken. One is the cost and the other lack of storage space for more "stuff." I've been giving away things on Freecycle and have donated bags of clothing (too large) to Goodwill. We plan a large yard sale with another family down in town in a few months. Now that we're both retired we're tying to downsize a little.

As I said before, neither of us get pensions so our income is limited and savings must be carefully spent. We don't want to go into debt.

My garden this year doesn't get enough sun either! Next year we will move it to a sunnier spot. We have a huge lot that we could use part of and will probably do that. I don't think we can handle a really big garden though. We will see.

Nanahanna

nana

We have a good sunny place down by the road but then the deer and local thieves get almost everything. The other problem is hauling a hose all that way to water them. We tried it one year and harvested nothing.

Trees have many branches. and limbs. and leaves. If there are many hanging over you your garden, then DO you have the option of removing these OVERHANGING BRANCHES AND LIMBS ONLY. Use for shade, fine, but if you don't want all that shade on your side, then you have no other options. It just seems that you and I tend to butt heads way too much and your not thinkingg as well enough 'out of the box', so I can only offer minimal suggestions, and you need not respond, dispute, or argue. The things I help with are SUGGESTIONS, NOT something that was originally written on the back of the 10 commandments, so do what you want to do with what you need to do.

I must have missed something here...did someone remove a post or something? Where please tell me has anyone in this post that I STARTED, tried to butt heads?

Nanahanna

Not you, GREENHOUSER!!!! As that was MY reply to HER RIGHT AFTER HER post..

The trees are not overhanging our property. They're on the west side of our property, are very tall trees and are on his side with none overhanging. They block the sun in the afternoon as the sun goes overhead on it's way west. Only a bucket truck which can't fit between the garage and greenhouses would be able to reach their limbs should they start to overhang someday. That also goes for the trees on our north side which do overhang to some extent. They belong to someone else. The spot has great garden soil but the location is just not good. The neighbor would have to take those trees down altogether for my garden to get sun all afternoon.

Two 40-50 foot oaks and many limbs hovering over my house. The tree guy here, used ropes and a ladder, and nothing else but a chain saw. The big and buggy maple out front when cut, and fallen had gone all the way across the street and slammed into the guard rail. We had traffic blocked for about 15 minutes for them to clear way the mess. All it took was a 2 day visit at about 6 hours a day total. They will soon be back to get rid of some birch and more, as one had fallen right outside my kitchen window and I woke to find it in my walk way. Luckily nothing planted there was damaged. But if it were to happen now, we can say its a $3000 damage I don't wish to pay for. My poor little old New Zealand made alumminium famed glass greehouse is only 6x8. Its now got dead birch tree limbs just waiting for more snow load to come. Wish you luck. BTW, most of my garden is sunny until about 3-4 PM. after that and before 9 am its shady. But I still manage. The oaks further back are at least 75 foot tall, and the trunks are well over 2-3 feet around. My poor blueberries lean to the eastern sky all the time and there are no real branches on the west sides of the rows over the big oaks. Mighty they are, but can be cut down if very necessary. Next door quickly realized that if I have damages from his trees, he will be getting many expensive bills to pay!

Does anyone know what year the miro-matic m-526 was made or what year you purchased yours? The reason I am asking is my
mother -in-law was killed when her cooker exploded and blew the top off striking her in the chest. If anyone has info please e-mail me jago111@yahoo.com

daddygo: They have safety features now. Before they blow, the weight would blow off and the rubber safely plug would fly out releasing the pressure.

Hello. My MIL gave me a 16 qt mirro matic pressure canner. We are gardening this year and I want to attempt to can....however, I've never done this before. I've been reading and researching. I've used an electric pressure cooker to cook with so I am familiar some...Also...how do you test a pressure canner...she hasn't use this canner is years. I appreciate any comments/suggestions.