Do not use that Ball book, there have been changes in policies about safety over the years, use something more up to date.. Ball is an excellent source, just get their latest book. I have a late edition Ball book, but mostly I use this site: https://nchfp.uga.edu, it is a trusted site and the national standard as far as safety goes, and has directions and plenty of recipes to get you started.

Go check out the Harvest forum right here , there are some amazing people with tons of experience: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/harvest.

Think about investing in a Presto 16 quart pressure canner, it is not too expensive and it is a good canner. Then you will be able to pressure can meats and soups and other recipes that require more than just a boiling water bath like your stock pot can provide. Canning is fun, I'm so excited for you!

Thanks Lucille. I would have gone to the harvest site but have problems getting to the garden side of Houzz these days. Thanks for the link!

If you do anything that only requires a water bath I couldn't recommend an aluminum steam canner strong enough. They were put on the no-no list years ago but the University of Wisconsin did a study on them and they are now officially OK to use. This has made such a difference and small batches are really easy to do.

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/safefood/2017/10/24/safe-preserving-using-a-steam-canner/?ss_redir=1

-- Hmm I just looked them up on Amazon and look to be sold out. I saw some for $80+ on ebay but I only paid $46 for my Victorio last December. I assume there has a been a popularity surge due to covid.

After reading some on the website Lucille provided, I may just freeze my extra vegetables.

Thrift stores are a great source for canners and jars, altho you can never predict just when they'll be in stock. Once our stores opened up again, anything related to "survival" has sold quickly. Often, within moments of it being put out on a shelf.

Kathsgrdn, I put almost all my stuff in the freezer instead of canning. There are a few things I like canned, figs preserves, bread and butter pickles, and different peppers. However, I do not like the new recipes. For example the fig preserves want you to put lemon in them and I don't like the taste change. We never put anything except figs and sugar in ours. What I do is make a small batch, put in the canning jars, hot, let cool on counter,and store in our garage frig. They, for me are good for a year.

We never canned soups or meats. The soups were always made when we wanted to eat them from fresh or frozen vegetables and fresh meat.

I think everyone has different needs. It certainly is helpful to me to can up turkeys at Thanksgiving when they are very cheap and have turkey and rich broth throughout the year. I have an assortment of meats and soups- beef, turkey,chicken, and they are wonderful for winter days and making pot pies and casseroles. I no longer do water bath canning, I used to make pickles though and they were wonderful. I pressure can veggies and tomatoes and everything else.

I like mine in the freezer (turkeys and broth). Also, the beef stuff. I have much, much, much, more freezer room than pantry and it is SO much easier.

Last time I read something about canning tomatoes the type that is now grown is not acid enough to be safely processed in a water bath unless you add acid. You can purchase citric acid for this purpose.

I went to the garden center and brought home the rest of their Red Duce tomatoes. I rinsed and placed in the freezer on a baking sheet. I found out what they were called because of a label that was on the box that I was allowed to take home. If you can find them they taste like I remember tomatoes tasting. They have a longer storage time than what I remember if I place them so that they are upside down.

Our daughter still uses the Ball book and we are just fine LOL Of course they do not last long with our family.

Maifleur, my favorite tomatoes are old heirloom type. The flavor is so much better to me. Unfortunately none of my old seed sprouted for me this year so I bought two hybrids from Tractor Supply after my originally bought ones froze in a late frost. I did buy an old heirloom cherry tomato seed I used to grow and the two plants are loaded with tomatoes. One was almost ripe so I picked it this afternoon, it wasn't quite ripe and pretty sour. It's a pale yellow, called Dr. Carolyn.

"Our daughter still uses the Ball book and we are just fine LOL Of course they do not last long with our family."

Are you saying the experts are wrong and your daughter knows better?

Our daughter still uses the Ball book

Ball is an excellent source of information. I would not use a 40 year old Ball book, because of changes over the years in safety information. I have a recent Ball book. When in doubt, go to the online site I linked first as it is updated as soon as new knowledge/policies come in, it is a trusted national source..

There are various home making sites that still have recipes and instructions for outdated procedure such as oven canning. If you can't find those instructions on the nchfp, don't use them. Merely because someone tried them and lived is not a guarantee of safety.

You'll want to update your Ball book, some changes have taken place in the last 40 years ;0) Lemon juice added to tomatoes, 10 minutes added to canning tuna....if you want to be current on guidelines, a new book - or you can always refer to the nchfp site Lucille linked for you.

If you plan on preserving things appropriate for boiling water bath not pressure canning, your stock pot will work fine. Do you have a canning rack or can you fashion one so jars are not sitting directly on the pan bottom?

Kathsgarden I am not certain that I would call Dr Carolyn an heirloom since it was named after Dr. Carolyn Male who lived from 1939 to 2019 and is considered an F2. But it does have an interesting back story. http://plantswithstories.com/tomatoes/dr-carolyn

That said it needs acid if you are planning on canning.

Go ahead and use your old Ball book- but I do strongly recommend you also double check the recipes against the current standards. And use the modern versions :)

I wasn't going to can a ton of stuff, my garden isn't that big. I think I'll just freeze it. Maifleur, that may be so, I haven't grown Dr. Carolyn tomatoes for a very long time and my memory probably isn't that great. ( :

Dallisannie, mostly tomatoes and not many as I don't have many tomato plants.

I just found your post, Kathleen. So many great replies. Thanks everyone. I don't have my canning book (Better Homes and Gardens) anymore, and regretted this. Now, I have those links, and will look or a canning book, if I get an overload of veggies and fruit after all.

I wanted to by a pressure canner, but found out, it is the new toilet paper, aka, none available.

However I found a water bath canner after several stores about a week ago. There were two on the shelf...

I canned beets. Pickled beets. For preserving them otherwise I found directions online to use a pressure cooker.

Guess, if I continue gardening, and maybe even on a bigger scale I will have to buy me a pressure canner again.

At any rate, I am glad you posted the question, and thus, I have those links.

Moni

Elmer..... what the heck are you talking about? Forget it, I do not need a response.