Pickled Golden Beets

I absolutely love beets, especially pickled ones.  I have been canning beets for a few years, but I always use the regular purple ones.  This year I thought I would change it up and make some golden beets too, just for something a little different.  I only bought a small bag from St. Jacobs Farmers Market, just enough to make 3 jars.  I will keep two of them and give one away to someone special:)  I also bought a big bag of purple beets, which I still have to get around to pickling.  I think I will also try to make a borscht with some of them.
Making pickled beets is really easy.  The only time-consuming part is waiting for the beets to cook and waiting for the pot of water for processing the jars in to boil.  I was overwhelmed by canning when I first started to do it, mostly because every recipe I looked at had an insane amount of information in it.  But as long as you use the same ratio of ingredients in the recipe, use hot, sterilized jars and lids, and process the filled jars for the specified amount of time, it really is simple.  This recipe is enough to make 3 half-pint jars of beets.  For more canning information see the other recipes I have written on canning here. 



3 jars of golden pickled beets and 6 jars of purple pickled beets

Pickled Beets

5 cups of prepared beets*
3 cups vinegar
1 1/4 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tbsp pickling spice

3 half-pint jars
3 rings for lids
3 lids (must be new!)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil to sterilize the jars and rings in.  Place lids in a small bowl and cover with hot water to soften rubber seal.
Meanwhile, bring vinegar, water, sugar, and pickling spice to a boil in a large pot.  Let boil for 15 minutes.  Add the prepared beets and return to a boil.
Remove sterilized jars from boiling water bath.  Fill each jar tightly with beets and top off with the liquid, leaving 1/4" space at the top.  Slide a butter knife around the inside of the jar to remove air bubbles. 
Wipe rims clean with a damp paper towel.  Place lids and rings on the jars, do not over-tighten.  Place the filled jars back into the boiling water bath and process for 30 minutes. (The jars must be upright and completely covered with the water.)
Remove and place on a clean tea towel, do not move for 24 hours.  Listen for the sound of the lids sealing...best sound in the world.  Store the beets in a cool place for at least 8 weeks before opening.

*Scrub the beets well and then place in a pot and cover with water.  Boil for 30-40 minutes, until cooked through.  Run under cold water.  Skins will easily come off by rubbing them.  Slice or cube the beets into desired size.

Pickles and Pears and Beets, Oh My!

I did a lot of canning last week.  A lot.  Right now in my pantry I have 19 half quart jars of bread and butter pickles, 6 quart jars of dill pickles,  2 quart and 2 half quart jars of pickled beets, 7 half quart jars of pears, and 4 quarter quart jars of pear butter.  I could write a Christmas song about them.  It was definitely a lot of work, especially the bread and butter pickles, but looking at those jars gives me such a sense of achievement.  I have already shared the recipe I used for the pears so I thought next I would share how I made my bread and butter pickles.
I went to St. Jacob's Market to buy my pickling cukes and beets.  I bought 21 pounds of cucumbers for $16.  It didn't seem like such a large basket until I got home and tried to fit them in my fridge!  I used 16 pounds of them to make the bread and butter pickles.  Slicing 16 pounds of cucumbers takes a while, I tried to use the slicing adapter thing on my food processor, but it sliced them too thin.  I like my bread and butter pickles to be about 1/4 inch thick.  I also had to chop 4 pounds of onions, but for that I definitely used the food processor.  They still made me cry though!  I had to divide up the pickles, onions, and salt between two bins because I knew I could never fit them all into one pot.  That's one of the reasons it was so much work, because after getting my first batch jarred and starting to process I had to start all over with the next batch.  I'm going to give the recipe for the amount that I made, but it's easy to change it for the amount you want to make.

16 pounds of pickling cucumbers (42 cups sliced)
4 pounds onions (6 cups diced)
1 1/3 cups pickling salt
9 cups vinegar
6 cups sugar
6 tbsp mustard seed
6 tsp ground turmeric
3 tsp ground cloves
ice cubes

Mix the cucumber slices, onion, and salt in a large container.  Cover with ice cubes and place in fridge for 1 1/2 to 3 hours. 
Remove from fridge and rinse in cold water, drain well.
Bring remaining ingredients to a boil, add cucumbers and onions and return to a boil. 
Pack prepared* jars with pickle mixture, leaving 1/2" space at the top.  Wipe rims clean and then place the lids and rings on the jars, be careful not to over tighten the ring. 
Place the jars in a hot water bath, making sure the water covers each jar.  Boil the jars for 10 minutes.  Remove from water and place on a clean tea towel and do not move for 24 hours.  Make sure each lid has sealed, you will hear a popping noise when it seals and the lid will curve inwards.
Store in a cool place for 6 weeks before opening.
*Prepare the jars and rings by boiling them in water for 10 minutes.  The jars still need to be hot when you add pickles to them.  Add hot water to a bowl with the lids in it to soften the seals.

Half of the cucumbers are sliced!

All of the sliced cukes, ready for the salt and onions!

Cooking the cukes in the vinegar mix...first batch.

The finished product!  Yummmmmm!

The Bounty!  Can't wait to start eating it!

Millions of Pears, Pears for Me!

I have been getting busy with pears lately.  Delicious little pears from my pear tree!  Last year all of my pears went to waste.  I didn't realize how quickly they would ripen and so they all ended up falling off my tree into a mushy pile... which the wasps loved!  This year I was ready for them though!  Once I saw one turning yellow I knew they all must be close to being ripe so I picked them all off the tree to let them ripen inside, like you're supposed to.  As they ripened I put them in the fridge so they didn't get too ripe, and after a couple of days they were all ready for canning! 
I have been slowly getting into canning things.  Two years ago I made dill pickles and bread and butter pickles, and then last year I made pickled beets.  It's a lot of work, and takes some time, especially when you don't know what you're doing.  But once you get the basics down it gets much easier.  The most time-consuming part is prepping the vegetable.  In this case, peeling pears.  I peeled pears for over an hour one day and another 45 minutes the next.  My hand was so cramped up!  But even with all the work, it is such a satisfying thing to do.  And the canned food lasts for a year, so you get to enjoy your hard work for so long.  Home canned food also makes for beautiful gifts, some people are amazed at the fact that "you made pickles?!!", people definately appreciate the hard work!
So with all the pears I picked this year I was able to make 7 half-quart jars of sliced pears and 4 quarter-quart jars of pear butter.  These are most of the pears that I picked...

To can your own pears all you need for special equipment are some jars with rings and new lids.  (You need to have unused lids so that the wax seal will still work.)  There are special pots you can buy for processing the jars in, I bought one this year at Canadian Tire for $15.00, but all you really need is a tall pot that your jars can sit in and be completely covered with water.  And this is how you can pears:

1. Peel, core, and quarter pears.  Keep them in a bowl with water and lemon juice to keep them from turning brown while you keep peeling.
2. Make a syrup to cook your pears in.  I like a light syrup, which is 1 cup of sugar per 3 cups of water.  Make however much syrup you think you will need for the amount of pears that you have.  Slowly cook the water and sugar on a low setting until the sugar dissolves, and then bring it to a boil.
3.  Add the pears to the boiling syrup and leave them in it until it comes to a boil again.
4.  Use a slotted spoon to fill hot, sterilized jars* with the pears.  Use a ladle to cover the pears with the syrup, leaving a 1/2" of space at the top of the jar.  Take a butter knife and stir the pears a bit to make sure there are no air bubbles.
5.  Take a clean, damp cloth and wipe the rim of each jar, and then place a hot, sterilized lid* on each jar, followed by the ring which you don't need to over tighten.  Twist it on until it just tightens.
6.  Process your jars by placing them upright into a large pot of boiling water, the jars should be completely covered.  Let the jars boil for 20 minutes, more if you are at a high altitude. (If you don't have a canning pot with a rack then you can place a tea towel at the bottom of the pot so that the jars don't bounce around too much.)
7.  Remove the jars and let cool for 24 hours without moving.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with a clean tea towel.  Then store them in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
*To sterilize the jars I put them and the rings in the pot I will also be processing them in and then cover them with water and bring to a boil.  I put the lids in a small bowl and cover them with boiling water.  When I am ready to use the jars I lift them out with tongs (use a jar lifter if you have one!), but leave the water in the pot so that it is already boiling when it comes time to do the processing.

This is how I set everything up to get ready for canning:

These are the pears being processed:

And the final product!: