Garden Preservation Must Haves

I have been preserving produce from our gardens for the past couple of years and continue to seek out new ways to utilize our harvest into the winter months! So far in my preserving experience, I have come across some tools that have been extremely beneficial! I am not an affiliate (yet ;)) but wanted to share these with you!

Water Bath Canner

I love my water bath canner! Only certain things can be canned this way, with the most popular probably being jellies and jams. I have also used it for canning spaghetti sauce and salsa. While this type of canning can be done on the stove as well, our water bath canner plugs in and works similar to a crock pot. Put jars in, fill with water, preheat per directions, remove and fill/prep jars, add back into water back, turn to the canning setting for the recommended amount of time based on what you are preserving! I love this because once it is set to canning, I just set a timer and can leave it sit without having to watch it closely. It also can sit on any counter and doesn’t take up stove space, which is especially helpful when I’m making multiple things to preserve or dinner at the same time!

Dehydrator

I use our dehydrator to dry our herbs! It can also be used to make jerky or dry fruit to make snacks including fruit roll-up type treats. I haven’t tried that yet, but would really like to! I was working on drying some of our herbs, so I pulled out the information on our specific dehydrator and learned about so many more ways to use it! I’m pumped! I highly recommend getting one of these if you want to preserve any herbs or dry other veggies and fruits. It takes much less time that trying to dry them using other methods. For ours, we literally fill the trays with whatever we want to dry, stack, plug it in, and flip it on! So simple!

Vacuum Sealer

We use our food saving vacuum sealer all the time! We have used it to store dried herbs in the freezer or pantry, veggies, meats, etc. We seriously use it all the time! It protects food from freezer burn and keeps excess moisture from collecting on produce. For our veggies, like green beans and beets, we seal the amount that my husband and I would use for a single meal. That way, for meals, we just go grab a “packet” of veggies to heat up and we are good to go! If we have company we just grab a couple! Our veggies have lasted very well over the winter and the vacuum sealer has made preserving and meal prepping a breeze!

Pressure Cooker for Canning

SO MANY THINGS can be preserved this way! I was recently given my grandma’s pressure cookers and am excited to use them this year for preservation! In the past, I have done a lot of pressure cooker canning with her, so I will certainly have to have her come and help me! We have canned peaches, apple sauce, and pears. She has canned many more things, though so I still have a lot to learn from her! I have very limited experience with these, but it is a must for anyone looking to take canning to the next level!

Mason Jars

While I was taking the pictures to go with this post, I realized I needed to add mason jars to this list! You need mason jars and lids to can with the water bath or pressure cooker! These are awesome because the jars can be washed and used over and over! Lids can only be used for sealing purposes once!