First Round Of Canning Of The Season – Asparagus

Hey everyone! How is everyone doing? Things are starting to pick up for us on our homestead and I am happy to say Spring canning has finally begun for us. There is not a lot we can put up this early, but the first thing for us is usually asparagus. Well, we have had a good year for asparagus and have been eating all we can. In spite of this, there was still enough for us to get a few cannings.

We like using the quart jars for almost everything, except for jams. So to start the whole process, the jars are thoroughly washed, the lids are sterilized in warm water, and the rings are also thoroughly cleaned. Alongside this, the pressure canner is prepped and filled with the desired amount of water.

Next, we focus on filling the jars. We like to cut the asparagus into smaller sections before tightly packing them in the jars. We leave about a 1 inch gap from the top of the jar and add one teaspoon of salt. Then after tightly packaging the jars, we put boiling hot water into the jars. It is important to note that you do this only if the jars are very warm, so that they do not crack. Also you have to poke around the jars to remove air bubbles that may be accumulating. Then we wipe the rim of the jar with a warm rag, so that the lids will seal properly on the jars and put on the lid and ring.

Then we place the jars into the pressure canner, put the lid on, and wait for the canner to produce a moderately steady stream of steam. Once you get this steady stream you let it do so for about 10 minutes and then place the weight over the hole and let it build up pressure. The ideal pressure for asparagus is between 10 or 11 pounds of pressure. So, it is important to constantly monitor your canner to keep it in this sweet spot by adjusting your burner’s temperatures. It will need to then stay like this for about 40 minutes for quart jars.

Once your pressure canner has been going for the allotted time, you take off the weight and let the pressure slowly decrease. When it gets down to 0 on the pressure gauge then it is safe to remove the lid and remove the jars. Here is the final product!

All in all, we only did about 21 quart jars of asparagus. It took some time, but we will be happy when winter comes. I would recommend that anyone who is serious about canning for them to get a Ball Canning Book. This little book tells you how to can, pickle, or make jam out of a lot of different things and is a great asset to have on the homestead. So now that this is done, we have to start looking to the next project. Delicious homemade strawberry jam.

Thanks for reading and stopping by!