Kara's Garden

Well, I finally decided to give this whole canning thing a try!

Down here in Zone 10b, where the summer is so hot you can fry an egg on your FACE, my poor little vegetable garden is starting to die off. Since I can't look forward to fresh jalapenos, I'm going to 'put them up' so we can use them for 'deer nuggets.' I'll post the recipe when the first deer is killed this fall!

So, I read online all about canning, and then I found the instructions right on the back of the Ball jar container. Duh. But, Ball does have a nice website that has some great recipes for pickles and things. Looks like I'll have more to do this fall when I start the next garden!

Basically (it seems), you make a recipe for canning, put it in the jar, cook the full jars according to that recipe, take them out and TA DA! Canned food! Obviously, that is the condensed version (get it? HA! Sorry, I couldn't help myself).

I went all over the web trying to find a recipe for putting up jalapenos, but to no avail. Finally I came across how to preserve peperonchinis, which seem sorta like jalapenos, so I used that recipe. It was really, really simple- 2 cups water, 2 cups vinegar, and a little salt. Cook that just below boiling point, then fill hot jars with fresh jalapenos (I sliced mine in half, or you can slit them so the liquid can get inside the pepper), pour the hot vinegar mixture over the top leaving about 1/4 inch from the top of the jar. Put the lids on, then boil the jars for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, let them stand overnight (at least) without touching them, since the heat can make the glass fragile. And there you go!

Now, my first batch came out RIDICULOUSLY hot. I mean, fall on the floor and roll around spicy. Even Carl couldn't eat them. So I packed them up and gave them to my dad as an early father's day gift (love ya, Dad!). So, if you don't want fire engine hot, REMOVE THE SEEDS before you put up hot peppers!