More Potatoes Canned

Yesterday I had planned to get 15 pints of potatoes canned. I thought about it for a while – I can process about 19 pints at once in the big canner. Doing it upstairs means putting more heat in the house and our high today was over 90 degrees and it was humid as heck . . a little rain here and there. I could process them downstairs but I use upstairs filtered water for the whole process, even in the canner so I’d have to bring down lots of water, plus fill all the jars upstairs. Even though I have to do the same thing with the electric canner, I can carry the insert upstairs, put the water in it, put 5 filled pint jars in it and carry it down all at once. And, the electric canner is pretty much “set it and forget it” so my plan was to run three loads of 5 jars each through the electric canner. It takes about two hours per load: the water/jars have to get to the point of boiling with the steam coming out of the vent hole for 10 minutes. That takes about half an hour, then flip the pressure valve to “locked” and run the canner for 30 minutes, then let it sit for an hour before removing the jars.

I had peeled a lot of potatoes – probably enough for 10 jars, and was loading the first five jars with potatoes. The doorbell rang and it was Fed Ex with my second electric canner. I’ve been so busy, I hadn’t even been tracking that package so it was a surprise that it arrived yesterday. That really helped speed things up. Two loads in two canners – 20 pints instead of 15 pints in half the time.

By the time I got the second batch started, Vince wanted to go to Best Buy and I was completely comfortable leaving the electric canners going while we were gone. By the time we got home, they were done, ready to unload and I had the rest of the evening to stitch.

Today, I’ll try to get 20 more pints done. I’m at the point where I’m tired of canning potatoes but it will be nice in the winter and early spring to be able to open a jar and have potatoes ready to heat and eat.