Don’t let your extra peppers go to waste! Here’s a simple step-by-step guide on how to can peppers straight from your apartment or homestead.
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Step-By-Step Guide on How to Can Peppers Straight From Your Kitchen
What You'll Need:
- freshly picked peppers
- glass jars for canning
- pot for boiling water
- sharp knife
- chopping board
- tongs
- pressure canner
Step 1: Harvest the Peppers
The very first thing you need to do is to harvest the peppers. Go to your backyard and pick all the peppers that are ready to be eaten.
Most pepper plants are ready for harvesting within 70 to 150 days from planting. You’ll know they are ready for harvesting when they have achieved either a bright green or yellow color.
Important: Green peppers that have turned red are past their ideal harvesting time. This often indicates that they’ve lost their juicy, crunchy skin and have become soggy.
Step 2: Clean the Canning Jars
After harvesting the peppers, the next item on your to-do list is to clean the canning jars. This step is very important because a dirty, bacteria-infested jar won’t be able to preserve the freshness of any vegetable.
Throw the jars in the dishwasher and run them for one to two sanitizing cycles. Meanwhile, submerge your rings and lids in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes.
Once the dishwasher is done with the jars, submerge them in the bowl of boiling water as well. Leave for a few minutes then lay the jars, rings, and lids out on a clean towel.
RELATED: Best Vegetables For Canning
Step 3: Preparing the Peppers for Canning
Once the cans are clean and ready, it’s time to prep the peppers. First, place them in a clean strainer, place under running water, and wash them individually.
Next, swirl them around in a bowl of cold water. Doing so will allow all dirt and grime to really come off.
After cleaning the peppers, remove the seeds in each one and slice them into two-inch lengthwise cuts. Leaving the seeds in will make them tough.
By this stage, you should have a bowl full of small bell pepper slices. You’ll now have to form blisters on the skin.
Heat a medium-sized pan over high heat and place the peppers on it with the skin facing down. Continue for a couple of minutes then you’ll begin to see the pepper’s skin forming dark brown burns and blisters.
Remove the peppers from the heat, let cool, then peel off the skin.
Step 4: Stuff and Seal the Jars
Finally, it’s time to stuff and seal the jars. Stuff the clean, empty cans tightly with the sliced, peeled, and clean bell peppers. Leave only half an inch between the lid and top of the veggies.
Then, place the sealed jars in a pressure canner. It would take around 30 to 40 minutes to fully seal and can a single jar.
Pro Tip: To test if the process worked when canning peppers, open one jar from your sealed batch. If you hear a popping sound, then it worked. However, if the lid slides open easily, you might have to redo the canning process.
Check out this video JessieJames Homestead where they show how to can peppers grown from one's own garden:
Learning how to can peppers is a must for anyone who has a pepper garden. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed by the number of extra crops you have during harvest season. Most of the uneaten peppers will simply go to waste.
If you’re not into canning, you can try other preservation techniques such as freezing pepper slices or making pickled peppers. There’s no reason to limit yourself to just one method. Overall, the goal is to learn how to preserve peppers so they don't end up rotting on your shelves.
Do you have any more questions on how to can peppers? Post them in the comments section below!
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