I'll be honest, we grow our own green beans and carrots and they hardly ever make it into the canner because we love them fresh!! If we want to can them to have an extended supply, I look to my fellow Farmers! There's also nothing wrong with keeping an eye out for great produce that comes into stores. You want to can what you enjoy eating - I prefer to taste the produce first before investing time and materials in canning anything up for my pantry. If you can tasteless carrots, they will always be tasteless carrots. Just like making jam, you cannot take a sour or bitter fruit and expect a miracle of sweetness in the end product. I prefer to pressure can three vegetables every year: Jade Green Beans, Sweet Carrots and Olathe Sweet Corn. Corn has its own blog post here for those interested in canning corn too. NCHFP Green Beans Process NCHFP Carrot Process
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Cream of Chicken & Rice Soup Ingredients: 6 tbs butter 6 tbs all purpose flour 6 cups of milk 2 boneless, skinless cooked chicken breasts *or 1 pint pressure canned chicken 1 cup cooked rice *wild rice or brown rice works if you are going to freeze 1 jar of carrots, sliced 1 large onion, chopped seasonings to taste: salt & pepper 2 Tbs sweet basil 2 Tbs chives 1 Tbs parsley *hot sauce, optional *1-2 Tbs Better then Bullion Chicken paste, optional Instructions: Start by making a roux in a large stock pot. Melt butter over medium heat. Once melted, add chopped onions and cook until translucent (approx 10 mins) Add flour and stir vigorously using a whisk. Cook the flour/onion mixture for about 1 minute. Slowly begin to add your milk *warm in bowl in microwave to get the chill off milk, this will speed up incorporating it into soup. Whisk in milk, 2 cups at a time. Make sure you eliminate any lumps. Add your seasonings and taste as you go. Bring soup up to a boil, then reduce to low simmer (stirring constantly) Add carrots and chicken and cooked rice. Adjust any seasonings. Simmer on low until hot and ready, usually about 15 minutes. Enjoy! Note: *under-cook wild or brown rice slightly if you plan on freezing this soup. Recipe Adapted from: The Kneady Homesteader Photos by: Diane Baker for Canning and Cooking at Home |