Canning Fresh Organic Carrots

Too many fresh carrots? What to do? During self isolation when ordering groceries online for the first time, I accidentally ordered too many organic carrots & decided as it is one of our most often eaten veggies to preserve a few pounds. The obvious choice for me was to can them in the high pressure canner which I use every year. It really was a good solution and here's the short story :

Raw packed carrots - a very easy way to preserve fresh produce

Ingredients:

6 lb fresh organic carrots (about 50 medium)
Juice from a fresh lemon (or two)
Salt as required - we use Redmonds Sea Salt
12 x pint canning jars, lids & screw tops (All clean & sterilized)

Directions:

Before starting have the water in the canner warmed & also an extra pot of water to fill the jars full of carrots
Wash and scrub the carrots in cold water (even if the carrots were already washed when purchased )
Slice the medium sized carrots into ¼" size
Re cutting: it really helps to have someone help you if possible - reduces time remarkably
Fill clean jars to within 1" of the top of the jar with the diced carrots. Shake down
Options: I like to add ½ Teaspoon salt and also ½ Teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
Fill the jars with hot water and seal with sterilized lids & screw tops
Gently add to canner & close lid securely
Follow instructions per your canner manual (eg 10 lb pressure for 25 minutes). Let cool on own accord.

Sweet and juicy carrots used for low fat curried carrot soup — Feature : Sweet juicy carrots used in a wide variety of cooking

Wide Variety of Ways to Use Carrots:

Carrots are one of those highly versatile vegetables that can be used for soups eg Creamy Curried Carrot Soup stews, sweet carrot juice, chilli, stir fries, frittata or just the way they are. They are also delicious mashed with a potato and slather in butter. Many choices here and sure you have your own.

If you are an experienced canner, this will not be new but I highly recommend this as a way of preserving fresh food, especially surplus garden produce, for when it is not available. Other vegetables you might consider canning are :

Tomato - Plus variations including delicious salsa
Beets - plain or pickled
Green beans, pumpkin

In Closing :

There are many other choices of veggies which are suitable to preserve in a high pressure cooker but carrots are one of our top veggies and very healthy. Highly recommend you home can your own produce even if you dont' have enough room in your garden to grow your own vegetables. Enjoy the fruits of your labours. ~ Cheers, Liz

High Pressure Canning : An easy, safe way to preserve extra fresh vegetables

Links & References:

Food preservation Without Sugar or Salt
Canning : extensive information on processing food
Lemon Juice - an overview
If you are interested in the History of Canning - here it is from the Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Postscript - Crunch the Numbers :

The 6 lb of medium sized carrots when cut came to 14 cups of diced carrots
The carrots filled 12 pint jars which had to be canned in two lots
Garden Tip: If you plan to can carrots from your garden, hope this may help you work out how many you need to grow for your own family needs
One 4' x 4' garden will plant 256 carrots yielding approximately 30 lb of carrots - great for canning. "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew , Rodale Press, 1981 (Pg 31)

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