Why I Can Fresh Vegetables From My Garden

It is a cold (-30C) winter night in the start of February. My wife looks at me and asks the same question she usually does just after we arrive home from work: What should we do for dinner? Both of us scroll through or minds thinking of what foods sound warm and wholesome, quick and easy, and above all delicious. The pantry door is flung open and a list of options starts to present itself. There is the usual staples of pasta or rice which are great options but today we want something that tastes fresh and is warm and hearty. The fridge offers some selections but salad and other fresh raw vegetables just felt to cold and uninviting this evening...... Well..... What's left that fits the mood?

Enter the fresh potatoes and green beans we harvested from our garden this fall.

Wait, wait, wait..... How can they be fresh if we have had them stored since the fall?!

Why we pressure canned them of course!!

All the effort of growing the potatoes and beans is about to pay off big time!

I quickly grab 2 pint jars of potatoes and 1 pint jar of green beans from the shelves. In my head I know we are going to make some garlic and cheese mashed potatoes with green beans and wild caught pink salmon. This meal plan sounds exactly what we were envisioning. The potatoes and beans that come out of these jars taste as fresh as the day we put them in there last fall. Consider it like a small... cylinder looking... glass time machine... with a re-usable pressure band.

Alright I know this will come together quick. About 15 minutes or so. Pressure canning requires heat, so the process cooks these vegetables about 75% leaving them to need only a short cooking time now.

First off lets get those jars open and strain out the liquids in a colander.

Perfect! Now lets get some more flavor into this meal. Who doesn't love garlic!! Right?

OK I didn't use the 4 heads of garlic but I had to get the bag open and break 4 cloves out instead. I mean we all love garlic but 4 heads into 2 pints of potatoes....That's just crazy talk!

If you love garlic you for sure love grass fed and hormone free butter!! So some of that should be involved for sure.

Next up, I start heating everything on the menu. So far about 5 minutes of prep has been invested into dinner.

I then go through ten long minutes of super difficult (actually really easy, kinda stir here and there, sip a beer) stove / clock watching and we arrive at complete potato tenderness. It is time for the immersion blender!! And yes that is another healthy knob of butter in there.... Please don't judge because it just makes it so much better!!! You will also need a good honest shot of salt with the butter or it is going to taste like butter with potatoes in it instead of vice versa.

PAUSE FOR THIS PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

If you do not have an immersion blender with the small paddle attachment you have no idea what silky smooth mashed potatoes are. Yes you can use a masher and a whisk but you will never achieve a consistency quite like what this blender does!!! NEVER! Even if you push it through a screen with a spatula! It still will not even touch this!

Carrying on. Here is a shot of light, fluffy, smooth, silky, and garden fresh mashed potatoes.

Sour cream would be pretty good to fold into these right about now... If Greek yogurt was never invinted!! Totally gonna get some creamy thickness into these potatoes.

Salmon is still just doing it's thing. Yes there was butter in the bottom of that pan too...

OK enough playing around here these potatoes need some cheese and i need to eat them because I am hungry..

The cheese gently disappears and becomes string cheesy bands in the potatoes.

I am not going to pretend that I am some expert at putting food on a plate for appearance sakes. Nor do I believe that is something I want to become, I think.. Well I am pretty sure.. So enjoy some pictures of how I almost litteraly "throw dinner together" at the end.

All in, through and through with a full clean up of the kitchen and pots / pans this is garden fresh mashed potatoes and green beans in 15 MINUTES!!!! Brining me back to the initial concept of why I dragged this post out for all of you. Canning your fresh vegetables in the fall means.... when it is well into the -30C area, in the start of February.. and you arrive home at the igloo from a long day of work.. being a long way off from the memories of summer and your beloved garden, you are always only small jar and short amount of time away.

THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE BEAUTY OF PRESSURE CANNING FOR YOURSELF!!!!

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