Potato Madness

It seems as though I was canning all weekend long... oh wait.. I was! Shaun and I with the help of his Mom dug our potatoes two weeks ago. We spread them out in the basement on a quilt to let them sit and dry out a little. I made sure to pick up as many potatoes as I could including the small ones. Shaun's Grandmother had told me that a friend of hers cans the smaller ones to use in soups, green beans, roast, etc. I got pretty excited about this.


I had Granny call her friend and get the steps for me and she did and here's how you do it.

• Wash quart jars to have them ready


• Boil lids


• Wash potatoes using a vegetable brush


• Pour 1 teaspoon canning salt into each jar


• Pack potatoes into jar keeping them just below the neck of the jar


• Fill each jar with water leaving 1/4 inch head space


• Place lids and bands on jars


• Put the jars in canner with water covering the tops of the jars


• Start this process with the temperature of the water in the jars the same as the water in the canner pot.


• Boil jars for 3 hours


• Allow jars to cool and store.

This is the first time ever that Shaun or myself has grown potatoes. The experience has been pretty neat. We dealt with potato bugs eating flowers and leaves the entire time despite putting pesticides on them quite a bit. We have eaten fried potatoes the past two nights with supper and they have been wonderful! You just can't beat that homegrown taste!

As for the canned potatoes, I plan on using them this winter in roasts and homemade vegetable soup and all sorts of other dishes! It seemed like it took forever washing these little guys and my fingers were just puckered! I wound up storing 20 quart jars. I had two break because of water temperature differences. One of them I was able to put in another jar quickly so I actually only lost one jar. I logged it all in my canning journal.