Canning Supplies We Use

Yes friends! It's that time of year again. Time to start thinking about gardens, what we want to grow, harvest, eat and preserve for later consumption. I've had several questions about canning and wanted to talk about that a bit in this blog post though canning is a few more months off for most. It is possible to can year round if you like to buy produce in bulk so I'm going to touch on it now in case you are wanting to can year round.

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First, I'm required to tell you that some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you click on one of the links and purchase the item I may or may not receive compensation from your purchase at no additional cost to you. It all depends on how the affiliate gods feel that day.
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Ok, with that out of the way... here is our list:
1. Canning pots: There are two types of canning pots you will need depending on what you want to can. You will need a water bath canning pot for a large majority of your food items and a pressure canner for some of your foods. Foods that need to be pressure canned include foods such as red meats, seafood, poultry, and low acid vegetables like okra, carrots, green beans, asparagus, and spinach.  Many of your basics like fruits, fruit juices, jams, jellies and other fruit spreads, salsas, most tomatoes, pickles, relishes, chutneys, sauces, vinegars, and condiments can be done in a water bath.

2. Funnel: You may already have one of these, if not this are VERY helpful in helping ensure that you do not have a mess all over your jars and counter tops. You will want one that has a wide mouth especially if you are doing fruits, vegetables or jams.

3. Jar Lifter: Another essential tool is the jar lifter. When you have finished canning you will need this to lift the jars out of the pot. You can use something makeshift, but honestly, the jar lifter has created the least amount of drama for us when removing the jars from the pots.

4. Magnetic Lid Wand: This tool has a couple of different names, but they are pretty easy to find and another handy tool. When you are getting ready to put the lids on a jar to put in the canner you have to heat the wax seal on the lids. This means you have to put the lids in a pan of hot water.  You can use a fork to fish them out, but then you still have to touch the lid and it is hot. My husband can handle touching them, but I'm still soft. I cannot.

5. Tongs: Here is another item you may already have in your kitchen. This is needed for helping you move bigger foods into the canning jars. Honestly, we also use forks and large soup ladles as well. On that note, a soup ladle was not on my list, but it does come in handy when canning your jams and things like that.

6. Measuring Cups: Another item you may already have. There is not a need to buy a special set. I do recommend have some of your bigger glass measuring cups if you are making jams, but it is totally doable to make do with your basic measuring cups.

7. Labels: This item is not essential. You can just write on top of the lid what is in the jar. If you do not have the time or the drive to do this part it is absolutely not necessary. The type of label you use is up to you. You can by fancy ones that you put on the side of the jar or you can get the circle ones that you can put on the top of your lid. We choose to do the ones on top of a lid because the lid gets tossed. When we placed the labels on the side you have to do the work of peeling them off.

8. Immersion Blender: If you are planning on making jams this is a tool you may want if you do not already have one. We have used it in our jams to make it a little less lumpy. It will depend on if you like your jams clumpy with big chunks of fruit or if you like it smooth and easy to spread.

9. Jars & Lids: We prefer to use name brand and we will not buy our jars and lids from Amazon. We have tried a couple of times thinking we were purchasing name brand jars and lids, but when we received them they were cheap knock offs with official name brands logos printed on the packaging. Cheaper jars tend to be thinner and break easily and the cheaper lids have less wax on them. We like to play it safe and just use the best. We watch prices and stock in all the stores. (Target, Walmart, Meijer, Fleet Farm, Menards,Ace Hardware etc) If your local store does not have them I recommend going directly to the Ball website or the brand name you choose to use.

​Of course, you can buy a  starter set  and then add the things you find you need as you learn and grow. 

Starter Set

Those are the basic tools we recommend. I will be adding some more posts about canning and hopefully a few Youtube videos as the season moves along. Feel free to reach out via email or in the comments below with other quesstions you may have.