Q and A: canning pumpkin and canning cheese

Canning pumpkin

My question is about canning pumpkin. I know we are supposed to cube the pumpkin. When filling up the jars with the pumpkin can I add the spices that I would normally use to make pumpkin butter or pumpkin pie? Then when I open the jars I could blend the mixture, and be a little ahead of the game.

Joyce
Coos Bay, Oregon

I tried that, Joyce, but found sometimes the spices got too strong that way. It takes me 2 minutes to measure and dump spices into pie filling so it really didn’t save me that much fussing around and I always get the spices right by adding them later after opening a jar of pumpkin. — Jackie

Canning cheese

When you can your cheddar cheese, how do you get it out of the jar? Cut in half, spoon it out or what?

Kaye Winn

I put the jar into a saucepan full of boiling water for a few minutes. Then I open the jar and run a thin knife around the outside of the cheese and dump the jar upside down on a plate or cutting board. It usually slides right out, like Jello does. — Jackie

Can the French Chevre cheese you made be preserved somehow?

Wanda Devers

Well, I would think so as cream cheese can be successfully canned. But we all ate it on crackers on Easter. Then my son, Bill, asked for some hot pepper rings and tried them on the cheese on his cracker. Oh YES! So we started eating it that way. I’ve got about a pound of plain cheese left in the fridge and it keeps for at least a week, covered in the fridge. I’m going to use it in a cheesecake and I’m sure we’ll finish up the rest with hot pepper rings on crackers for snacks. What a wonderful find! — Jackie