{"id":2472,"date":"2012-08-11T03:00:15","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=2472"},"modified":"2012-08-11T03:00:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T07:00:15","slug":"q-and-a-vacuum-sealing-jars-refrigeration-and-using-over-ripe-cucumbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2012\/08\/11\/q-and-a-vacuum-sealing-jars-refrigeration-and-using-over-ripe-cucumbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Q and A: vacuum sealing jars, refrigeration, and using over-ripe cucumbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vacuum sealing jars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although I vacuum seal plastic bags, vacuum sealing canning jars is new to me. How do you do it? Can tomatoes, beans, onion, and zucchini also be dried and vacuum sealed? Is it better to seal in a plastic bag or in a canning jar?<\/em><\/p>\n

Sharon May<\/em>
\nCarlsbad, California<\/em><\/p>\n

While vacuum sealing in plastic bags and jars may help keep food fresher, longer, I’ve never really bothered. I’ve done it, but don’t feel the result is worth the extra cost and work involved. All of my dry foods are kept in airtight jars, tins, and plastic pails and I’ve never had food spoil. Or had food taste less than good. (I’ve got 25-year-old dehydrated apple slices that look and taste like I did them yesterday!) I know “oven canning” to seal canning jars full of dry foods is popular now but I store hundreds of pounds of food and really NEED my canning jars for canning. There are online videos of using a vacuum sealer for sealing canning jars if you’d like to watch the process. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Refrigeration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up we had a small frig and did not refrigerate ketchup and pickles, peanut butter, jellies and jams. Someone recently commented about the opened jar of peanut butter in my cabinet. Am I asking for trouble not refrigerating this items? What about seeds like mustard, celery, sesame, and poppyseed? Do they need refrigeration?<\/em><\/p>\n

Jean from Michigan<\/em><\/p>\n

Folks today over-refrigerate! If you had no refrigerator or a very small one like ours, you’d quickly see you need it for a lot less than is commonly “advised” today. Grandma and Mom (and me too) never saw the need to refrigerate these foods. Sesame and poppy seeds don’t really need refrigeration but they’ll stay fresher, longer, with it. Mine sits on the shelf in small packages. I buy in bulk and can up the rest in half-pint jars using the method used to can nutmeats. (check out my canning book!). — Jackie<\/p>\n

Using over-ripe cucumbers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our neighbor just brought over about 60 pounds of very large Armenian cucumbers that got away from him in his garden. He still has more to give if I want them, including some smaller slicing ones. It seems like a shame to waste these gigantic cukes, but I’m sure they’re not that good for eating as cukes any more. Other than grinding for sweet relish, do you have any suggestions on how we might preserve these? I think they would probably make good bread and butter pickles if they were sliced small enough. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Some might end up as chicken food anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dallen Timothy<\/em>
\nGilbert, Arizona<\/em><\/p>\n

I make both sweet and dill relish from my oversized cukes. I also make sweet chunks out of them after removing the seed cavity as the seeds are oversized by then and tough. You can make any pickle recipe with them after removing the seeds. If the skin is getting bitter or tough, peel them first. It’s amazing how fast they get oversized; from two inches long to two feet in two days it seems. — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacuum sealing jars Although I vacuum seal plastic bags, vacuum sealing canning jars is new to me. How do you do it? Can tomatoes, beans, onion, and zucchini also be dried and vacuum sealed? Is it better to seal in a plastic bag or in a canning jar? Sharon May Carlsbad, California While vacuum sealing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}