Staged

Time to clean out the fridge.... Again....

When I'm working on canning up a large amount of product; I like to fill the jars, wipe the rims and place them in the fridge so they are ready to go when the canners are available. Sometimes it can take me a few days to get all the batches processed just due to time constraints and interruptions. Very often I prep product one day and can it the next day. I have 2 refrigerators, one in the kitchen and one in the back room. It's a handy thing to have one available to stage filled jars in while the other is keeping everything else chilled.

I advise going ahead and wiping the rims BEFORE you place the jars into the fridge. That way all you have to do is lid up and start the canners. You can start the processing with cold, straight from the fridge jars, cold water in the canner and keep the heat of the burner on medium or lower until you can feel the canner has heated through. (When the outside of the canner is too hot to keep your hand on it.) Then increase the heat to get a boil and build pressure if you're pressure canning.

Sometimes I don't have enough jars clean and need to run batches through dishwashers or soak scuzzy ones. I will put the product into dishpans and cover them with plastic wrap to hold in the fridge until the food can be processed. (I ordered these dishpans** for a second time. I have some older white ones that keep staining. These sure don't.)

Having a bad back, being able to stage product and/or jars ready to go is a huge timesaver for me. I can do the big task of "canning" but I've broken up the steps so my body doesn't wear out and I'm far less irritable. (Remember the bitch wrinkle...)

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