Welcome to my canning cellar!

Some of these rutabagas were larger round than a big head of cabbage, and they weren’t easy to peel. My research told me to put them in boiling water to loosen up the skins, but I found the easier way for me was using my vegetable peeler. Not only did it work, it kept me from the extra step of waiting for the water to boil, parboiling for 5-10 minutes, and having to wait for them to cool to remove the skin.

So besides the peeler, I only needed a cutting board, a very sharp knife, a paring knife, a pot of clean boiling water, my stovetop pressure canner, a canning funnel, a debubbler, jars, rings and lids. I ended up with 16 pints from two large and two medium rutabagas.

These rutabagas were fresh out of the garden so I had to scrub them well, and because most of them were so big most of them also had bad spots above the root area. I cut all the bad part off, hung onto the tops, cut off the rutabagas in more manageable pieces, then peeled those pieces.

After rinsing the pieces, I used my paring knife to cut them into pieces no larger than 2 inches. I filled the jars using the funnel, added boiling water using a measure cup, debubbled, then filled with more pieces as needed to bring it all up to a one inch headspace. I also did something I don’t normally do, I added a tablespoon of sea salt to each pint per online guidance. The reason I used sea salt is because idodized salt is said to cloud the water. Not harmful as far as I know, just not as pretty. Then I wiped the rims off, added the lids and finger tightened the rings.

I had warmed up the jars in hot water before filling as I was adding boiling water. For my elevation of over 1000 feet above sea level, I processed the pints for 30 minutes. All my jars sealed and are in my canning cellar. While I haven’t opened a jar yet, my sister canned some and opened one of her jars and said it was not too strong, which some folks say could happen. I don’t mind a strong vegetable so I am sure it’ll be fine.

I wanted to find out the difference between rutabagas and turnips to see if I’ve been tossing around the wrong words all these years, and found that turnips taste like a cross between a cabbage and a radish, with a little zing tossed in. Rutabagas are milder and sweeter. Turnips are white inside and cook up almost translucent,  and rutabagas are yellow inside and cook up yellow.  Because they are both root vegetables, they can be interchanged in recipes. Turnips are normally harvested earlier than rutabagas so they are smaller.

I followed the procedure from Healthy Canning and I’ll put the link in the show description.

Thank you for visiting my canning cellar. If you listen on a platform on which you can leave a rating, I’d appreciate that. I know I’m not professional and it’s just me talking into a little stick microphone with my laptop, but it makes me happy to share what I’ve learned. Talk soon. Stay safe.

https://www.healthycanning.com/canning-rutabaga