Carrots

So I personally can not stand canned carrots.  Its the sweet with the mushy I can't do... 

But the other members of the family like canned carrots, so since we planted some this year, I decided to can them. 

I first sent up my jars in sections of one pressure canner load.

Try to use a fresh of carrots as you can.  I pulled some up from the Garden, but you can also buy some from your local farmers market, or the store if you can't get to your farmers market.

I trimmed the tops off to make them easier to work with.  Grab your handy dandy Veggie Scrubber and get to work! 

You can see that they look kind of dry and dirty, the brush helps to get the little spots of dirt out.

You can see in this picture where I have and have not scrubbed.  This gives you some kind of idea of what they should look like.

This is a fully scrubbed carrot.

Cut off the tops and a little of the bottom.

I place mine in a colander to rinse off one more time.  Remember your carrots came out of the ground, it doesn't hurt to add an extra rinse.

I just give them a good cold rinse.  Make sure to check each carrot one more time to make sure you got all of the dirt and grim off.  If you don't, you might have gritty canned carrots.

So, as you can see, it's a Boy! lol  When I was digging up my carrots I came across this little guy.  Those with a sense of humor will appreciate this.  lol

Once you've rinse them all again you'll want to chop them up.  Well how big you ask??

This big.  I placed a quarter next to it so you can see the size.

You can leave your carrots in bigger pieces, or make them more into medallions.   The cooking time is the same either way.  I did this size, because its a good eating size.

Add your carrots to hot sterilized jars.

Add 3 quarts of water to your pressure canner, along with 2 T of vinegar if you have hard water.

For each Quart jar you'll want to add 1 t of canning salt.  YES THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!  Table salts have a filler in them which make your water cloudy when canning.

and 1/2 t of canning salt for Pints.

I ended up with 5 pints, and 1 quart jar.

Prepare your lids by pouring boiling water over your 2 piece lids.

Pour boiling water into each jar leaving 1 inch of head space. 

I run a knife along the edge of the jar, to get out any extra air bubbles.  If you need to you can also add some more boiling water to make up for the air lost.  Just make sure you leave 1 inch of head space.

Wipe the rims, then put the 2 piece lid on and screw on until finger tight.

This is what they look like before you can them, I've noticed with carrots that there isn't as much shrinkage as with other veggies like green beans.  For the most part, they will stay the same size once they come out of the pressure canner.

Put them in your pressure canner.

Put the lid on, and turn your burner on high.

Once steam starts coming out of the top, and the safety pops up...

Put your weight on (10 pounds of pressure).  Once your weight starts to rock back and fourth gently you'll want to set your timer for 25 minutes for Pints, and 30 minutes for Quarts.

When they come out this is what they'll look like. 

Enjoy!!!