Tator Diggin Day

Today we dug our last four rows of potatoes.  This year has been a great year for potatoes and I have cooked many in the last few weeks,  We have had mashed potatoes, potato salad, fried potatoes, home fries, and baked potatoes.  There is nothing tastier than a fresh dug potato.  To preserve some of this flavor and bounty I am canning what we dig today.  This is what we have learned from my mom and sister on canning potatoes

First thing is to use the sprayer attached to the water hose to remove the skins.  After R dug all of the potatoes he used the pressure washer to peel them. 

 

Since the skins are very tender when they are first removed from the dirt the skins come off very easily.  As soon as the potatoes are peeled we put them in a pan of water with a small amount of lemon juice to prevent the potatoes from turning brown while we are working.

 

 

Next we cut the potatoes into cubes and packed them in a sterilized quart jar with a teaspoon of canning salt and hot water.  After leaving one inch of air space at the top of the jar, making sure there were no air pockets in the jar, and placing the seal and ring on each jar, we placed them in the pressure canner.  In the canner we had put about 3 inches of hot water.

 

Once the pressure started to build and the steam was coming out of the vent we waited for ten minutes before putting the weight on the canner to build the pressure.  Then we let the pressure build to ten pounds (the pressure recommended for our area)  and set the timer for 40 minutes.  It is very important that the pressure stays at ten pounds for the entire 40 minutes.

 

After the time was up and the pressure had returned to zero we opened the canner and removed the jars.  The jars need to sit overnight and cool before storing the potatoes. 

 

 

Today we canned 35 quarts of potatoes.  With these canned potatoes we can make potato salad, boiled potatoes with butter, mashed potatoes, they can be sauteed with onions and peppers, and used in soups and stews.  Not only are canned potatoes convenient but they are delicious too.