Seeds of Inspiration Blogs

Follow along to learn about healthy lifestyle tips and tricks, alongside delicious veggie-filled recipes, and educational greenhouse-grow facts. We’re here to inspire and help you get the most out of your Red Sun Farms purchase.


Canning and Saucing

Canning and Saucing

As the weather cools, and outdoor gardens finish producing the last of their bounty, we want to preserve their deliciousness. Now if you buy Red Sun Farms produce you know you can get the same flavor and quality all year long; but we also like to garden and thought you may like some of our canning, and saucing tips, tricks, and recipes.

It’s a bit ironic that canning isn’t actually done with cans, no it’s done with jars, but jarring doesn’t sound as pretty. So, before you start canning please remember that the jar you choose depends on two main things

1) What you are putting into the jar, and

2) How you are storing the jar – yes, some jars are freezer safe.

Surviorpedia has a great infographic to help you decide which size jar will best fit your needs. If making Chinese Mixed Pickled Vegetables you may opt for a regular 32 oz jar or a wide mouth 8oz jar for a smaller portion. Pickled Vegetables are a great way to can combinations that will infuse flavor into your dishes any time of the year.  These pickled vegetables include everything from cucumbers to peppers. It can also double as the perfect side dish, and only takes minutes to create.

Consider water bath canning when canning high acidic foods or pickling veggies like these Sweet Pickled Peppers from Eat Well. This refrigerator recipe uses sweet brine that mimics the flavor of hot peppers.  What a twist!  Keeping on the hot trend, what about trying your hand at making your own hot sauce?  One of our favorites is  Harissa, made with roasted red bell peppers, tomatoes, and loads of great spices. With its paste-like consistency, this recipe makes it great as a marinated and rub for grilled chicken; we like to use a small 4oz regular mouth jar when canning this showstopping sauce.

Canning and saucing doesn't always need to be done at the end of the season, it’s great for capturing a summer flavor in the dead of winter. Our pulled pork sliders are great for the summer months and have an incredible Tomato Chutney you can jar and save for later. Salsa is another recipe we cannot live without, if we run out we've been known to make a small batch in the winter – we add it to everything from our taco meat, to chili, stuffed peppers, eggs and more. We recommend our Roma tomatoes be used in this Salsa recipe. 

There are some summer cravings that occasionally pop up in the winter. We’re here to make sure that craving for sun dried tomatoes, from last summer, does not go unsatisfied; Sun-dried tomatoes are one of the best recipes, they not only pack in the flavor but they also can be made with every variety of tomato we grow!  Get creative with your favorites and include everything from a sweet cherry to our classic heritage collection.   Bake them in the oven or use the dehydrator for optimal flavor.

Homemade Ketchup with Fresh Tomatoes – yummm! When you’re a tomato coinsure, you can’t help but like ketchup! Making it yourself from your own harvest is an endeavor to be proud of. We’ve made a healthy batch of ketchup with this recipe from Live Simply to go with everything from fresh cut fries to our homemade burgers that we couldn’t wait to share it.  Our burgers would be missing something if they didn't have pickles so while we were at it we made sweet & spicy pickled cucumbers and  bread and butter pickles with our English cucumbers.

Do you consider yourself a canning officiant? Share yours with us at marketing@redsunfarms.com,  we can't wait to see what your fall canning favorites are.