Canning the Pumpkin Harvest

Pumpkins are so colorful in the garden peeking orange through the trailing green vines. My straw bale garden yielded five big pumpkins in the Fall. I decided to can the pumpkins and preserve them for future use. Never having canned pumpkins before, I got out the trusty Ball Blue Book: Home Canning and Freezing Recipes and Methods. My mother-in-law loaned this to me years ago. I still have it and use it for putting food by.

Canning pumpkins is a simple three step process. First, cook the pumpkin. Second, scoop the cooked pumpkin from its shell and pack cooked pumpkin into clean, sterilized canning jars adding 1 teaspoon of salt to each quart of pumpkin. Finally, process the canned pumpkin in a pressure cooker at 10 pounds of pressure. Pints are processed for 60 minutes and quarts for 80 minutes in order to insure that no bacteria can invade the contents.
The first step was cooking the pumpkin.

With my bounteous supply I found that my inherited Westinghouse roaster oven (again from my mother-in-law) could handle the bounteous pumpkins. The Oster Roaster Oven can accommodate at least one or two large pumpkins at a time. You could also bake the pumpkin in a conventional oven at 350 degrees until softened or use a vegetable steamer; however, for large quantities of pumpkin, I found the roaster oven ideal.

After cooking the pumpkin, scoop the flesh into a large bowl and fill the sterilized canning jars. I use my dishwasher to clean and sterilize my canning supplies. It’s simple to leave the clean jars in the dishwasher until time to fill them. Add one teaspoon of salt to each quart or ½ teaspoon of salt to each pint of pumpkin.

After you fill the jars, wipe the jar rim and threads and seal with a canning lid screwed down tightly. Place the sealed jars in a pressure cooker. Since pumpkins are a low acid food, a pressure cooker is the only kitchen utensil which supplies enough heat to destroy the spores of bacteria, which cause flat-sour, and some other types of spoilage.

To pressure can:

• Add 2-3 inches of water (or as recommended by manufacturer) to canner and space jars so they are not touching.
• Place canner over heat and lock lid according to manufacturer’s instructions.
• Leave the petcock (or vent) open until steam escapes for 10 minutes.
• Close petcock and bring pressure to 10 pounds and adjust heat to hold pressure at 10 pounds. Process pints 60 minutes or quarts 80 minutes.
• Remove canner from heat.
• Let pressure fall to zero. Wait 2 minutes, then slowly open petcock.
• Open canner. Remove jars.
• Do not tighten bands.
• Stand jars several inches apart and out of draft to cool for about 12 hours. Then remove bands.
• Test seal by pressing center of lid. If dome is down, the jar is sealed.
• Store in a dry, dark, reasonably cool place. Since I live in the Rocky Mountains, I adjust the steam pressure. The instructions listed above are for altitudes from sea level to 2000 feet. For altitudes 2000-3000 feet process at 11 ½ pounds pressure; 3000-4000 feet process at 12 pounds, 4000-5000 feet process at 12 ½ pounds; 5000-6000 feet process at 13 pounds pressure, 6000-7000 feet process at 13 ½ pounds pressure.
• Try out some of my pumpkin recipes in my blog article Capturing the Pumpkin Harvest: 10 Recipes to color your world delicious Enjoy your garden bounty all winter long. Home preserved foods remain safe for eating far longer than their first year, but their quality does decline the longer the jars remain on the shelf.

Get more recipes from my garden produce cookbook, Eat What You Grow

This is a great book for those with gardens or even those wanting to start a garden – or even people getting their produce from the grocery store! My kids love asparagus so the asparagus pasta salad will be the first recipe I make. Thanks!