How to Can Peas

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Another vegetable that has been running amok in my garden this year (thankfully!) is our shell peas.

Normally, we barely have enough to make it into the house, after the kids and hubby have had their “harvest snack”. And, that’s with 200 plants! True story! Aren’t the blossoms beautiful, though? They are some of my favorite blossoms in the garden!

Now, it’s true that most people freeze peas for a “fresher” taste.

And, if I had freezer space, I would do that as well. But, since I don’t have the freezer space any longer, and we are trying to get away from using electricity as much as possible, I have resorted to canning them. Shelling them takes about forever and a day, but I have a really awesome friend who helped me shell a bushel of peas the other night while the kids were at TaeKwonDo class. This bushel of peas took us 2 1/2 hours to shell and produced about 9 pints of peas. Yeah, it wasn’t a lot…

So, here’s how to can peas for yourself.

Shell your peas by sliding your finger right on the “seam” of the pod and remove the tender peas. Compost the shells, and rinse the peas.

To raw pack the peas, simply place the raw peas in a hot, clean jar.

Add boiling water on top, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Wipe the rim with a clean towel, add the hot lid and band, screwed on finger tight, and process in a pressure canner at 10lbs pressureand process in pressure canner at 10lbs pressure for 40 minutes for both pints and quarts. Again, you don’t want to water bath low acid veggies like peas, because it doesn’t get hot enough long enough to kill any botulism spores. I know Grandma did, but she didn’t have all the issues with toxins that we do today. Please just be on the safe side. For me?