We planted several varieties of organic carrot varieties this year including: Imperator, Scarlet Nantes and Danvers half long. These carrots are sweet and crunchy and will stay in the ground until just before it freezes. We keep a lot of carrots in cold storage for fresh eating but the convenience of having home canned carrots on the shelf is impossible to pass up. Canning carrots is easy and well worth the effort. These jars will provide you with convenient and quick meal options.
Pressure Canning & Raw Packed Carrots
To preserve as much of that perfect carrot crunch as possible this recipe uses raw packed method which maintains the perfect texture, freshness and crunch in your preserves. Raw packing means that you are are not pre-cooking the carrots. The less heat that your preserves are exposed to the more nutrients and colour are maintained. In the case of low acid food, you will need to use a pressure canner to process the jars.
Garden Harvesting Tip
If you are harvesting your carrots from your own garden, it is best to do this in the early morning or late evening when the sun is not too hot. For maximum quality and freshness don’t let your harvest sit around too long before you start preserving. If it does need to wait store your beets in a cool dark place.
Follow directions carefully and read up on food safety if you are new to canning.
If you like this recipe you might also enjoy Home Canning: Fresh Beets Packed in Water Recipe and Pickled Carrots with Ginger & Dill Recipe.
Scrub your carrots and wash off all dirt. Trim the tops and bottoms and peel the skin off with a sharp knife or potato peeler. Slice the carrots to your preferred thickness, try to be consistent. Boil your kettle or pot of purified water. Sterilize your jars. Get your pressure canner ready. Place your sterile jars in pot with hot water to keep them warm. You can also keep them hot in your oven. Set aside a bowl with the lids and rings and fill with boiling water. Fill each jar with carrots and pour in your distilled hot water leaving 1" head space. You can also add 1tsp salt (we don't). Remove air pockets by gently running a knife or a chopstick around the inside of the jar. You might need to top up the brine a little bit once you have removed all air pockets. Wipe the jars and rims and put the lid and tighten the rings. Set them in your canner. Refer to your product manual for operational instructions on your pressure canner. For elevations under 1000 process your pint jars at 10 pounds pressure for 25 minutes (30 min. for quarts) when finished, let your pressure canner cool down fully. This takes about an hour. Do not try to open the canner early. Once Ready using a jar lifter carefully lift the jars and place them on a cutting board or towel. Once the jars have cooled for 24 hours, check their seal. You should hear the occasional pinging sound as they are cooling that gives you an auditory confirmation that your jars have sealed. If you look at the lid of the jar, you should notice that there is a small bump in the lids. This bump depresses as the jars seal "sucking it down". All of the lids should be sucked down. If you press on the center of the lid and that bump pops up, they are not sealed properly. If you should have an issue with a jar not sealing, refrigerate it and eat within a few weeks. Remove the metal rings and wipe the lids and jars with a damp clean cloth. Store the jars without the rings in a cool dark place. Tip: Bring your canner to temperature slowly. Don't make big adjustments to the temperature. Slow and gradual. If the dial exceeds 11lb pressure, gradually reduce the burner to lower the pressure. Be patient and let the pressure canner cool before opening the lid. Rapid changes in pressure can push the liquid out of the jars. A little bit of liquid loss is fine but half or more and you should refrigerate and eat within a week.
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Ar these veggies, such as carrots, cooked and very soft, like canned carrots bought at the store, or are they eldenty, like frozen carrots? The reason I have always just blanched my veggies and quick frozen them is that I hate canned veggies, because to my taste, they are over cooked. Hubby always ate canned veggies, because that is the way his mother and Ex wife always served them, so he got used to them. When we got married 1n 1997, he was surprised to find out that veggies did not have to be muchy and tasted better not overcooked. Can I home can veggies that are not cooked to the typical very soft state, for long term use and how long will they last in jars on the pantry shelf?
If you are using a pressure canner, you can cold pack the carrots so they are not blanched/pre-cooked before they go into the canner. This reduces the amount of time they are exposed to heat. There is a slight firmness to these carrots but they are not like frozen carrots. The heat unfortunately does soften them a bit. I was sceptical about canned veggies at first but I think you’ll find them far more enjoyable than those bought in the store. If you have a pressure canner give it a shot and see what you think. You never know until you try. They say that around 18 months is the suggested best before date for the best quality.
I froze alot of my fresh carrots but my freezer is getting too full. Can I process them after they have been frozen?
Hi Shelly, I haven’t done this myself however there are articles out there that say home canning frozen carrots works fine, they need to be thawed/blanched exactly the same process as you would follow for fresh carrots.