Pepperoncinis

Pepperoncinis are one of the easiest canning things out there. Although I'm new to canning I had good luck making these compared to strawberry jam.

The first step you need is a pepperocini plant. We don't usually shop at big chain stores for plants unless we know specifically how to maintain it. We were actually at the in-laws while looking for something to do in town for awhile, we stopped by Eisley's Nursery in Auburn, CA. It was so neat to see absolutely every plant I could think of. Not everything grows there in Auburn, but Eisley's even carried a banana tree. I want a banana tree so bad! One less fresh thing to buy that I could grow...


Looking through their vegetables, I noticed a pepperocini plant. "How cool is that?" I love pepperocinis so
course I grabbed one of their 6 pack plants among a few other plants. Moving them to Bakersfield in their original container, they have thrived in the blazing sun. Out of six plants, two survived. Those two plants have produced so many pepperocinis that I had to start canning them before anything else was ready in the garden.

I won't go into detail about how canning works, but I'll give you a few links here in the text. Mom suggested I get the book "Putting Food By: Fifth Edition by Ruth Hertzberg, Janet Greene and Beatrice Vaughan. I also went ahead and scoured the internet and broke down and bought the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving by Altrista Consumr Products". These two books are lifesavers. They have every recipe you'll ever need for canning and preserving. Now only if I could get the rest of the garden to produce this well.

For the pepperocinis, all I had to do was make a hole in the peppers, stuff the peppers in a sanitized ball jar, boil some super easy syrup, pour over peppers, and seal. Done. How easy! I recommend having the kids wash their hands and stuff as many peppers into the jar.

I guess I'll put the recipe on here. This is the recipe for any hot pepper as well.
Putting Food By, pg 334

One overflowing bowl-ful is about 4 quarts

4 qts peppers (these peppers grow like hot cakes in the hot weather)
4 C distilled white vinegar
4 C water
4 t salt, preferably pickling (I used table salt)
Olive oil (optional) I didn't use

Take out seeds and remove stems if you want to.
Make slits in peppers if whole.
Place and stuff peppers in jars.
Boil vinegar and water- not for too long though. Vinegar dissipates if boiled too long.
Pour boiling liquid into jars.
If adding oil, leave 3/4" headspace.
Add salt to taste.
Close lids properly and boil water bath for 15 minutes.

Extremely easy! Now if it weren't so hot in here...

Make sure you stuff them in- I just set them in there