This post details my canning and food preservation progress in 2025, with recipes where I have them.

This year, I was in full nesting mode during canning season. Every year I think, “I’m not going to do too much canning because of x, y or z.” Then the spirits of my mother, grandmother, etc. overtake me completely, and I find myself at the market buying 40 lbs. of tomatoes.

Canning

My annual canning schedule usually goes something like: 4 lbs. pickled beans, 10 lbs. dill pickles, about 40 lbs. of tomatoes to make salsa and whole tomatoes, all according to our growing season in southern Manitoba. The beans are a nice easy start and a real crowd pleaser. I use my mother’s recipe for dills and lucked out with an amazing crop of small pickling cucumbers this year. Salsa is another family recipe, then I use the blog Practical Self-Reliance for canning tomatoes. They have fantastic canning recipes, though I always use white vinegar where they recommend apple cider.

I grew a ton of peppers this year. Here in the Canadian Prairies, the changing climate can be difficult for gardeners, but spectacular for peppers. I grew jalapenos, which we used prolifically for cooking, banana peppers, which I pickled with the brilliant Kenji Lopez-Alt’s recipe, and a million scotch bonnet peppers. With these, I let them get pretty red, then made a Jamaican-style pepper sauce that was my favourite thing I made this year. Naturally, I did not keep the recipe and have many regrets.

Freezing

Getting a chest freezer really upped my food preservation game this year. I went a bit bonkers with my vacuum sealer, thinking, “What if my unborn son likes (insert literally any fruit that came into season)” and bought boxes upon boxes of them. I loved the process of going through the fruit, freezing it on cookie sheets, then packing it away. I froze beautiful Manitoba strawberries and raspberries, B.C. blueberries, Ontario peaches and nectarines and a few bags of Manitoba corn. I felt food secure and wealthy. Practical Self-Reliance also has a guide to the process.

What’s in store for 2026?

This year, I plan to scale back on canning with a little one crawling around (sorry, ancestors!).

My goal is to keep up the freezing and definitely grow peppers again. As for canning, we shall see!