- 19 hours ago
A jar of summer fruit can keep through winter without a fridge when it is properly canned with heat, a tight lid, and the right level of acid. This homestead-style guide explains how preserved fruit in jars was stored on cellar shelves by old families, using plums, peaches, pears, cherries, grapes, and berries as examples.
The process is careful and exact: wash and scald the jars, prick plums so syrup can soak in, peel peaches and pears, pit cherries, and add lemon where the fruit needs extra acid. The jars are packed with sugar and water, then processed in a boiling water bath for the correct time from a trusted chart. The video also explains why low-acid foods like watermelon flesh are not safe for this method and should be preserved only by safe alternatives such as pickling the rind or making preserves.
It is practical food storage, pantry prep, and old-fashioned home canning with a strong focus on safety, seal checks, cooling, and dark-cool storage. The message is simple: follow tested instructions, never guess the timing, and throw out any doubtful jar.
Created for viewers searching for fruit preservation, home canning, boiling water bath canning, pantry storage, cellar food storage, and safe jarred fruit recipes. It also fits anyone interested in homestead living, Amish home-saving methods, and traditional food preservation for long-term shelf storage.
The process is careful and exact: wash and scald the jars, prick plums so syrup can soak in, peel peaches and pears, pit cherries, and add lemon where the fruit needs extra acid. The jars are packed with sugar and water, then processed in a boiling water bath for the correct time from a trusted chart. The video also explains why low-acid foods like watermelon flesh are not safe for this method and should be preserved only by safe alternatives such as pickling the rind or making preserves.
It is practical food storage, pantry prep, and old-fashioned home canning with a strong focus on safety, seal checks, cooling, and dark-cool storage. The message is simple: follow tested instructions, never guess the timing, and throw out any doubtful jar.
Created for viewers searching for fruit preservation, home canning, boiling water bath canning, pantry storage, cellar food storage, and safe jarred fruit recipes. It also fits anyone interested in homestead living, Amish home-saving methods, and traditional food preservation for long-term shelf storage.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a jar of plums on a cellar shelf, put up in the plenty of late summer,
00:05and it will still be good to eat next winter, and the winter after, sweet and whole in its own
00:11syrup,
00:12with no cold box humming to keep it, and not one drop of chemical in it.
00:17And beside it stand the peaches, the pears, the cherries, the grapes, the berries,
00:22a whole year's fruit in glass.
00:25And here is the thing that would astonish most folk, who think keeping food a year takes a deep freezer
00:32and a shelf of preservatives.
00:34The old families kept a whole harvest of fruit in jars, with nothing but heat, a little sugar, and a
00:41tight lid,
00:42and it kept sound clear through to spring.
00:45So today I am going to show you how to put up your fruit in jars the old way,
00:50whichever fruit your tree is heavy with, so it keeps a year and more with no fridge and no chemistry.
00:56And, because this is food your family will eat, I am going to be very plain and careful about the
01:02safety,
01:02for canning is a thing you must do right.
01:05Let me show you.
01:06Here is the thing to understand first, for it is the whole of why a jar of fruit keeps a
01:12year.
01:12And once you know it, every fruit and step makes sense.
01:16Fruit spoils because tiny living things, the molds and yeasts and germs, get into it and rot it.
01:24So to keep fruit you must do two things.
01:26Kill the ones already in it, and shut out the ones that would come.
01:30And that is exactly what canning is.
01:33The heat, the boiling water bath, kills the living spoilers in the jar.
01:38And the tight sealed lid, drawn down by that same heat, shuts out the air and every new spoiler, so
01:45nothing gets back in.
01:47Kill what is there with heat.
01:48Seal out what would come with the lid.
01:50That is the whole of canning.
01:52And the sugar only sweetens, and the acid only guards.
01:56Now, one more thing.
01:57The safety key that tells you which fruit you may put up this way.
02:01This heat and seal boiling water bath is safe for the high acid fruits.
02:05The plums and peaches and pears and cherries and grapes and apples and berries, whose own sourness helps keep them.
02:13It is not the way for the low acid things, and I will tell you plainly where that line falls.
02:19Now let me give you the way, one fruit at a time.
02:22Quick word before we go further.
02:24My name is Esther Yoder, and the old household ways handed down to me,
02:28the kind I am sharing today, and a great many more besides, are far more than I could ever fit
02:34into one video.
02:35I have gathered the whole of them into a book, and you will find it at EliasYoder.com.
02:41If today's tips serve you, that is where the rest of what my mother and grandmother taught me lives, all
02:47in the one place.
02:49Now, to the canning.
02:50My grandmother had a saying that fits this, and it is one to keep in your heart, for canning is
02:55not a place for guessing,
02:57that you follow the old way exactly, for it was written in hard lessons,
03:01and the woman who improvises with the canning gambles with her family.
03:05She meant that the rules of putting up food were not fussy.
03:09They were learned the hard way over generations, by folk who lost food and worse when they got it wrong.
03:14So you follow them exactly and cut no corner, for the canning is the one kitchen art where a mistake
03:21can truly harm.
03:22And she put up a cellar full every year and never once made her family ill, because she followed the
03:28way exactly.
03:30So here is her way, exact, with the safety built into every step and the whole harvest put up by
03:36it.
03:37Let me start with the plums, the simplest and safest, and a perfect first canning,
03:42for once you have the plums, the rest is only the same steps with a small change for each fruit.
03:48First, wash your plums well, and here is a clever first step folk skip, and it matters.
03:54Take a toothpick or a clean needle and prick each plum in several places through the skin.
03:59Why?
04:00Because a plum's skin is tight and waxy, and unpricked the syrup cannot get inside,
04:06and the heat cannot work through evenly, and the plum floats and shrivels.
04:10But pricked, the syrup soaks in, and the plum keeps whole and plump.
04:15Prick every plum, that is the first secret.
04:18Then pack your clean, pricked plums into clean jars, and mind that word clean,
04:23for the jars and lids must be washed and scalded, sterilized in boiling water,
04:29before ever the fruit goes in, since a dirty jar cans the dirt right in.
04:34Fill the jars with plums, then into each put about two tablespoons of sugar.
04:40The sugar is not chiefly to preserve, mind, for the fruit's own acid and the heat and the seal do
04:46that.
04:47The sugar is for flavor and color.
04:50Then fill the jars with water over the plums, leaving a finger's width of space at the top,
04:56the headspace the jar needs to seal, so do not fill to the brim.
05:00And close each jar with a clean, new lid.
05:04A new lid every time, for the sealing part is used but once.
05:09Pricked plums, a little sugar, water, headspace, new lid.
05:14Now the heart of it, the water bath, the killing the spoilers step, so do it exactly.
05:20Lay a folded towel or a rack in the bottom of a big pot first,
05:25so the jars do not sit on the bare hot metal and crack.
05:29Set your filled, closed jars in on the towel, not touching,
05:33and pour in water up to the height of the lids.
05:37Put it on the stove, and from the moment it comes to a boil, you time it,
05:41keeping a steady, rolling boil the whole while.
05:44That steady, boiling heat kills every living spoiler in the jar.
05:49Do not cut it short, nor let the boil die down,
05:52for the full time and full heat are the safety.
05:55Now, how long?
05:57This is the one place I will not guess for you,
06:00for the exact minutes change with the fruit and the size of your jar,
06:04and a made-up time on a canning video is the one thing that could harm you.
06:09So follow a trusted canning guide, a good tested book,
06:13or the county extension chart, for the exact minutes for your fruit and jar.
06:17The plums run about half an hour for a common jar,
06:21but you check the chart and follow it exactly.
06:24The full-timed rolling boil from a trusted chart.
06:28That is the killing step.
06:30Then, take the jars out carefully and set them out of a cold draft to cool slowly,
06:35for a hot jar in a cold draft or on a cold stone will crack.
06:40As they cool, you will hear the lids pop down,
06:43the sound of the seal drawing tight, which is the sound you want.
06:48And then, before you store a single jar, you check the seal.
06:52And this is not optional.
06:54It is the safety.
06:55Press the center of each cooled lid.
06:57If it is sucked down firm and does not click or spring back,
07:01it's sealed, and it is good to store.
07:03If a lid springs back or clicks, that jar did not seal, so you do not store it.
07:10You put it in the cold place and eat it within the week instead.
07:14Only the well-sealed jars go to the shelf.
07:17Store them in a dark, cool place,
07:19and there your plums keep sound a year and often longer.
07:23Now, that is the whole method, and here is the beautiful part.
07:27Every high-acid fruit is done by those same steps,
07:31with only a small change in the preparing of each,
07:34and each its own time from your chart.
07:37Let me walk you through the rest, quick,
07:39for you know the bones of it now.
07:41The grapes, done nearly the same as the plums,
07:44and here notice a thing doing real safety work, not just flavor.
07:49Clean your grapes from the stems and wash them.
07:51Pack them into clean jars,
07:53and add slices of well-washed lemon and a clove or two.
07:57Now mark this.
07:58That lemon is not only for taste.
08:01Grapes are a bit less sour than plums,
08:04closer to the line,
08:05and the lemon is acid,
08:07and adding it makes sure the jar stays sour enough
08:09to be safely kept by the water bath way.
08:12It is doing the same safety work the plums' own sourness does.
08:16It is acidifying the jar.
08:19Sugar, water, headspace,
08:21new lid, water bath the timed while from your chart.
08:25Cool, check the seal, store dark.
08:28Grapes with lemon for the acid.
08:30The lemon is safety, not just flavor.
08:33The peaches, a favorite of the cellar,
08:35and here the prep is a peel.
08:37Peaches have a fuzzy skin you do not want in the jar,
08:41so you loosen it with heat.
08:43Drop them a moment into boiling water,
08:45then straight into cold,
08:46and the skins slip right off in your hands.
08:49Have them, take out the stone,
08:51and pack the halves into clean jars,
08:54cut side down, snug.
08:57Sugar or a light syrup to cover,
08:59headspace, new lid.
09:02And a peach, being a bit less sour,
09:05likes a little lemon or citric acid in the jar too,
09:08for the same safety reason as the grape.
09:12Then the water bath, the timed while from your chart,
09:15and the rest as before.
09:17Peaches peeled, a touch of lemon for safety,
09:21the same steps.
09:23The pears, done just like the peaches,
09:26peeled and cored, packed snug,
09:29a light syrup over,
09:30and a little lemon in the jar to guard them,
09:33being gentle sour,
09:35the same rule you keep seeing.
09:37The cherries, simplest of all, need no peeling.
09:41Wash and pit them,
09:43pack with sugar and water,
09:45and being nicely sour like the plum,
09:48they want no extra lemon.
09:50And the berries, soft and tender,
09:53you wash gently,
09:55pick out any soft ones,
09:57and pack light without crushing,
09:59a sprinkle of sugar to hold their shape.
10:02Being tender, their water bath is a gentle, watched one.
10:07And every one of these,
10:09pears, cherries, berries,
10:12is sealed with a new lid,
10:14water bathed the time its own chart says,
10:18cooled gradual,
10:20seal checked,
10:21and stored dark,
10:23exactly as the plums.
10:26So there is your whole harvest,
10:28plums and grapes,
10:30and peaches and pears,
10:32and cherries and berries,
10:34every one put up by the same heat and seal way,
10:37changing only the peeling or pricking,
10:40and the bit of lemon where the fruit is gentle,
10:43each following its own time from a trusted chart.
10:47One method,
10:49the whole orchard.
10:51Now,
10:52here is where I must be the most honest and careful with you of all,
10:57for you may wonder about the watermelon and the melons,
11:01and I will not steer you wrong on a food safety matter.
11:06Watermelon flesh is a low acid food,
11:09not a high acid fruit like the plum and the peach,
11:12and the plain water bath way we just did
11:16is not a reliably safe way
11:18to keep a low acid food for the winter,
11:21for it is exactly the low acid foods kept wrong
11:26where the worst and most dangerous spoilage grows,
11:30the kind you cannot see nor smell.
11:33So I will not tell you to plain can your watermelon flesh
11:38and trust it a year,
11:39but do not lose heart,
11:42for the old families kept watermelon,
11:45and here is the genuinely safe old way,
11:48which works because it does the very thing
11:51the plain method does not.
11:53It makes the melon high acid or high sugar.
11:58You keep the rind,
11:59not the flesh,
12:01and you either pickle it in vinegar,
12:03a sweet and sour watermelon rind pickle,
12:06where the vinegar's acid keeps it,
12:09or make it into rind preserves,
12:12cooked heavy with sugar,
12:14where the sweetness keeps it,
12:16like a jam.
12:18The flesh you eat fresh in its season,
12:21the rind you put up safe by acid or sugar.
12:25And that opens the one rule
12:28that governs all your canning,
12:30so carve it in your memory.
12:32The water bath way is for the high acid fruits
12:36and the vinegar pickles only,
12:39for their sourness holds back the worst spoilage.
12:43The low acid foods,
12:46most vegetables,
12:47the green beans and corn,
12:49the meats,
12:50and the watermelon flesh,
12:52are not safe by the plain water bath,
12:56no matter how long you boil,
12:58and want the pressure canner
13:00or another way entirely.
13:03Know which your food is before you can it.
13:07That is the first safety of all.
13:10And here, gathered in one place,
13:13is the safety of the whole business,
13:16and I will not soften a line,
13:18for this is food.
13:21Wash and scald your jars
13:23and use a new lid every time.
13:26Follow a trusted, tested chart
13:29for the exact processing time
13:32of each fruit and jar,
13:34and keep the full time
13:35and full rolling boil,
13:38never cut short.
13:40Towel in the pot
13:42so the jars do not crack.
13:44Cool gradual out of the draft.
13:46And the rule above every other,
13:50check every jar before you eat it.
13:53A good jar has its lid
13:56still sucked down tight,
13:58its contents clear and right-coloured,
14:01and smells clean when opened.
14:04But if the lid is bulging or unsealed,
14:07if it leaks,
14:09if there is any mould,
14:11any cloudiness,
14:13any off-smell,
14:14any hiss or spurt
14:16when you open it,
14:18you throw that jar out at once,
14:21the whole of it,
14:22and do not taste it,
14:24not even a little.
14:26For spoiled canned food
14:28can be truly dangerous,
14:30and you cannot always tell by taste.
14:33When in doubt, throw it out.
14:35There is always more fruit,
14:37and there is only one of you.
14:40Now think a moment
14:41about why we came to believe
14:43that keeping fruit a year
14:45takes a deep freezer on the grid
14:47and a shelf of preservatives,
14:49when a jar and a pot of boiling water
14:52and a little sugar
14:53kept our grandmother's cellars full
14:55all winter for pennies.
14:57It is worse than a plot,
14:59for no one had to arrange it.
15:01There is a great trade in the freezers
15:03and the shipped year-round fruit,
15:05and none at all in teaching folk
15:07that heat kills the spoiler
15:09and a sealed lid shuts out the air
15:12and the fruit's own sourness holds.
15:15So the plain old knowing
15:17of how to put up a whole cellar of fruit
15:20against the winter
15:21just stopped being handed down
15:23because no one profits
15:25by your filling your own shelves
15:27from your own trees.
15:28My grandmother put up
15:31a hundred jars every summer,
15:33plums and peaches and cherries and all,
15:36and ate her own fruit all winter
15:38and never bought a can.
15:40And somewhere between her day and ours,
15:43we were taught to let the harvest fall
15:45and buy it shipped and frozen instead.
15:49The mending of it is a jar, a pot,
15:52and the exact old way,
15:54done for whatever your tree gives.
15:56You prick your plums,
15:58peel your peaches and pears,
16:00pit your cherries,
16:01gentle your berries,
16:03add lemon to the milder ones,
16:05and pack them all
16:06with a little sugar and water.
16:08You water bath each the time
16:11its chart says
16:12at a full rolling boil,
16:14check every seal,
16:16and store them dark.
16:17You keep your watermelon
16:19the safe old way,
16:21pickled or preserved,
16:22not plain canned,
16:24and you follow
16:25the high acid rule
16:26and throw out
16:27any doubtful jar
16:28without fail.
16:30And your cellar is full
16:31of a whole year's fruit
16:33kept a year and more
16:35with no fridge
16:36and no chemistry,
16:38safe because you followed
16:40the way exactly.
16:41That is how it comes home,
16:44one jar,
16:45one sealed lid at a time,
16:47the keeping of your own harvest
16:49back in your own hands.
16:52So here is what I would ask of you.
16:54This week,
16:56when a fruit is cheap
16:57and in season,
16:58or your own tree is heavy,
17:00put up a few jars of it
17:02the exact way I showed you,
17:04checking a trusted chart
17:06for its time,
17:07and check that each one seals,
17:09and come back in the winter
17:11and tell me in the comments
17:13which fruit you put up
17:14and how it kept,
17:16for I do love to hear
17:18of a cellar filling up
17:19against the cold.
17:20And tell me too,
17:22while you are there,
17:23your county
17:24and the age of your house,
17:26for the old houses
17:27have the cool dark cellars
17:29made for just this keeping,
17:31and I learn from every one of you
17:34how the putting up goes
17:35where you live.
17:37And if your own mother
17:38or grandmother
17:39had a way of canning of fruit
17:41that I have not named here,
17:43tell me that most of all,
17:45for that is how this goes.
17:47We share what we were given.
17:49I read every comment
17:51and I learn from you
17:52the way the old women
17:54learned from one another
17:55across the fence line,
17:57one harvest
17:57and one full shelf at a time.
18:01Next time,
18:02I will show you
18:03the putting up
18:03of the rest of the harvest,
18:05the safe old ways,
18:07the jams and jellies
18:08kept by their sugar
18:09and the pickles
18:11kept by their vinegar,
18:12so that between
18:13the canned fruit and these,
18:15you fill a whole cellar
18:17against the winter
18:18for pennies
18:19and never a spoiled jar.
18:21There is a right
18:22and an old way
18:24to keep a household's harvest
18:25that runs on heat
18:27and acid and sugar
18:29and a tight lid,
18:30followed exactly,
18:32rather than a freezer
18:33and a store.
18:35But this week,
18:36you start with the fruit.
18:38You prick and peel
18:39and pack
18:40whichever fruit you have,
18:42water bath it
18:43the time its chart says
18:44at a full boil,
18:45check every seal
18:47and store it dark
18:48and you keep
18:49the high acid rule
18:51and the throw out
18:52the doubtful rule
18:53without fail.
18:54And you will understand,
18:56as my grandmother did,
18:58that you follow
18:59the old way exactly,
19:01for it was written
19:01in hard lessons,
19:03that fruit keeps a year
19:05not by magic
19:06nor chemistry,
19:07but by heat
19:08that kills the spoiler
19:10and a lid
19:11that seals out the air
19:12and the fruit's own sourness
19:14that holds,
19:15and that the whole safety of it
19:17is knowing your high acid
19:19from your low,
19:20following a trusted time
19:22and checking every jar
19:24before it is eaten.
19:25The household kept
19:26the plain old way
19:28is the one that remembers
19:29how the old women
19:30filled a whole cellar
19:32with the year's fruit
19:33in the plenty
19:34and ate their own
19:35all winter,
19:36safely,
19:37by following the way
19:39exactly.
19:40And that is a thing
19:41we are only just
19:42starting to remember.