Canning Fruit Juice

Canning your own fruit juice is an easy process and adds variety to your pantry.

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Why Can Juice

Canning your own juice gives you more control over what you put in your body. You can avoid pesticides by growing your own fruit or purchasing pesticide free fruit. It gives you control over the what you use for a sweetener as well. If you want to use sugar, you can add it before canning, after canning, or leave it out altogether. You can add honey, stevia, or another sweetener of choice to your juice just before serving.

If you have to rely on your food storage for any length of time, having various drink options will be helpful. It will give you more options for getting extra vitamin C.  It may help you or your children avoid food fatigue and stay hydrated by giving you more choices for drinks than just plain water.

Methods of Making Juice to Can

Simmering Water Method -  This method extracts juice from your fruit by simmering it in water for a period of time. Due to the added water, the juice tends to be lighter in flavor than when using a steamer/juicer or a juice extractor. To use this method, clean your fruit, cut it into small pieces, cover with water and simmer until the water is infused and the fruit has cooked down. Finish by canning in a water bath canner. Be sure to follow safe canning practices.

Juicer Method - With this method, you first extract the juice with your juicer, heat it to temperature, and can it in a water bath canner, following safe canning practices.

Steamer/Juicer Method - This method extracts juice from the fruit using a steamer/juicer made for this purpose. If your jars and lids are hot, you don't have to water bath can it as long as you follow the instructions in your steamer/juicer manual. 

ALWAYS BE SURE TO FOLLOW SAFE CANNING PRACTICES. We highly recommend the Ball Blue Book or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for a guide on how to safely can your juice.

Kinds of Juice You Can Make

You can make many different kinds of fruit juices. Here are a few ideas:

Cranberry Juice - Cranberry juice has a lot of health benefits. It is especially useful if you are suffering from a UTI since one of the compounds in cranberries helps keep bacteria from adhering to the wall of the urinary tract. We have made cranberry juice several times using an easy method. You can see how we did over on the recipes page here.

Pineapple Juice - Pineapple juice not only tastes amazing, but it has several compounds that are great for you, including natural quercetin and bromelain. These compounds can be helpful if you are suffering from congestion. Since the peel and leaves contain the highest amounts, we have included at least a few of these parts when making the juice. We have only made pineapple juice using the simmering water method, which, as noted above, does not make a strong juice. 

Plum Juice - Plums are one item we have been gifted a few times over the years. Because we have had times when we ended up with a bountiful harvest, we have almost always made juice using the steamer/juicer method above. 

Grape Juice  - If you have access to grapes, home canned grape juice is wonderful for drinking and jelly making. Different varieties of grapes give you a different flavor profile.

Currant Juice - Currants may not be widely known these days, but they were pretty popular among our grandparents' generation. There are two common varieties - black and red. Both make great juice. 

Apple Juice - Apples are abundant in many areas of the country and are thus a good option for juicing. You can use any of the above methods for juicing apples. You can even make apple juice using only the cores and peels by simmering them in water using the simmering water method above.

What to do with your juice

Now that you have some juice on the shelf, what can you do with it? There are many ways to use canned juice. Here are a few:

Drink it

Make jelly - We have done this with plum, grape, and currant juices.

Make homemade jello - We have done this with plum, grape, and currant juices. We occasionally combine whatever juice we have on hand to create different flavors. Note that you should not use pineapple juice for this as it reportedly interferes with the gelatin setting properly.

Use for cocktails and mocktails - We have used cranberry juice for cocktails and mocktails with great results. You can use any of the juices for these if you are creative!