Canning peppers

First off let me eliminate the idea that only older people can because that isn't true and actually canning is becoming more and more popular with my generation (early to late 20 year old). This is because as the price of canned foods go up it is becoming more and more economical to can your own vegetables, now this doesn't mean that we need to start out trying to can the more complex vegetables ( making pickles for example) because like anything it takes practice. The only person to successful can cucumbers was my grandmother but she would have been the first to admit that it took her several years of trial and error before she was able to make one good batch of pickles.

In today's example, I am taking banana pepper, I actually grew in pots because I ran out of room in my garden (tomatoes took over the garden) and will be canning them. You will need to make you have Vinegar, water (tap water), Canning Salt, Alum powder, and jars with lids. You can get all of these products at any local grocery store honestly for probably under 25 dollars. For those of you who are afraid this took will take all night; tonight's canning honestly look me less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

In order to can any kind of pepper, I always use one part vinegar to one part water and bring it to a boil. As I am bringing the vinegar water solution to a boil, I will wash off the peppers (making sure to remove all dirt and possible chemical), cut the stems off of the peppers, place the peppers in the jar making sure not over load the jar with peppers, pour one eighth of a teaspoon of alum powder and pour one fourth of a teaspoon of canning salt into each jar. Once the vinegar water solution is boiling furiously; you will need to pour that solution into the jars and immediately put the lid on and screw it tightly to the jar. Finally you will want to flip the jar onto its lid and let it sit over night.
If the jar does not seal properly, I would put the jar into a boiling pot of water for 15 minutes making sure to have the whole jar covered in water. After 15 minutes I would place jar on its lid and let if rest over night again on the kitchen towels.
To keep it from burning your kitchen table or counter top I would lay down two or three thick kitchen towels on top of each of other then put the jars on top of the kitchen towels. I didn't water bathe the peppers because the vinegar acts as a natural sterilizer and because I am putting the vinegar water solution into the jars still boiling, this will actually cause the jars to naturally seal.

Side note
     I am not sure why this is but I will admit that home grown and canned foods taste 1000 times better than anything you can buy at the store.
My useful tip of the week
     If you decide to grow corn in your garden I would recommend having at least 4 rows of corn together. This is because the corn cross pollinates each other using the wind and if you don't have more than two rows of corn you will honestly probably not get any corn. Trust me on this, I have tried growing only one row of corn and two rows of corn and I honestly didn't get any corn at all.