How to Can Potatoes

1. Boil water in both of your large pots while you wash and peel your potatoes. If the potatoes are small, you can leave them whole; but to fit more in a jar, cut any large potatoes in to 1/2-inch cubes. Add salt to the boiling water if desired.

2. When water comes to a boil, drop the potatoes into one pot, leaving the other boiling. Boil cubes for two minutes or whole potatoes for 10. Drain potatoes and pack immediately in to clean jars. Use the water that had no potatoes in it to top off the jars, leaving 1 inch of head space; put on your lid and tighten just enough to keep the lid from falling off.

3. Fill your canner with approximately 3 inches of hot water. Place your jars one at a time into the canner until it is full and the jars are just touching. Place the lid on the canner, but leave the weight off or valve open.

4. Turn the heat on your stove to high, and get the water to boiling in your canner. When steam starts coming out of the vent, give it 10 minutes to allow all the air inside the canner to escape. Once purged, close the valve or place the weight on your canner. It's time to build some pressure.

5. Run your canner for 40 minutes at 11 lbs. for a dial type canner (be sure to add 1 lb. per 2,000 feet of altitude above sea level). For a weighted canner, process for 40 minutes at 10 lbs. up to 1,000 feet above sea level and 15 lbs. above that.

6. Turn off the heat after the processing time is over, open the valves and allow the canner to cool naturally. Most canners have a valve that will pop up when the pressure is high and fall down as it cools. Remove the lid when the pop-up valve indicates the canner has cooled to a safe level, and take the jars to a safe place to cool. When they are completely cooled, check the lids for seals. If the center of the lid pops up, it did not seal. Use the potatoes from these jars right away or refrigerate.