Not like “Yes I can!” Like can food. Jams and applesauce, mostly. Butters. Once, lemon curd.
It feels weird to admit this. Maybe because Dana and I have realized that with our recipes and our stories, we might be crossing over into crunchy granola SAHM mom-dom. There is nothing wrong with crunchy granola moms, but we don’t fit the mold. We’re more like cancer fighting sparkly Queens of the Castle moms. And we’re taking urban homesteading mainstream, baby!
Anyhow, last Fall, I made a giant batch of organic Granny Smith applesauce with nothing in it but apples, water and cinnamon. It was tasty, but we didn’t eat it fast enough and some went to waste. I could have frozen it, but I have issues with freezing things. So instead I started canning.
I bought the Ball canning kit, which comes with the Ball Recipe Book. There are plenty of websites that have tutorials about canning. I’ll put some at the bottom. Know that canning is science, in terms of recipes and measurements. Turns out, you can’t just make Aunt Sue’s famous pasta sauce and can it. Unless you want to die of botulism. You have to balance things like acids and sugars. Jams are a bit more forgiving, in the sense that if you screw up the ingredients, you only risk getting the consistency wrong, and not death. As long as you have correctly sanitized your jars, lids and tops, that is.
It scared me at first too. But it’s really just a process and once you get the process down, it’s easy. I make sure I use recipes which I know are tried and true.
The first time I canned jam, it took four hours to get three half-pints. I was nervous and kept checking and double-checking the process.
Last week I canned 4 half pints of blueberry jam and 3 pints of apricot jam in 90 minutes total. Six months of jam in an hour and a half. That’s the kind of canning I am talking about!
I got the apricots at the store. But the kids and I picked the blueberries ourselves.
I’ve never picked blueberries before. This farm was amazing—beautiful, green, clean. The kind of place where you let the kids run free and don’t worry about them.
We ended up with three pints for $14. Considering blueberries can run $4/half pint in the store when they’re not on sale, this was a pretty good price.
I make low sugar jam because I cannot bring myself to put 6 cups of sugar in anything. We don’t notice any difference in taste.
In 45 minutes, I took blueberries from this…
To this…
To this…
To this…
I know, it’s not for everyone. But if you are curious about canning, then I’ll tell you it’s not so hard once you get started. And there’s something so fulfilling about the fruits (ha!) of my labor all lined up there on the counter.
Resources:
Full Of Graces 
Yum! We love blueberries at our house!
Hint, hint! Lol!
Yup!!
🙂 The first canning project I ever did was pickles, and it took me forever for the same reason: I was nervous and kept double-checking everything. Now I can pop out pickles or jams in no time. 🙂 It is addicting.
Pickles! Hmm…haven’t been brave enough to venture away from jam. Do you have a favorite recipe?
I bought the book Put Em Up and then proceeded to make every pickle, relish, and salsa in the book. 🙂 It is even easier than jam.
Love to can! I just did Loquat Jam and Lemon Curd.