Not Jarring around

“Every woman who must manage a home, be it large or small, owes it to herself to have a well-planned kitchen or workshop one that is good to look upon and easy to work in.”

Maybe my kitchen space would be easier to work in if I didn’t leave items on the kitchen island like bills and sewing supplies. So when I decided (because my freezer was way too full with zucchini bread and next few months’ worth of dinners) to can the spaghetti sauce I needed to make before my freshly grown tomatoes rotted into the mush I wanted them to be but wouldn't be willing to eat, I had to clean it off first. So after cleaning off the island, buying jars and a jar grabber, buying a few more tomatoes just to be on the safe side, and then prepping everything. This prepping included grabbing a book I bought four years ago at Colonial Williamsburg about Self-Sufficiency[1] and after finding and reading the section on canning, particularly hot water canning, and a phone call to my mother to make sure I was on the right track, I got to work. I prepped, laying out so that once I started cooking I wasn’t hunting for things later on. I chopped my tomatoes, ground up my herbs I had dried over the summer and turned on the stove.

An hour later the tomatoes were cooked, and might I say tasted wonderful. Now came the challenge, but I had it well in hand right? I boiled the jars in my lobster pot, which is way too big for my range, and had boiled the lids in a smaller pot. As I loaded the jars up with the sauce, I realized while this could go terribly wrong and it might the next time I try this but this was not only easier than I thought but almost relaxing. I even did it an hour later with strawberries.

The Strawberry Jam never actually became jam but I will use it to make pie for Thanksgiving.

I had canned once before when I was little. We had picked raspberries over at my neighbor’s house and a few days later my mom and I were mixing raspberries, sugar, pots and somehow the dishwasher was involved in there. Of all the times we went and picked berries at my Grandma’s house, my neighbor’s, in our garden that was the only time I remember canning. I remember wanting to do it after reading Blueberries for Sal, and just about every other thing in life that I read that took place in the past.

Jam Cans boiling in the pot

In the end I am proud to say I canned and was somewhat successful. There was a few cans I did have to re-process from the jam but not from the sauce. Yet my attempt was successful. However, if I stop writing come March I have died from my poorly canned food but at least I canned.

The end result... 3.75 pints of Tomato Sauce and 13 pints of strawberry soup. 

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[1] Gehring, Abigail R. The Ultimate Self-Sufficiency Handbook. Skyhorse Publishing; NY, 2012.