I like canning

[tamidon]

yes, I meant to use two "n"s. I like making preserves and other stuff. The "plink" noise the jars make when they cool down that means the seals are good, the row of jars ,all shiny on my shelf, the pleasure in giving homemade jams to people, the fact that my kids didn't know people buy jam from the store. There is a small problems, I suck at gardening. So, I'm making an offer to all those folks out there who garden: let me help you out. I'll put up your excess tomatoes or whatever, those amazing raspberries you picked too many of, or whatever, and we'll split the end result, and the cost of jars(the big cost after the fruits or veggies).

Comments

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

what do you like to can? i'm not growing many, if any, vegetables this year since I'm trying to move house. however, i too love the idea of canning and like to get stuff I haven't grown from farm stands or stores when they're in season. i have tons of jars already (and a bunch of un-used lids too!) if you want to go in on anything later in the season.

[tamidon.livejournal.com]

I like doing fruit jams without pectin, just fruit and sugar, and tomato stuff, interested in trying some other stuff, haven't decided what yet.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Be careful what you ask for...

I asked a friend if I could have her green tomatoes at the end of the season to make piccilli, She gave me a bushel! I ended up making piccilli for a week and had 58 pint jars when I was through. I gave a huge amount of it away, my mother got a case (12 jars), the person who gave me the tomatoes got a case, I think you even got a few jars. I still have three or four jars left in the closet from two years ago, and we eat it often, usually instead of relish on hamburgers and hot dogs.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, that offer makes me want to garden sooooo bad.

Not this year. Not moving into a house with a yard until September at least. Ping me next year.

[(Anonymous)]

I get all my jars at yard sales and thrift stores. Just make sure the rims aren't chipped and you're good. I got an entire carton of pint jars recently, probably 3 to 4 dozen, for 2.00 .
Then the big cost is the rings and lids. YOu can get them a bit cheaper by the case, but that's a lot of lids and not that much savings...

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

Man, I wish you were here. I'd take you up on that in a minute, if you'd teach me how to do it. I have a pressure canner I got at a garage sale for $25 (and I took it to the store and got its gasket checked out), and a regular water bath canner.

Plus the jars. It's kind of a funny story.

I went to an auction once and bought a box of canning jars, and this man came up to me and said, so do you like those jars? and I said, yes, I do, and he said that he had a whole basement full that I could have, because when you're 83 you don't end up doing much canning, and none of their daughters did it. So a couple of weeks later I made it over there and he and his wife gave me nearly all their jars. They were running around their barn finding empty cartons so they could fill them up with jars, because they were so happy that somebody wanted them. I ended up with ten cartons

I know my mom canned some and I was around for that but she never used a pressure canner and in any case it was a long time ago.

Solar energy

[(Anonymous)]

Putting Food By (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0452268990/104-3199288-0658300?v=glance) is a perfect place to start.
Give it a shot, it's easy.

I would suggest starting with the easier (not pressure canned) stuff (jam, fruit,) ; jams being the absolute easiest ( I don't even water bath, just pour into jars, turn over for a minute or 2 to sterilize the lid, and DONE!
Jam instructions are in the pectin packages.

Re: Solar energy

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have the Ball Blue book and Putting Food By and all that. I even have pectin. It's just that I find it easier to learn some things with someone else rather than with a book.