My Adventures in Canning

I have a love/hate relationship with canning.  I love the gardening, harvesting, cooking, and of course the end result.  Seeing those jars of colorful food lined up on a shelf, and taking one down and opening it up -- at room temperature, no thawing required -- that's extremely rewarding!  However, the actual canning process is frustrating to me.  There are so many instructions...simmer the lids, don't boil; remember to get the air bubbles out;  wipe the rim with a wet cloth;  try and time everything just so, so that the food, lids, and hot water bath/pressure canner are all ready at precisely the same point in time;  make sure not to scald the kids; process the jars exactly right or your spaghetti sauce could KILL everyone!  Oh, and it's such HOT work!  And then I wonder, after cooking the living daylights out of the food, if there are any nutrients left at all.

I'm still a relative newbie to canning;  my first time canning solo was last year, when I made and water-bath canned one batch of strawberry jam.  This year though, I've decided to suck it up and increase momentum a little bit.  I figure that the more practice I get, the more confident I'll feel about the process. I've also begun pressure canning;  even though it's more investment in supplies for a project I'm ambivalent about, I can process things more quickly and use less energy while doing it.

Anyhow...here's what I've canned so far this year:

strawberry jam, 6 pints
pickled cauliflower, 5 pints
pizza sauce, 4 pints
applesauce, 4 pints

Theoretically I should have canning in my genes.  My maternal grandmother has always been into gardening and canning.  As a kid I'd wander into her cellar and see shelf after shelf of canned food...pickled beets (my favorite!), tomatoes, salsa, green beans, ground cherries (another fave of mine!), and more.  Already this summer, at the age of 82, she has canned 90 pints of salsa!  Ninety!  Wow.  Very impressive.  Well, she's had the help of her daughters, but still!  Trust me, I will never live up to that legacy.  I will be shocked if I ever total 90 pints of salsa over my lifetime.