Canning: You Can Do It. You Should Do It.

Lemonade Jelly, Peach-Pluot-Habanero Sauce, Salsa, Marinara Sauce, Prickly Pear Jelly, Stewed Tomatoes

Simply put, making your own food is the only way to know exactly what is in it. I certainly do not have time to make everything from scratch on a meal-by-meal basis. The answer to that problem is to cook in batches. It began with jam. Today it's tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, and salsa.

Last summer we took the family to a pick-your-own orchard in the peak of peach season. When you tell four children they can pick as much as they want, you come home with a lot of peaches. I learned this the year before. This time, I was prepared.

A fellow stay-at-home mom of four brought us a half-pint jar of her homemade Indian Peach jam. Her sister had sent her a box of peaches from California, and as peaches go, they're seemingly either nowhere near ripe or overripe. When they're good and ripe, make jam. I figured, if this woman could do it, so could I.

I remember my mother making jam once and only once. We had an abundance of plums from our tree every year, and while she was known for her German Plum Cake, she gave the jam thing a go. The process was such a nightmare, all I remember was her description of awful it was and that she would never do it again. But this other mom of four did it like she does it all the time, and she delivered the little jar with a big smile.

I did some research and found a secret weapon: The Ball Automatic Jam Maker! It doesn't make the jam for you, per say, but it does the ingredient mixing and the constant stirring at a constant temperature without boiling over, scorching, getting everywhere - the part that will make or break your jam-making experience. I made a small investment in the machine, and then splurged on a tool set. I've learned over the years that everything can be made more difficult by using inappropriate tools, and some things are actually easier with the right tools. This was a worthwhile purchase. I make jams and jellies on a whim now, without hesitation.

Canning is messy, hot, and laborious, but well worth the effort. Start with the right tools, a clean kitchen, and a plan to minimize all of these things.

This is worth getting. A lot of the process involves putting things into and taking things out of boiling water.

• Clean your kitchen. Clear some space. You will need the largest burner on the stove for the processing pot. If you don't have a mixing/heating machine like mine, you will also need a burner free for mixing the food product. I only use the machine for jams and jellies. I use the stove for sauces and vegetables.
• The order of events is to prepare the food (clean and cut), then cook the food, pour the food into prepared jars, seal the jars, and then immerse the jars in a boiling water bath for processing. If you can lay out your workstations to work in this order, you're off to a great start. 
• I do the prep work at the kitchen island, next to the refrigerator and near the sink. While cooking the filling, I simmer the jars in the same water bath I will use for processing. I use a jar lifter to move hot (empty) jars to a cookie-cooling rack placed on a kitchen towel. The hot jars don't touch the counter and spill are easy to clean. Using a wide-mouth funnel and a ladle, I fill the jars, one at a time, seal them and place them back into the water bath for processing. While the jars are boiling (usually 15 - 35 minutes depending on the contents), I rinse off the prep tools, wipe down the counters, and get set up for the next batch. That's all there is to it. I can't stress enough, clean the kitchen like your mother-in-law is coming to visit before you get started and between batches.  
• When the jars are finished, use the jar lifter to move them back to the cooling rack and wait for the satisfying "POP" sound of a sealing lid. 

It really is that straightforward. However, there are a few tips worth sharing.

• Jars like to accumulate a white film on them when they're being boiled. Avoid this by adding a little white vinegar to the water bath. When the processed jars are completely cooled, wipe away any residue with a cloth wet with water and vinegar. I haven't had to wipe them down since I started adding vinegar to the boiling water.
• Don't pay too much for jars. They come boxed in sets. I recently found quart jars in sets of 12 for about $9. 
• Lastly, about jars, make sure they fit in your pot. The will need to boil in enough water to cover them by at least an inch. My nice stock pot works well for pint jars, but not for quart jars. Since I share most of my canned goods, I like the pint and half-pint jars best anyway. I don't want to buy a special pot for boiling water. 
• Pectin is the stuff that thickens jams and jellies. It's not cheap. Hunt around for the best price and figure out how much you will need before you get started. My only frustration with my jams was how much I had to spend on pectin, but I had a lot of fruit and canning it was better than throwing it away. In hindsight, I could have looked into canning them as slices or chunks instead of jams, but at the time I was in jam-mode. 
• Acidity, basically, makes vegetables shelf stable. In my latest Roma tomato endeavor I had to follow a specific recipe very carefully to ensure the safety of the food after processing. The process was daunting until I found little jars of citric acid. These, contrary to the pectin, are cheap. I didn't realize that I wouldn't be needing very much of it either, and snatched up 4 jars to prevent trips back to the market. For stewed tomatoes: blanch, peel, quarter, and simmer them for 5 minutes. Put 1/4 teaspoon citric acid into a pint jar, fill the jar leaving 1/2" space between the tomatoes and the rim. Remove air bubbles by gently squishing and mashing against the tomatoes, wipe the rim clean, place the lid, process the jar(s) in boiling water for 40 minutes.  Easy.
• Do not over-tighten the lids. They need to be finger-tightened before processing and then left alone until completely cooled. Trapped air needs to escape while the jars cool. Tighten the rings only after the jars are completely cooled.
• You can't just take some fruits or vegetables or soup and process them in jars and leave them on the shelves for later. But you can process almost anything following proper food-safety processes and have all of your favorites on hand all the time. Without allergens.  

Invest in at least one instructional book so that your food is prepared safely. Ball makes the Blue Book Guide to Preserving. I bought my copy at WalMart. It covers fruits, vegetables, meats, sauces, pickles, everything.