Canning

I have wanted to try canning for a while now, but every time people would say "It's so easy" and then start to verbally explain it to me, I would immediately think "No way. Sounds hard. Sounds complicated. Sounds overwhelming. Pass!"

But then, when people would talk about fresh, homemade jam or their stockpile of canned goodies I would think "Well, maybe......."

My sister-in-law rode to my canning rescue this year. She came out two weeks ago and showed me how to make homemade raspberry jam. It's so yummy and it wasn't as hard as I thought. Apparently I am totally a visual learner because once I saw it I knew I could do it.

Said sister-in-law procured an obscene amount of pears and some apples and came back out this past Friday to help me can pears and make applesauce to can as well. We did the pears together and I am now the proud owner of 10 quart sized jars of pears. Then she started the applesauce and left me on my own.

I'm proud to say that I did it. I made 6 pints of applesauce on Friday and then made another batch on Saturday all by myself that yielded 2 quarts. My kids LOVE it (we had a little left over to try) and I know we'll whip through those jars in no time.

Weird confession: Now that I have all these beautiful jars of food, I'm a little sad to bust them open. While it was fairly easy to do, it was labor intensive and I'm kind of bummed to open them. Yes, I know that's why we made them, and I know it's silly. But the whole point of canning is that you work towards hearing the lids go "POP" which means you have successfully canned something. To undo that seems almost counter productive.

I'm sure I'll feel differently when I stroll past the applesauce at the store and know that not only do I have some at home, I know exactly what is in them and how yummy they taste.

So if you want to try canning, go for it. Find someone who knows how to do it and watch. It's not hard at all. And totally worth it.