Preserving the Seasons

I have very recently discovered the joys of canning and preserving. As I shared with you previously, I began making refrigerator jams, in order to test my jam-making skills. The resultant jams seem very popular in my household, and therefore, I decided to try my hand at canning. Thus far, I have only made 2 jams: a peach jam and a raspberry jam. I used two different recipes and books to try out different styles.

Since there are very serious health concerns involved with canning, I am only going to refer you to the sources I have used, but not give a recipe or instructions. I am only an amateur myself, after all. The first book I read and used is The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home by Janet Chadwick (2009), and the second is Canning For A New Generation by Liana Krissoff (2010). The Beginner's Guide gives very specific instructions for preserving foods by canning, freezing, and dehydrating, as well as traditional-style recipes. Canning For A New Generation is a younger, hipper take on canning, with a modern feel to the recipes. The recipes are also more health-conscious, including ways to reduce the amount of sugar by using other ingredients.

I have to say that the first time I went through the process it was frustrating, but by the second round I had become more comfortable with the steps. The entire process (from sterilizing the jars, to making the jam, to finally "processing" the filled jars) does take some time, but if you can make big batches, I believe it will be worth your while. I started by making small batches of each jam, since I had never tried the recipes or the process before, but now I see that I could save a lot of time and money by making a much larger batch of jam in order to fill multiple jars at a time.

The options for what foods can be preserved are endless and this has opened up a whole new world for me. What a great way to eat and buy seasonally, but still be able to enjoy summer produce, such as raspberries, during the rest of the year. Next up for me: dehydrating tomatoes.