Success!

In three days I canned 3 pints of tomatoes, 5 pints of peaches, and six half pints of peach jam (12 4-ounce jars)! I realize this is nothing next to my mother who can can dozens of jars of jelly in one evening, but for a first-timer I think I did pretty well. What’s more, all of the jars sealed! Now that is what I call success.

There was a minor mishap when some water boiled over and knocked out the flame on my gas burners. I was in the other room and didn’t realize what had happened until I smelled the gas. I had to turn everything off, open all the windows and front door and wait for it to clear out. A little while later, I was back in business.

Canning is a mess business involving many pots, pans, towels, utensils, etc. My kitchen was in varying states of disarray all weekend. It’s also very sweaty work. I don’t know how my grandmom did this in the summer with no AC. What a trooper!

Even with the heat and the mess, it was a lot of fun and I plan to try more things in the coming weeks and months. I’m even starting a separate blog dedicated exclusively to all things canning and preserving. Visit it here! (It is still a work in progress to be patient with me.) Separating the blogs is more for my sake than anything else. For a long time I’ve known I needed a good hobby, one that actually produces something, and I think canning just might be it. I want to keep all my canning info in one central location so it is easy for me find information and recipes when I need them. Don’t worry! I’ll still be keeping this one up for all things non-canning. Running. Real food. Life. Etc.