In June, Mom and I invested in some canning equipment. After much searching, we were dismayed to learn that Wal-Mart was the only place where we could find a water bath canner, wide-mouth Ball Jars, and pectin all in the same place. So the startup costs set us back about $80 buckaroos.
Since Michigan berries weren't available yet, and we couldn't wait to can something, we started with local asparagus. We followed the New York Times' recipe to the T, right down to buying all those whole coriander seeds, so it turned out to be a pretty pricey project. Since we only wanted to make a small batch (this was our maiden canning voyage, after all), those four jars of pickled Michigan asparagus came out to something like $8 a pop.
But we were not fazed. By the end of June, we tackled the Great Michigan Strawberry.
Mom, Aunt Elizabeth, Grandma, and my sister Lydia, who doesn't usually dress like an earth-loving art teacher but I suspect did so for the occasion.
Making strawberry jam turned out to be unbelievably simple. Messy, but simple. We did learn, however, that regular pectin jam calls for a sick ratio of sugar to berries (7 cups/5 cups). We felt pretty uneasy when our 5lb bag of sugar ran out within the first hour of canning. But a quick run to the store later (thanks, Dad!) and we had enough low-sugar pectin to finish the job.
Jam looks pretty disgusting until it's in the jars.
While canning, I tried to make sure we stuck to the Department of Agriculture's Guidelines so that we wouldn't eventually poison ourselves when we opened this jam. Turns out our greatest danger in the canning process was the excessive chattiness on behalf of my aunt, mom and grandma. Due to their gossiping and giggling, we nearly forgot to process half the jars, and an entire batch got made without pectin.
But guess what! It was a wonderful day that ended with forty-two shiny jars of homemade jam (and 7 jars of pectin-free "sauce," also delicious). They came out to $1.50 each, including the jars. By nightfall I was so exhausted that I forgot to photograph the finished product—our jam pyramid—but I'm happy to say it looked exactly like the stuff over at Pioneer Woman's blog (which is addictive, be forewarned).
