tif can't can...or can she?

I've never thought of myself as being from or living in "the country", but it appears that in the eyes of real city folk, I am and I do. A few years ago, my friend M (a DC-ite and lifelong city-dweller) asked me if I lived in the woods. She was so serious that I shouldn't have, but I told her that we do and that we grow and can all of our own food. She totally bought it. City folk - sooo gullible.

Since that day I've had this idea in my head that I would start canning. It seems like every season for two years I've set it as a goal...but I never follow through. I think intimidation has been the biggest stumbling block...I've heard stories of failure and tales of woe and I thought it would be too hard. After hearing several recent positive canning anecdotes from friends, I decided I was ready.

Last weekend we headed out for our second strawberry picking of the year with the intent of making and canning jam. Side note: after tasting our fresh picked strawberries from our first go-round I have little desire for anything less than fresh picked. There's totally a difference, go see for yourself.


The picking was fun and I thought I was all set on instructions and what to do for the jam...but oh how wrong I was! We ended up meshing two recipes because our original called for powder pectin and we bought liquid. Side note: I typically just use recipes as a suggestion but I had intended to follow a recipe to the letter this time because jamming and canning are completely new to me. Also, canning is chaotic. You need a bunch of tools (most of which I didn't have...hey, I was wingin' it), there are lots of things going on in quick succession, there were a lot of timing issues...and really I am looking at two recipes with different timing and steps and trying to make it work, all the while worrying that I'm going to ruin the batch.

The first part was simple. Clean, cut, smash. Done.

The second part was pretty simple too - once we made it up. Heat berries, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 lemon juice, and pectin to a boil. Add the remaining sugar. Bring to rolling boil and let boil for one minute. I tested the consistency and it was perfect the first time. I thought myself a natural.



So we filled and sealed the jars...



...and boiled them all for five minutes. During that time, all of the cans popped, which means they are sealed. I heard the noise, Jose heard the noise, the tops were flat. The deal was done. Or was it?


Someone once wrote of life: "Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached." I now believe that they were actually talking about canning. Three hours after the jars were all sealed, they just...weren't. I checked them and they were all unsealed. Really? How could that happen?

After reading up, I realized there were some things I could have done differently. So I emptied all the jars back into the pot, reheated the jam, heated the lids, boiled the jars and kept them hot until the point of filling them. Then I re-filled, re-sealed and re-boiled the jars. All the while I was feeling like a massive failure. I declared this my first and last canning experience. I decided that this wasted time, money and effort was a direct result of telling M that we grew and canned all our own food. Oh, karma.

But then the jars stayed sealed. And the jam is good, SO good. From complete failure to sweet success in about 4 hours...perhaps a new record.


HUGE thanks to Christy for her consultation from 3 states away!