Ah, just like Grandma used to make

No, seriously ... we're making strawberry jam, just like Grandma used to make. In her canner, nonetheless. We're not yet trying out the pressure function on the canner ... we're just using it as a boiler water canner. This thing is freakin' humongous.



We bought strawberries at the farmers' market today, 3 quarts of them. Turned out we only needed about half that amount. Still. Lots of berries.



We had to bring a LOT of water to a simmer in the canner. Pay no attention to the grim reaper appearing in the steam. We do not think it is an omen. Still. Cool.



I took the responsibility of actually making the jam, so if it doesn't turn out because it wasn't boiled long enough ... yeah, my bad.



My honey was in charge of all the very hot things. Like wiping down the jars once they were full, then attaching the lids, screwing the tops on & immersing them in hot water.



The whole process took just over 2 hours. We could only make 4 pints of jam ... and all 4 are spoken for.



If you're drooling about now & say to yourself, "Hey! I want some summer/fall canned goodness!", give me some canning jars ... for every 4 jars you give me empty, I'll give you one back full! I am totally serious on this. By now you should know how I feel about stuff laying around not being used. Find me some jars so I don't have to buy new ones ... and I'll buy/harvest the food. Heck, you can bring me some stuff you want canned & I'll work out a similar deal ... give me enough foodstuffs to make 4 jars worth of things & I'll give you one back. It's kind of labor intensive, but I love the concept. If we could just do 2 hours every weekend & have things set by for the winter, that would be so very cool.