Canning For Beginners

Yep, that’s me.  A beginner.  With our lovely tomato plants growing, it was time to learn how to can.  I checked out some books from the library that only ended up intimidating me more.  Thankfully Ball realizes there are newbies like me out there that haven’t been canning since the 50’s.  I found a very easy, very helpful, very tangible canning kit at Wal-Mart for $10.  For ten bucks it was worth trying.  You can find it here as well. 

It comes with this cute little green basket as well as three jars and lids and an instruction manual/recipe book.  After my first attempt, I already felt like a professional.  No one told me it was this easy!  Time consuming, yes, but not difficult.  So now that I have successfully made it through three canning sessions (salsa, tomato sauce, apple juice, and apple sauce) I am ready for an upgrade.  Having only room for three cans makes the process a bit longer but it was worth it in learning how to do it and figuring out what I like canning best. 

The biggest thing I learned?  Making tomato sauce is not worth it unless you are swimming in free tomatoes.  I could only make one jar of the sauce after prepping what seemed like thousands of tomatoes (or maybe like twenty). 

Are you a canning veteran or newbie?