Canning & Preserving

[Flazer]

Just got a whole crap load of glass jars and all the equipment to preserve all kinds of goodies. Does anyone make their own jam or preserve fruit, or is this a lost art from the depression era?

[RN-PRN]

I used to do it up until a couple of years ago...time is the factor. I love to make homemade jams and jellies. They taste soooooo much better. The cooked ones are better...the quick ones are...meh. I still have all of my jelly jars and some of my quart and pint jars. I used to make my own tomato puree, but again don't have the time with work, kids and my school. Hubby has a huge garden with 9 different varieties of tomatoes and used to grow a lot of paste tomatoes for me to use.

[Bageleth]

I used to can jam until 2 or 3 years ago. However, my kids decided that they no longer liked jam of any kind and my husband and I couldn't eat it fast enough, and it was affecting our weight. So I stopped making it.

I agree, the cooked jams are better, and fairly easy. I did preserve tomatoes last year as we had a lot of tomatoes from the garden. So far, I've only used the steam canner. I don't have enough experience with a pressure canner to try using that alone (I had a neighbor years ago, who told me a story of how her pressure canner exploded in her kitchen, and all of her hair was blown off of her head.........on the same day that she was supposed to get a perm.)