Canning

Frustrated by the enormous but necessary price fluctuations of summer berries, particularly blueberries, I started thinking about the possibilities for preserving summer fruits for the winter. The most obvious solution to this problem is freezing the berries. Well, living in an apartment and interested in solving problems in not quite the most obvious way, canning became of particular interest. After a lot of research and discussion with ... mostly old people, I got a bit nervous. Word from ... these old people was that canning was hard, despite the seeming simplicity. My own grandmother told me that canning berries was impossible. Well, I bought jars and decided to use one of my afternoons off to make two preliminary pints of canned blueberries.

I used a large sauce pot rather than a canner based on price and the fact that I already had a large sauce pot. I was worried about the height of the pot, but it proved to be just enough. I cleaned and boiled the jars, filled them with blueberries and hot apple juice (I opted out of syrup for the sake of health) and reboiled them. That's as simple as it was to produce. While I have not tried them yet since I am waiting until fall, only a small amount of discoloration that was to be expected, they seem ready to go.

One mystery: In theory, the filled and sealed mason jars come out of the boiling water sealed but not vacuumed. As the air inside the jar cools and condenses, it pulls in the safety popper thing that denotes a properly sealed jar. Strangely, the jars came out already sealed and vacuumed. I have yet to figure out the physics of how the contents of the jar could have reduced in volume enough to vacuum seal the jar while boiling. Frankly, it's driving me a bit nuts.

Next project: canning bolognese sauce. This follow-up will make meals during school and work much easier, and the acidity of the tomatoes should make canning easy.

By the way, my kitchen storage is now filled with canned blueberries, and it looks pretty cool.