One For The Now And Eleven For The Later

Or 42 for the later to be more exact. Yep, I have canned 42 jars of delectable homemade jam. I have been working on these all week. This morning I did the above blueberry jam. Earlier in the week I canned peach and plum jams shown here:

And in July I did strawberry, but I forgot to take a photo of it. I just need to make 10 more jars and I'll have a year's supply of jam. My large family of six goes through about a jar a week. I like making my own with fresh local fruit. I control the ingredients, no high-fructose corn syrup and no sodium benzoate.

Most commercial jams use sodium benzoate. When it's mixed with ascorbic acid (vitamin c), it can react to form benzene, a known carcinogen. Coca-Cola removed these from their soda as a result of a lawsuit in 2007 and have a statement about it on their website. But most other sodas as well as some salad dressings and most jams still contain it. It's so important to read the ingredients on labels.

I use the Ball Blue Book and the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning as my guides. Canning is simple, fun and rewarding, you know you are preserving good wholesome food when you do it yourself. But make sure to follow all of the proper handling and processing rules to keep your food safe. Home canning is one area where you do not want to cut corners.

And a BIG THANK YOU to Vegiegail at http://hungryvegan.blogspot.com/ for giving me another one of these: