It was a day for the homeschool teachers to switch roles and become students for a day. One of the moms contacted the extension office to arrange a class in pressure cooking and making jams and jellies. With the downturn in the economy, more and more are pulling out Grandma's canner and planting gardens to preserve the harvest. A WORD OF WARNING--do not use Grandma's old recipes or any recipes dated before 1989. Science caught up with home economics at that time--the ability to test pH levels of food and put thermometers inside the jars. Some things that used to be canned in boiling water now need pressure canning. Other things like pureed pumpkin shouldn't be canned at all at home. The danger isn't that you'll get peas exploded on your ceiling, but that those jars can harbor potentially deadly botulism.
For class we canned carrots and made quick grape jelly and a wonderful spiced blueberry jam. We got to taste a little leftover jam while it was still warm. Guess what my husband's fellow workers will be getting for Christmas? I ran right over to Walmart (which still had a good supply of jelly jars).
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