Comfort food

I enjoy canning and preserving food. My Mom has done it for years and so did my Gram before her. Some of my earliest memories are in the kitchen when Mom was making spaghetti sauce or tomato soup.

There’s something comforting about turning extra food into useful, delicious things my family enjoys. I find comfort in feeding my family and other people.

I used to make my own beer so moving towards canning and preserving my own food was a logical step.

I started about a year ago making my own tomato sauce. I’ve also made apple sauce, apple butter, chili sauce, and today I tried my hand at strawberry jam.

It tastes delightful, but I’m not sure about the consistency. I think it’s a bit runny, everyone else seems to think it will gel up after it’s cooled.

The only other problem with the recipe I followed is that it was supposed to make 8, 8 ounce jars. I would up with 12, 8 ounce jars and some extra. I probably could have filled 15, 8 ounce jars.

With all the uncertainty in our world these days, it’s not a bad idea to make everything stretch as far as we can. Our garden is going strong and will hopefully provide enough goodies for the rest of the year and with some canning into the winter.