Full circle is where I am at and now a ton of hard work is ahead of me!

When I bought my house in late 2007 there were a bunch of canning jars left behind by the previous owner and I was mortified that I would have to deal with them. So in true Jules style I stuck them in a garage closet and then proceeded to stack crap on them until I essentially forgot they were there. Fast forward five years and my house is a whirling canning factory….well not really a factory but if you are afraid that the olden ways are going to rub off on you if you touch a canning jar I would stay away from my house. I remember canning tomatoes with my mother when I was younger and hated every minute of it…..probably because it was hot in the house and the stove was even hotter and we had no air conditioning so I was a hot miserable whiny mess, not unlike my own children.

So what changed to take me from hating this to embracing and expanding it? I told you I need a pintervention…here is the pin that started it all. Not only is this cheesecake amazingly delicious it last a lot longer once it’s sealed in the jars. This also spurred an interest in going back to the days in my mother’s hot kitchen; well everything but the hot part because I still don’t do intense heat well. So I proceeded to experiment with ways to get all types of food to seal in the jars so I could cook when I had time and still eat really well even when my family is crazy busy.

If the 2 dedicated cabinets aren’t proof enough that I have fully embraced canning then the 300+ canning jars I conned my mother into buying at an estate sale for me while I was working sure has to be some type of proof for you.

This is a very small portion of the jars..there is
 still another box and 3 brown shopping bags full!

 

My vow is to experiment with and share the adventures along the way while I break away from the ho-hum flavors of canning from days gone by. There will be very few shriveled up tomatoes in jars at my house, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try my hand at all kinds of sauces and pastes that I can use well into the winter months and keep my family from consuming the center aisle stuff from the grocery store!

 

 Also since I wrote this 2 days ago during my lunch break just didn't get it online I also purchased an entire root cellar full of jars....but they have food in them that has been there for quite some time. The food is going to definitely go back to the earth in the form of compost. The jars will then all have to be soaked, high heat washed and boiled before I will feel comfortable putting food in them.