Like many things, I had built up in my mind how canning was going to be a piece of cake. And it could be when you get the hang of it. But not when you’re a newbie canner and it’s 100 degrees outside, and you have to run your stove for hours. Well, needless to say, canning is a sweaty job.

One thing that I learned is that it is very useful to have a pot of boiling water nearby in case the amount of water in the pot starts to dip down. I used fancy Weck jars for my canning. What can I say – the cute strawberry logo was irresistible, not to mention the fact that Weck is known for their jars.

I started out with a recipe for what I thought would make tomato sauce from the Ball canning guide. It ended up being more like tomato soup and never really reduced to a thick consistency.

I was slightly disheartened. But for lunch today I decided to open up a sealed jar (fearing that I had not properly canned the first batch, I had stuck them in the refrigerator with the intent of eating them soon). Oh my stars, it was delicious as a soup! I threw some large hunks of stale bread in there, too.

My kitchen was a bit of a disaster during the entire process and the stove became a tad bit crammed, but I made it work…

I’ve now decided that I want to can everything. Except for meat – I don’t understand why people do this. Someone must be doing it if the Ball canning guide has recipes for it!

Here’s my finished product. Can’t wait to eat them in the winter!

Next up – sugar-free peach jam. I’m already readying myself for a hot, sticky mess.