This second installment is written in the series: A Journey of Dreams. Previous article, “An Unexpected Beginning Preparing My Heart” can be read here.
So…an Insta-pot doesn’t make a good hot-water canner. Just sayin’.
My Journey began with a lot of heat, a lot of standing, and a lot of anxiety. I spent several weeks reading every Pinterest article I could find on canning, and I learned a few interesting things. First, you need jars. Yeah, that’s obvious, right?
You’d like to think so, wouldn’t you?
My dear readers, I promise to be nothing but completely candid about what happened in my kitchen on a hot Florida summer night.
It was not pretty.
Okay, so maybe it was my fault for deciding to HOT-water can inside during a Florida summer, where the outside temperature was nearly 90. Definitely should have thought that through first. And maybe it was a little bit my fault for attempting to do this after a long day at work and dealing with my children. And maybe it was my fault for trying this during that special time of the month all we women look forward to.
Maybe those parts were my fault…but Imma blame it on the strawberries.
Strawberry season here in Florida arrives and flashes past almost before you have a chance to stop and enjoy it, so when I saw the quarts of strawberries at Aldi for $.99 a quart, you can bet your buttered biscuits I was jumping on that. I got them home, washed them and soaked them in one part vinegar to four parts water, and cut them up carefully. I even put some of them into the freezer thinking, “Well, when they thaw, they’ll be easier to mash up!”
Oh you silly, crazy woman, what were you thinking?
With strawberries waiting in the fridge, I did the frantic Flight-of-the-Bumblebees dance to get everything I thought I’d need. I hit up Amazon for 16oz jars with lids and rings. I found a home canning kit at Walmart that had all the weird-looking devices I would need in silicone “for easy cleaning”. I hurried home to read and re-read my book on country canning, and I spent a whole night planning my attack. I would boil the jars, then simmer (not boil) the lids, so they would go on properly, while I mixed up a batch of Strawberry-Honey Butter (Pinterest recipe, if you were curious). I would use my new silicone funnels to gently pour the just-cooked butter into the still-hot jars, being sure to give enough headspace and remembering to wipe the edge, then use my new magnetic tool to fish out the lids from the not-quite-boiling pot, and set them on just right, then use my new gloves to tighten the rings to fingertip tight, and gently use my jar lifter to set the cans into the boiling hot water.
Yeah, so none of that happened.
It turns out, the jars I thought I got for a bargain were too large for any fruit canning. Did I use them anyway? I sure did.
The Strawberry Honey Butter recipe worked great, except that it took like four hours to cook and I had to stand right next to it and stir it the whole time to keep it from burning.
Those strawberries I thought would be mushy after I froze them? Yeah, thawing them out took probably two of those four hours.
The silicone funnel? Too big for the opening of the jar. Did I see this before I tried to fill the jar? No, no I did not.
And the Insta-pot I thought I could use as a canner? The jars-well, jar, because the recipe said it made a cup and my jar was a whole cup- the jar was too tall and wouldn’t submerge.
I ended up surrounded by a huge mess of strawberry detritus, sticky honey, random jars and hot water, sweaty and ready to cry…
But that one jar had properly sealed. The lid was depressed, meaning that the last-minute hot water bath in my largest stockpot, weighed down by a Pyrex measuring cup full of water so it wouldn’t tip over, actually worked.
I sat at my dining room table, in my nearly new apron, and stared in awe and wonderment at a single, large jar of strawberry honey butter, perfectly preserved, and felt a swell of accomplishment. My kitchen may look like a veritable bomb went off, but today, this day, I learned something I didn’t know when I woke up. And you know what? I learned a lot of what not to do along the way.
So, what did I learn?
I learned that a small kitchen means a lot more preparation. When I can again, I will do all my prep work beforehand. That means hulling and cutting my strawberries, having them already in bowls. It means knowing my jars, and knowing that tall, 16oz jars are for canning veggies, not fruit. I will boil my jars beforehand, then use hot water to warm them so they don’t break when hot food goes into them. I will do the footwork early, so the process will be smoother.
I will write or print up the recipe and instructions, and tape them to my cabinet, so I can reference them quickly. I will have a fan in my kitchen.
Pinterest is great for ideas, but something will always go awry. You may feel lost or frustrated when the day is over, but give yourself some grace. My jar sealed; it’s a good day. I might hurt and ache and cry, but something new was made that night, and will be made again.
Next time, I will make more. I will can them in the right jars. I will prepare the stock pot and use my Pyrex baking pan (9″×9″) to hold down all the jars. I will have a fan to keep me cool.
According to Dear Husband, who ate that strawberry honey butter on his toast every morning for three weeks, it was better than any jam he’d ever tasted.
So, yeah. Imma do it again. And next time…yeah, Imma still blame the strawberries.
