Three Dollar Jam and Botulism

Dear TEAMS,

This morning, I crossed another thing off my bucket list.  I have always wanted to know how to “can” food by placing the prepared food in sterilized jars, sealing them, and then processing them in boiling water.  Right now, my limited exposure to canning happened about 4 years ago when I canned some jam using the inversion method.  I wasn’t concerned about spoilage due to the high sugar content and the fact that we ate a lot of jam quickly when you were younger!

For some reason, I was always scared to can the “real” way.  Mostly, I remember hearing the horror stories from my mother and one of my bosses in my 20s about women who didn’t process their green beans long enough and killed someone with botulism.  To my knowledge, I never saw my mother can although I know she knew how; she got together with some friends once and canned quarts and quarts of something she named “Tompepcel” (Tomato, pepper, and celery juiced together).  I never, ever, saw her drink it.  I don’t know if she was trying to preserve a memory or was scared of possible death from botulism.

But, after reading thoroughly through so many articles, and knowing J and S down the street can a lot (J mostly, because of his gardening), and knowing of NO ONE in my entire life who has dropped dead of botulism from home-canned foods, I decided it was time to try it.  I picked 4 quarts of strawberries last night from our garden and washed them and decided I would make strawberry jam today.  I also decided I would get out my grandmother’s canner that I rescued from your Grandma’s house during The Cleanup and I would process them in the hot water bath.  And, I would kill no one with botulism in the process.

There was a strange sensation pulling this huge canner out of the very dated box.  The last person who likely touched this was my grandmother as she put it away for the last time that season after canning, probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s.  I don’t know the last thing she ever canned.  I’m guessing she didn’t know it was the last time she would can, that the disease that was causing her to forget everything but stuff she knew from way back would claim her canning capabilities in a year.  But her hands had touched it, and now mine were, too.

Same, too, the feeling of connection when I finally lifted the wire basket with the 8 prepared jars of “red gold” (as your Uncle K termed it) and put it into the boiling water.  I thought about how carefully I was placing it the basket in the pot of boiling water and then wondered how many hundreds of times your Great-Grandma put the same basket in without giving it a second thought.  All she knew was that canning was a necessity due to the salary your Great-Grandpa earned in ministry.  I was canning for the luxury of saving myself $3 on a jar of jam.  She canned because they wouldn’t have jam or peaches (and yes, even green beans!) if she didn’t.  How thankful I am for the prayers she must have prayed that I would be blessed.

When A got home from work this afternoon, she saw the 8 jars on the counter and said, “Wow…you CANNED?!?!  Must be nice to only have 2 kids to homeschool now so you have time!”  I smiled.  She didn’t even ask me if it was botulism-free.

Love,