Can It!

I have decided to share my canning with you. I usually can on Sunday, so I'm hoping to share on Sunday nights.
I just started canning this summer. I always thought it was a hard thing to do--time consuming, lots of work, time consuming... Several of my friends can, and I got curious. One of them is a mom who works full-time AND homeschools her two high school girls. I finally decided if she can do it, surely I can.
My first canning experiment was with another friend who had never canned either. I stopped by her house to drop off a few things and saw pears ON THE GROUND in the front yard. I asked her what in the world they were doing on the ground and if she was going to can them. She said she didn't know how so we decided to take a stab at it together. She also has a peach tree in the back yard. We met on Friday mid-morning and together put up about 14 half pints of "Pear Blueberry Preserves"

and "Ginger Peach Preserves."

We finished up around dinner time. All-in-all it took us about six hours--including two trips back to my house AND three trips to the store for stuff we didn't have--to put up about 30 half pints of jam. Not bad for a day's work.
Later Dimples wanted to know how much it cost per jar. I told him it was probably more expensive than the store, but that I'd figure it up. It turned out to be about $.75 per jar. If you have to buy the fruit, it will be more expensive. (Pears and peaches from her trees, frozen blueberries were given to us by a neighbor) Most of the jam costs between $1.25 and $1.50 per half pint to make. So, really not bad for a day's work.
Just can it!