I know we're not supposed to use jars like the thin mayo jars for any of our
preserving stuff, and lately there's been discussion on those Classico Mason
jars and jars like them in another thread.

I just wanted to pass on my recent good luck results in experimenting with
recycled jars. For those in Canada - the Renee's Salad dressing or
President's Choice Salad dressings, in the refrigerated section of the
produce department come in a 355ml jar. I've been using these jars, over
and over again, for several years now, for BWB processing and have not had
one failure. Standard Bernardin lids fit perfectly.

The jars have no markings or moldings on them and pickled beans look
especially nice all lined up in there. I don't use them for jams or
jellies, but have used them for pickled beans, asparagus, Jardineire, Barb's
B&B's, dilly carrots, relishes and salsa. Today I'm using them for my sweet
pickled beets.

FWIW,

Kathi

Is it really possible to slip the skin from a beet?

I'm making sweet pickled beets today from the BCBoHP and instructions say
clean and scrub beets, boil til tender, immerse in cold water and slip off
skins. No can do! I've tried and tried and it just doesn't work for me. I
figure if I'm gonna end up peeling them with a knife anyway, I'd prefer to
do it before I cook them.

Ideas?

Kathi

<http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080819/LIFEST
YLE/808190336>

interesting quote: "The trend is reflected in the sales of the popular
Ball canning jars and supplies, said Chris Scherzinger, vice president
of marketing for Jarden Home Brands, the maker of Ball products. Retail
sales of Ball canning products have increased almost 30 percent this
year, and sales of the company's plastic freezing containers have
doubled in past year, according to market data from Information
Resources Inc."

FWIW.

Don't mess around with local sources if not readily available. My
local sources cost a lot MORE that ebay where I buy it by the pound.
Try to find a seller that offers combined shipping if you need
anything else. Even with shipping, it was cheaper to get food grade
ascorbic acid on ebay. Jim in so. Calif.

Well, my DH picked the last of the Bountifuls (I previously called them
Providers in error) so I froze another 7 pounds on Saturday. All in
all, that makes a total of about 27-30# of beans in 5 pickings from that
150 feet of row. I'm pretty amazed. When he was tilling up that row
after pulling the plants, a little toad jumped out into the aisle. And
despite him running the tiller, a pretty hawk rushed right by him,
zooming down like a kamikaze to snatch up that toad, and then flew off
to feast on his catch.

There's always an interesting wildlife event around here. The wren in
our garage hatched her eggs, finally, and is now feeding 5 little gaping
beaks. Soon, they'll be hopping around the garage and venturing outside.

Back in the kitchen, I've been regularly slow-roasting my cherry
tomatoes. Most are Sweet Baby Girl--- a very amazing and sweet little
strong producer. DH planted a new cultivar, Sweet Olive, this year--- a
little pear-shaped deal on an extremely puny vine with the least foliage
I've ever seen on a tomato plant. Taste is OK but we won't be planting
that one again. In fact, I'm recommending a couple fewer cherry
tomatoes next year and more plum type.

Hello!
I am looking for a tried and true low sugar sour cherry jam recipe.
Since they are hard to come by where I live,I dont want to mess it up.
thanks,
Sandra

Had enough pears left, dead ripe ones at that, to make a nice pear
cobbler this afternoon. Recipe straight out of the Betty Crochet
(Louisiana pronunciation of Crocker)Cookbook. Came out right nice and
was tasty as dessert after our chicken soup dinner. Especially with a
little vanilla, low fat, no sugar added, ice cream on top of the warm
cobbler. Tilly Dawg liked her share too.

In late 2006 I used a couple of 12-packs of Kerr lids when I was
pressure canning green beans. Opened the last jar yesterday and noticed
that the lid was hard to get off with the church key and, when removed,
had left a lot of sealant on the jar. Remembered that happening with
most of the Kerr lids used on the green beans. From this I am going to
postulate that the sealant was not the usual sealant on jar lids as I
have never had that happen before. The jars were all sealed but just had
the problem of the sealant sticking to the jar when opened. Any opinions
or ideas?

I went to the Illinois State Fair over the weekend. Last stop yesterday was
to pick up my jars and ribbons.

When the lady behind the counter handed me my jars, she looked at them and
saw the blue ribbon on the B&B pickles.

"Oh," she said, "You're the one who made the great bread and butter pickles!
The judge told a lot of people how delicious they were. She said the only
bread and butter pickles she ever had that were better were the ones made by
her mom, and that no one makes bread and butter pickles as good as her
mom's."

Also, judges at the Illinois fair tyically put a note on the back of the
tag. For the B&B pickles, the note read simply "Beautiful jar."

Since I used your recipe I thought you might like hearing the raves about
it.

Anny

When drying apples I'm supposed to pre-treat with ascorbic acid or
lemon juice. I'm having trouble finding either. I did find Fruit
Fresh (a gold by-product) that contains ascorbic acid. However, it
contains dextrose and other %%%%$#. I thought I saw a comment that it
wasn't a good substitute for the ascorbic acid.

I want to start drying before winter (possibly next week here) so I
will use the Fruit Fresh.

I expect the lemon juice shortage is temporary, but I would like to
know where folks usually find ascorbic acid.