by Dawn Sihlis
(Tofield, AB. Canada)
My husband and I enjoy canning and grow an enormous garden for this purpose. We had a friend stay for the weekend during our bountiful harvest of cucumbers, tomatoes, jam, etc. Our friend like myself, is a musician and he and I wrote a song about safe canning appropiately titled, "Botulism Ain't No Fun", written to be played on guitar and banjo. I am a real stickler for safe home canning procedures and always tell my friends about the proper methods.
On Sunday after canning was complete and our friend was ready to head home. We gave him a few jars of various things such as, salsa, pickles, jams, tomatoes there were at least a dozen jars of canned goods for him. We also sent him back with some frozen meat wrapped in brown freezer paper and bagged it all in a couple of bags and sent him on his way. He lived a couple of hours drive from us and arrived home quite late. Later that week our friend called and during our conversation I asked him if he was enjoying the flavour of fresh home canned goods. He said, "what are you talking about? I said, "you know the ones we sent you home with." There was a long slient pause on the line and his voice in panic said, "Oh no, I totally forgot about them and when I got home I put the grocery bags in the freezer thinking that the only stuff in them was meat." He went and checked his freezer in that moment and took out the jars. Interestingly, none of the jars broke, the headspace provided enough expansion room. Now that was an example of the long method for making freezer jam, haha. Happy canning everyone!!!