All Four Burners

One of the things I like about that book is that it covers a lot more than only water-bath canning. It also covers dehydration and pickling too. I found out about it from the Ag Ext office, but had to order it directly from U of GA as the local office was out out of them. I have bought it for friends and everyone has loved it.

However, it must be remembered it’s *the USDA’s* more recent ideas of what is safe to can (or otherwise preserve) and the safe methods of doing that. There’s a lot of old information readily available on food preservation… some of it is safe and some is or may be questionable. My grandmother preserved food from her garden and farm, including meats and low acid vegetables, by water-bath canning in a clothes boiler on a wood stove. Nobody ever got sick… never even one problem. Now-a-days, one with access to current information would never think it safe to do as she did, and yet she nourished her family for years and years that way.

I am not sure what to think of that paradox. Sometimes with some things, I disagree with currently accepted dogma and so walk a different path. With canning… maybe not so much. It seems to me that to follow current guidelines for canning does not adversely affect the quality of the canned items and the sanction for screwing up in canning is fairly dramatic, and so I tow the USDA’s line here.

In your case, with a deficit of readily available resources in your local area, I’d like to refer you to a YahooGroup that I have found very educational: The group name is “Home Canning” (http://www.yahoogroups.com/neo/groups/home_canning/info) and they only advise and allow the USDA’s accepted methods. I have found them a huge resource… maybe not as good as having Master Canners in your local At Ext office, but a good substitute since you do not. Thanks again for what I expect will be a delightful recipe.