Adventures in Canning- 1st Time

When I was a little girl, I remember visiting my Grandfather at the house he built with his own hands, on top of a mountain in New Hampshire. He had amazing gardens. He would harvest the glorious foods from his gardens, pickle them, can them, and his basement had a large section of his famous homemade pickles, and so on. It wasn't until I got older that I realized the hard work that went into those rows and rows of beautifully jarred delights, and exactly how beautiful it was.

I'm now finding myself experiencing a strong desire to grow, preserve, can, jar, and put more of myself into my food, and more of my own food into my body. If I grow it, cook it, and can it, I know where, exactly, it's coming from, what is in it, and so on. I also need simple, thoughtful gift-giving ideas, and frankly, I can't think of anything better to give someone than something that you made, put love into, and sealed and labeled yourself.

I recently purchased my first book to help me learn recipes as well as the process of canning. The glorious process of putting food in jars. This book, is in fact, called Food in Jars- Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round. 

 Today, I made my first attempts.  First up, I started very simply with Rosemary Sea Salt (Rosemary from my balcony Garden):

Next up was Rhubarb Syrup (Simple Syrup): I cut this recipe in half to try it out, and see how it tastes, etc. I think I'll be trying to make Italian Sodas with it this evening. I wish you could see the color in person, and smell it! Glorious!

I ended today's adventures by making Strawberry-Rhubarb Butter: The recipe in the book is for Orange- Rhubarb Butter, but I used lemon juice in place of the orange juice, and rather than using all rhubarb, I used half rhubarb, half strawberry.

I'll have to report back on how everything turned out! If I could tell on aroma alone, I'd say it was a successful 1st attempt! I'm hoping to make Grampy proud!