Nothing says time for canning like the typical sweltering weather of mid to late August. You know when it hits the high 80′s or 90′s that it is time to spend a couple of hours couped up in the kitchen with a monster size kettle of boiling water. This being said, I love to can. There is just something so comforting and domestic about “putting up” the fresh fruits and veggies you have been tending in the garden all summer long (or that you have carefully picked out at a local farm stand!). Years ago I started slow, first too nervous to actually “can” I chose to freeze strawberry jam and applesauce. Then our garage fridge stopped working and I had strawberry jam streaked down the back of the freezer, all of that hard work chucked in the trash – not to mention the gooey sticky mess left to clean up! I still do not can anything that needs to be done in a pressure cooker, but I do can strawberry jam, grape jelly, grape juice, salsa, apple butter, apple pie filling and this year I tried dill pickles. I still prefer to freeze green beans, applesauce, shredded zucchini and corn. 
It is so nice to pull out something you have made – it may seem time consuming in August, but when I want to make an apple pie and the store just has nasty old apples, all I need to do is open a jar of filling and it is so worth it. In this time of disposable/instant/unhealthy food it is refreshing to empty and refill those canning jars knowing that the food inside only has in it what YOU put in it! Canning is the ultimate (almost) free food. You can buy a couple packets of seeds and be set for green beans all year long. I welcome any easy recipes for other things to can!
Cheap food
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