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Show l START YOUR HOME CANNING EARLY! i I A wide variety of early vegetables vegeta-bles and fruits can soon be on YOUR shelves in Ball Mason Jars ready for winter meals. Plan to start your home canning when the first fruits and vegetables come to market. When they are best for table use, they are best for home canning. That's aii easy rule to i follow. You will need a steam pressure E cooker or' canner for processing I low-acid vegetables such as asparagus, aspara-gus, beans, beets, carrots, corn and peas. Acid foods fruits, tomatoes, to-matoes, pickled beets, rhubarb and sauerkraut should be processed in a boiling water bath. The steam pressure cooker provides pro-vides the hotter than boiling tm- perature needed to destroy . bacteria bac-teria in low-acid foods. Be sure the gauge is accurate and all parts of the cooker clean and in good working order. Your water bath canner may be any metal container with lid and a basket or rack to keep the jars from touching the bottom. A wash boiler with a wooden rack placed in the bottom will serve. Use the open kettle method for jams, preserves, relishes and pickles, but this method is not a reliable one for canning fruits and tomatoes. Have your supply of Ball Mason Jars and Ball Dome Caps ready at hand as the canning season Photo courtesy Ball Broa. Co. starts. Examine the tops of jars to be sure they are smooth and free of sharp edges. If jars are nicked, discard them as they may not seal properly; it is better to buy a new jar than risk losing a pint or quart of your precious home-canned food. If you do both canning and freezing, have .a supply of Ball "All-Purpose" (Freezer) Jars to use for either purpose. These jars are made of glass with high silica content and may be used for both canning and freezing. They come fitted with wide-mouth Ball Dome Caps, which close in a vacuum seal for home canning or twist airtight for freezing. |