Pickling and canning? Of course you can!

You can conquer canning. Here are 12 recipes for sweet jams, savory chutneys, and crunchy pickles a plenty that will leave your mouth watering and your can-do attitude soaring.

Blackberry jam

The Rowdy Chowgirl
This jam, spread on my pancakes, is divine. It tastes like blackberries; bright, fresh, summery, and just sweet enough.

5 cups crushed blackberries
1 box (1.75 ounces) regular powdered fruit pectin
6 1/3 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon unsalted butter (optional)

1. Prepare canning jars and lids and bring water in water bath canner to a boil.

2. Pour blackberries into an 8-quart stainless steel stockpot.

3. In a small bowl, combine pectin and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Gradually stir into the fruit. Add butter, if using.

4. Bring fruit mixture to a full rolling boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Gradually stir in the remaining sugar. Return to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute.

5. Remove pot from heat and skim off any foam. Let jam cool in the pot for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles. Wipe jar rims and threads with a clean, damp paper towel. Center hot lids on jars and screw on bands until finger-tip tight.

7. Place jars in canner, making sure they are covered by at least 1 inch of water. Cover and bring to a gentle boil. Process 4-oz jars and 8-oz jars for 10 minutes; process 1-pint jars for 15 minutes.

8. Remove jars from canner and place on a wire rack or cloth towel. Let cool for 24 hours, then check seals. Wash and dry jars and store in a cool, dry, dark location.

Read the full post by Stir It Up! guest blogger  Christina Masters: Jam

12 of 12

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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