Hello Dolly!

(Note: This is actually an older post...I thought I posted it awhile back, only to discover it was only a draft!)

My new All-American pressure canner came and I am really looking forward to using her! (Yes, it's a girl, and her name is Dolly.) I won't degrade my children by saying she's a new member of the family, but she will definitely be loved, respected and cared for. I chose the 21 1/2 quart because it seemed like the most practical for the cost. I can do 7 quarts at once, or 19 pints. It can also be used as a water bath canner, and as a pressure cooker for roasts and such. I didn't know that you could cook multiple foods at once in a pressure cooker without them taking on each other's flavors, did you? Interesting...

Anyway, I am planning a few pre-harvest recipes to familiarize myself with the canner. I don't want to be working out the kinks and have a learning curve when there's 20 pounds of tomatoes on the line. I would much rather mess up a small batch of strawberry preserves. That is the first thing I'm going to can. (Now, I know that my purpose in this is preserving in-season, yada yada yada, but I'm not concerning myself with that right now. I'm just learning. Plus, the only thing technically 'in season' right now are greens.) I also need to select something for regular pressure canning, because the water bath is a different technique, and I want to have tried both at least once.

Garden plans are in the works, news and pictures to come very soon!