To Can or Not to Can...

Canning. It really is a wonderful thing. My inner farmgirl (cause we all know that "farmgirl" is a condition of the heart) dreams of the day when I will have a massive garden and spend summer days filling my pantry till my little heart is content.

You probably would never know it now but I grew up a city girl. We didn't do much canning in the suburbs of Long Island, okay we didn't do any canning at all. But a lot has changed over these last 10 yrs in the south. Last year was my first attempt at canning. My mother in law brought me a huge box of Tomatoes, Granger County Tomatoes. This county is known for their maters, the best in Eastern TN. Remaining true to my roots I decided the first thing I would can would be Marinara Sauce. With little help from my Mother in Law I fumbled through my first go at it.

Let me back up here. Before I even started canning I researched oh boy did I research. I know you true blue southern girls out there are probably lettin' out a big ol' "OH LAWD". But I really didn't know what the heck I was doing. I felt pretty confident but there was one thing that freaked me out. HEADSPACE. I mean geeze don't tell someone who is OCD if you don't leave enough headspace bacteria can form. Maybe I shoud have titled this post OCD instead.

So back to canning. Last week my kitchen was flooded with 3 pecks of peaches. So I plugged away. Excuse me while I clean the peach butter out of my ears. I had so much peach butter I had to brake out the jars again. It went great. I was thrilled. That was until I took a picture to show you. That does not look like a 1/4inch headspace to me! Please Lord don't let bacteria grow in my peach butter.