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If you don’t already own a copy of the Ball Blue Book, originally published early in the 20th century by the Ball Corporation of Muncie, Indiana, pick up a copy of this basic guide to home canning, preserving, and freezing. It’s a trusted authority on making all kinds of jams, jellies, pickles, and canned foods (everything from green beans and applesauce to corned beef and smelts in tomato sauce). All the mysteries of the boiling water bath, the pressure canner, and how many jars and lids to buy are revealed in this inexpensive and reliable paperback book.
Another book I go back to time and again, as our garden offers up more cukes and zukes and berries than we can possibly eat at one sitting, is Summer in a Jar by Andrea Chesman (Williamson Publishing). The beauty of this book is that it has recipes for making small quantities of pickles, relishes, chutneys, jams, and all other sorts of preserves. It’s a wonderful introduction to canning and pickling, geared to the small or medium-size garden that produces steadily during July and August. If I pick a big bowl of green beans, I can cook some of them for supper and make a pint of two of Andrea Chesman’s Dilly Beans with the rest without having to reconfigure a recipe that calls for a bushel of beans. Everything from New England Piccalilli (an invention to use up lots of green tomatoes) to Korean Kimchee (spicy fermented cabbage pickle) is here, along with classics like the afore-mentioned Dilly Beans.
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