Fruit Slinger

The other day after I made strawberry-rhubarb preserves, I canned whole strawberries.

Yesterday, I made strawberry preserves. I also made strawberry-raspberry preserves with balsamic vinegar and black pepper. This is ridiculous, but: It was the first time I've combined fruits in a preserve. And the first time I'd added other flavors and spices.

As you can see, it's really off the hook around here.

At any rate, normally I'd wait until late autumn before I tried the strawberry-raspberry preserves with balsamic vinegar and black pepper. But this morning I found that a jar hadn't sealed properly. It's not a big deal. It happens occasionally, though I think I went the whole season without it happening last year.

I could have reprocessed the jar and sealed it. If it were anything but the S-RPWBVABP, probably I would have just done that.

But I didn't.

I buttered my cast-iron frying pan and toasted some bread in it. The toasted bread was drizzled with olive oil. Over this went a few dollops of strawberry-raspberry preserves with balsamic vinegar and black pepper.

The ruby-red berries sat on a golden sheen of olive oil.

So far this season, I'm up to eight half-pint jars of preserves and three pint jars of whole berries. After breakfast, I labeled the jars.

I like the strawberry-raspberry preserves with balsamic vinegar and black pepper.

But if the name were any longer I'd have to write "continued on next jar."

* * *

It would make me the happiest fruit blogger in the world if Fruit Slinger inspired someone to make and can preserves for the first time.

You do need mason jars with sealable lids . You don't need a lot of special equipment. Yes, there are things you can buy that will make your life easier. But if you have the jars and a few pots — one of them large enough to hold the mason jars with an inch or so of boiling water above it — then you are ready to go.

You'll need a way to lift the hot jars in and out of the water, too, so a jar-grabber is a good idea. But I managed without one for a while. So it can be done.

Beyond that, you'll need a recipe. The Ball book is a good place to start. It gives you step-by-step instructions.

My goal is to make you so sick and tired of hearing me talk about canning that you do it yourself in a desperate attempt to shut me up.

I mean, it won't work. But I'm just saying.