Jarred!

When I was a little kid we had a food storage room in the basement of our 1950's style bungalow. It was a scary room hidden behind the furnace. On the rare occasion when I'd lose a bet with my brothers and have to peek into that cave of a room I was terrified! Inside on shelves were oozing bottles of goo and unidentifiable substances. Occasionally we would hear a bottle explode and the contents would end up dripping and coagulating on the dusty shelves. I don't really know when the bottles were put into that room. I never saw my Mother can or process food. I only knew that was our "food storage". To this day I am grateful the Russians decided not to invade as I am sure THAT canned food was more lethal than the Russian Army!
Canning did NOT interest me and I did not have happy memories of canned food. I was unprepared for the idea of canning and preserving local fruits and vegetables when I got interested in the "food movement". Ewwww...who would want to do that?! Well...as it happens...a good friend of mine suggested that I give it a try. Normally, I would ignore such a suggestion, but, this friend happens to be pretty cool and cutting edge and usually has fabulous ideas! She told me ridiculous stories of the things she was canning. Most involved liquor to some degree or another! I was intrigued. She signed us up for a canning class held in the lovely kitchen of a local brew pub! Say what? Yes, they served beer during the class! What were we canning? Drunken peaches! This was starting to sound better and better!
I was surprised at the class demographic. Young professionals, twenty somethings, married couples. Who knew? I loved the class! I loved the process. I loved the product. And so...my jarring journey began!