"W. Baker" > wrote in message
...
>
> I occasionally use the Smuckers no sugar jams and they are not bad. they
> also must use some preservatives as they don't go moldy dquickly as do the
> home make ones. I have tried the strawberry but can't find many berries
> in tere and the apricot which I use for cooking as it makes a good fake
> cakes, etc. They com ein, I think 10 r 12 oz jars which might be fine for
> Angela.
>
Angela likes the Smuckers but I don't. So I won't buy it. Heh! I used to
buy Crofters at my health food store but now that they're closed, there's
not a convenient place for me to buy it. I can get it here but would have
to go to a store that I wouldn't normally shop at. Polanders is just as
good. Can't remember what brand I got at Walmart but it's a similar sized
jar.

> As for learning how to can, I learned mostly from the Ball blueBook, kind
> of the boble of canning, but they don't hav emuch on no-sugar stuff
> although I did used to make a diet ketchup/chili sauce fromthat book that
> I liked in early dys after my diagnosis. Inthose days and earlier I was
> canning tmatoes adn freezing spagehettisauce as we would go to thelocal
> farms raround Labor day and pick a bushel of tomatoes adnthenput themup as
> well as orgyon those absolutely delicious tomatoes! Later, as we got
> older, we wold buy a bushel of all ready picked ripe tomatoes for about
> $9-11 a bushel adn I woud put them up. I have even dried tomatoes havign
> gotten a small (4 tray) dryer from Waldbaums. With no car and no longer
> beign able to drive, I can't get to those farms about 30 miles fromour
> country house so my only canning is jam once or twice a year. I hope I
> get enough blackberries for a second batch. I used to make sugared jams
> for Syd and the boys as well as sugar-free for me. We had suffieiecnt
> berry harvast for that, but now other weeds seem to be takign over the
> blackberry patch.

We put up tons of pears and applesauce when we first moved here but never
again. We found that not only did nobody else really want our canned food
but neither did we! Oh Angela loves applesauce and canned pears. Just not
the homemade stuff. I think she fell into the trap that a lot of kids do
now. Something we didn't have when I was a kid. Single serve packets of
things. Apparently to a kid, a single serve packet is waaaay better than
anything else. And forget about portioning things out at home. Apparently
not the same.

I just checked the Bartlett. I don't want to kill it off because we need it
to pollinate the other pear tree. I just wish it would produce lightly and
of course this year, it's loaded! Wasn't too bad last year but it has some
sort of disease or something. None of the fruit was edible last year.
Looks like a few might be edible now but most of it not. Not sure what the
other pears are. They are very large and light green with a slight bit of
blush on them. Very tasty. We have a few on that tree. We probably won't
eat them but I have someone who will take them.