I can't decide how I feel about canning. I try to embrace the trendy "urban homesteader" ethos - veggie garden, compost, farmer's market, etc. - but canning is just
so much work. And so much standing up. For so much effort, I'm usually disappointed with the canned yield from what seems like a mountain of fresh produce. Plus, I hear there's some debate about the nutritional value of canned foods. I'm not one for counting calories and making sure I get my recommended daily allowance of vitamins, but I've read a bit about the process of water-bath canning destroying all the nutrients in otherwise healthy foods. As with most information on nutrition, I have no idea whether or not this is actually true.
However, there's something pretty satisfying about seeing jars of homemade canned goods lined up all pretty-like, in quaintly old-fashioned Ball jars whose design hasn't changed since... forever. There's a real feeling of accomplishment, too, to see your winter meals (or at least part of them) stretching before you in those jars: time capsules containing the bounty of summer.
