Botulism in a Bottle

There's something about the pressure canner that scares me. It probably is related to heating glass jars in a 240 degree, pressurized receptacle. If that thing blows, you're dead. But say it doesn't blow. Say you do get these beautiful jars of green beans. You're still in danger. Those innocent looking green bean may not be so innocent. If you happen to ingest an invisible toxin, then wham! You're dead. It all just seems too risky. Growing up, my mom always canned stuff. But pressure cooking? No way.

The Doomsday Divas and Dudes (a Food Storage and Emergency Prep group) decided to face our collective fear of pressure cooking. Carrie, one of my heroes, nonchalantly demonstrated the process. Admittedly, my fear of pressure cooking was not based on ever having seen it done until this night. Turns out, the whole process is straight-forward. However, I was still scared to try it on my own. The next day when I was making another batch of beans, I made two panicked phone calls to Carrie before the pressure cooker ever left "0" psi (solution to problem #2: screw the lid on tight to "closed"). The beans look okay. No. They look beautiful! I'm still nervous to eat them, though. And my respect for the pressure canner remains intact.

Now that that is all said, I must say there is something supremely satisfying about seeing rows and rows of fruits and veggies you've preserved yourself. I feel like it ties me to generations past, not to mention what it does for feelings of self-reliance. Not that I'm going to start making my own clothes or anything extreme like that ... but ... hmm ... a small sheep in the backyard would be quite picturesque ...