Maria asked about my favorite canning resources.  Here are my favorite books:

Stocking Up: How to Preserve the Foods You Grow, Naturally - This is a great resource on everything from canning, root cellaring, drying, and more.  Its not a book I use constantly but it is one I refer to often and honestly I can’t imagine my bookshelf without it.

Putting It Up With Honey: A Natural Foods Canning and Preserving Cookbook - For anyone interested in canning without using sugar this is a must have.  The recipes are great and the practical advice, like charts with processing times, is invaluable.

Art of Preserving - This is a gorgeous book, the photos alone make it worth owning.  The recipes too are grand!  Lots of jam/jelly recipes in here.  However, this is not the best book for beginners in that the author doesn’t talk alot about processing times, etc.  It’s a great book for gifts ideas and unusual recipes - the author talks alot about making things and simply refrigerating instead of processing for long term storage.

Ball Blue Book of Preserving - The home canning classic, honestly no canner should be without this book in my opinion.  You can usually find it at thrift stores and yard sales relatively easily and in general is just a great resource on the basics of canning.

Putting Food By  - A great resource full of wonderful recipes, hints, etc.  Again this is just a good resource to have on your shelf.

My favorite canning resource, however; has to be other canners.  If you can find someone to actually go through the process with you, it’s a wonderful educational experience on many different levels.  I think the things most people fear about canning really can’t be overcome until they get hands-on.  Reading books on the topic are very helpful and should be used as a reference, however; the thing I’m learning from the canning classes I’ve been teaching is that until students actually go through the canning process themselves, they are afraid of poisioning their families.  Its not until after the jars they’ve filled have come out of the canner and sealed that they really start to feel comfortable and it really helps if they have someone to ask questions too that may not be as easily found in books.