Broke Girls Guide to Canning

I lack a canner and the funds to purchase one, but I do have a large enamel stock pot and a very resourceful mother.  She let me in on a little homesteader trick to get around that whole big fat canner/ rack thing.  This little trick happens to include one of my favorite things: cord wood rounds. There is a special little place in my heart for these little wooden pancakes and I get excited whenever I find a purpose for them (other than firewood of course)

We end up with a lot of these because someone (not me) always cuts the logs longer than our splitter

I used roughly 3" diameter rounds, 1" thick (they have to be even so the jars sit level).  I washed and scrubbed the seasoned (dry) rounds to remove any loose bits.  I was able to fit 5 jars around the edge of my 10" diameter stock pot.  I washed and scrubbed the seasoned (dry) rounds to remove any loose bits before laying them in the pot.

It worked fairly well, but they floated to the surface when the pot was filled with water, which made inserting the jars into the boiling bath cumbersome. Had I followed my mother's directions of using a round slightly smaller than the diameter of my pot and about 2" thick the problem would have been avoided. You will need a jar lifter if using this method.

Garlic Dill Zucchini Pickles using this Food in Jars recipe. My go to source for all things food preservation.  The jar with the orange curved pieces is round zucchini that I believe cross pollinated with the pumpkins. I only made one jar and plan to eat them first to see if they are tasty.

Round Zucchini