Tips for Beginners (Canning)

I had a friend pose the question recently if I had any tips for new canners.  Well I can certainly think of a few!  I'd love to hear more from any of you who have tried some home canning, from fellow beginners to pickled veterans.  In the meantime, here's a handful.
(These are mostly aimed at water bath canning, fyi)

• Have a stack of hand towels or rags at the ready.  You'll need one damp one to wipe the rims, a dry one to hold the jars while doing so, and there's a great chance that you'll just need a few extra.  Trust me on this one, you don't want to be running in circles around the kitchen after you've just dropped a huge glob of jam on your big toe!
• Never put your hot glass jars, empty or full, on a bare countertop, oven, or table.  That gives them a great opportunity to crack and ruin your project.  Or your will to can.
• Take a medium sized baking sheet and line it with a hand towel.  Sit this next to your canner and use it as a jar-friendly counter space.  Not only will the towel keep the jars safe, but if a jar should crack, the contents will mostly be caught by the baking sheet.  One less headache.

Admittedly a little hard to see...but you get the gist.

Oven-dried Cherries

I give myself very good advice,

but I very seldom follow it.

                                                                                   -Alice in Wonderland

Alice and I have that in common.  Remember how I JUST SAID to get your cherries squared away within 24 hours of picking?  Well I didn't do that.  I picked all the stems off of a pretty sizable batch, washed them, and then got lazy and stuck them in the fridge over night.  The next morning they were all yuckish.

See how they've all started turning brown near where the stem was?

The Miracle of Fruit

Have you ever watched a piece of fruit develop from a flower?

Chances are, unless you have some sort of fruit tree or vine in your 

yard, you probably haven't been able to enjoy this phenomenon.  Let's have a quick look through pictures from my peach tree.  With the exception of the last picture, these were all taken on the same day, of flowers in different stages on the tree.

Maybe this sounds a bit science-class for you.

But I promise you, it's pretty cool.

(also, if you have young children of the question-asking age, it might end up being convenient)