You may!
Thanks for noticing, Muddy. I even had a few people from here email and ask me if all is well (it is). Its always nice to be missed, but especially when it’s from people I have no close ties or history with but who, due to a shared interest in fruit and the warm and friendly community created here on growingfruit.com, have become what I genuinely consider friends. I’ve been checking in regularly and reading posts (ie lurking) but thanks to my neighbor killing all my blooms this year I haven’t had any fruit so I don’t have much to talk about! Oh well, I’ll be back to asking lots of questions this spring.
I actually knew pectin was made from fruit and plants, yet I never really considered the fact that my jams and jellies had its own pectin, though now that you pointed it out it seems very obvious. When I get my sugar, water, and fruit juice (my own juice made from boiling the fruit and evaporating much of the water) just right, my jelly looks and acts just perfect- like store bought jelly w/pectin but much much better tasting. But I’m fascinated by what you said about people used to use apple peels just for the pectin to help congeal other jellies- much the way people use processed pectin today! Very cool. BTW…what is sure-gel? Is that just another brand of pectin? Thanks.
Thank you Scott for mentioning this. When I last looked at the botulism statistics (some time ago) I found the same thing. Almost all of the botulism cases were the result of terribly dangerous practices with low acid foods. Things like Eskimos storing raw meat in plastic containers (as the link Mr. Clint posted. Thank you Mr. Clint.) In a ten year study I saw not even one case of botulism from home canned salsa (which was surprising to me given the extremely sloppy canning practices of many home canners and the not very high acid content of very ripe tomatoes.
I myself follow more the route Drew espoused. I don’t boil high acid foods (like pickles) according to USDA recs. I find they to often turn mushy. Low acid foods are by far where the lion’s share of the risk lies. I follow the approved recipes to the letter w/ low acid foods.
Drew,
One thing I might mention is that be aware home pH meters can read inaccurately. Adding NaCl can falsely cause a home pH meter to read more acidic than the food actually is (I’ve tested this.) As you mentioned, 4.6 pH is the magic number for botulism toxin production. Fruit (except tomatoes) is generally much more acidic than that (around 3.5 pH) which is why it is generally very safe from botulism. However, when adding acid to lower the pH of a low acid food, it might be best for one to bring the pH down to something lower than 4.5 to offer a higher margin of safety.
Just a thought. I’m not the canning police. 
Olpea, yes that is a very good idea, and I too do the same thing. Yes meters are not perfect, but after a lot of experience I know what to expect. Also I have found that the meters tend to error the other way. Never reading more acid than is there, but less. Litmus paper is a fine way to test the meters accuracy in this low acid range. I use steel wool to keep probe very clean, this is my biggest problem (oxidation of metal on probe causing poor detection of acids).
You could also splurge and buy a nice meter and use calibration solutions.
As a med tech I calibrated many instruments daily, I feel confident my readings are correct.
Thanks for the info on salt, I will consider that from now on. I rarely use it, as I suffer from high blood pressure, so most recipes that call for salt, I eliminate it, or lower amount. I don’t make brine solutions as the product is dangerous for me to consume.
Recently studies have shown it best to keep blood pressures super low, so recently I have adjusted medications to do just that. I have been feeling rather light headed, hoping I get used to it!
Here’s another advanced tip. When using home made tomato sauce I like to lower the acid amount from storage. Grate carrots into the sauce and this will give your sauce less acid bite. And of course only do this before using sauce, keep acidic for canning.
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We used to can hundreds of jars each season. Mostly quarts, but some pints. A combination of low and high acid foods. After a few years, we processed everything in the pressure canner in order to reduce the processing time. Canning a lot of food on the stove really heated the house up so we tried to complete the task as quickly a possible and the pressure canner helped.
Blueberry,
I’ve found water bath canning faster than pressure canning for high acid foods. The thing that always slows me down with a pressure canner is waiting for the canner to cool down before being able to take the top off and run another batch.
Besides pressure cookers reducing nutritional value by half. One reason for me is my dad had one, and it malfunctioned and exploded. It could have killed him. I suppose they are made better today. Still the lid embedded in the ceiling left a very bad impression on me.
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Olpea
You may be right about the delay in waiting for the pressure canner to cool down. We have not canned anything in over 30 years, but I still recall the amount of prep time involved in getting the vegetables ready for the canner. As we were processing the first batch in the canner we were prepping the second batch. We still have our “Stocking Up” book from Rodale press with hand written notes on the front page about the yield for certain produce. 1 bushel of beans = 27 quarts or 20 roma tomato = 1quart , 70 medium peaches = 6 quarts, or 10 dozen ears of first picking corn = 16 pints.
Drew
We had the old style canner with no gage, just a weight that rocked when the pressure was correct. Never had any problems and we would not hesitate to use it again if we had the time.
It is faster, I couldn’t agree more. I can use my canner and process all day long by just adding more water and waiting for it to boil. It is very easy to do!
It was my dad’s fault totally, I’m gun shy now though!