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FAIRBANKS — I used to hide the fact that I knew how to can the food my immigrant father grew in the backyard. It was akin to wearing homemade dresses when everyone else had store-bought, something shameful and old world.

When I finally grew up enough to take some pride in how resourceful my teenage parents had been, I still avoided canning. It seemed idiotic to go to so much trouble when the shelves of the grocery stores groaned with canned foods.

Then I bought my own house and planted my first garden and suddenly that fall my inner Scrooge kicked in. The frosts were coming so everything that could be harvested was. I couldn’t cram anything more into my freezer and yet there were pounds of beans and cucumbers sitting on my counters. I was certainly not going to throw away the fruits of my labors, so I gave in and started gathering the equipment for canning.

Here it is 20 years later and I am still at it. I am not a fanatic, mind you, not like friends who buy fresh produce just to can it. I reserve canning for any extra garden produce that cannot be dried or fit into the freezer.

If an excess of garden blessings and soaring food prices have you thinking about how to preserve your fruits and vegetables for the winter, read on. The steps are simpler than most folks think.

Step 1: Figure out if what you want to preserve is a low-acid or a high-acid food.

Why? Because that will determine whether you must use the boiling water bath or the pressure-cooker technique. High-acid foods produce mold, yeast and some bacterias, but these can be killed off by heating the food to somewhere between 140 and 190 degrees. So, if you process them in a boiling water bath, they are safe to store and eat much later.

Low acid foods have some bacteria — such as staph and botulism — that can be killed off by boiling water. Unfortunately, the spores or toxins don’t give up the fight until much higher temperatures, so low-acid foods must be heated to 240 degrees. This can only be done with a pressure cooker.

How do you know what is what? By the canning recipe, which will give you not only the exact proportions of ingredients, but will tell you if something has to be processed with a boiling water bath or by a pressure cooker.

In general, high-acid foods include lemons, fruit butters, pickles, most fruits, sauerkraut, tomatoes, relishes, ketchup, barbecue sauce, mustard, fruit juices, chutneys, jams and jellies. Low-acid foods include most vegetables, meats, poultry, seafood, or meat sauces.

Never guess about whether something is low or high acid. Find and exactly follow a recipe, because your life depends on it.

Let’s say you want to can rhubarb. Since you have figured out it is a high-acid item, you know it can be processed in a boiling water bath. (I am putting off pressure cooker canning until next month because it would be too confusing to cram it all into one article.)

Step 2: Gather the right equipment.

You will need canning jars and lids, a boiling water canner with rack, a jar lifter, a canning funnel, and a non-metallic spatula. You also should have some kitchen towels to set hot jars on, and a damp towel for cleaning off the jars.

You can reuse glass jars, but they must be canning jars (sometimes labeled as mason jars) and not any old jar you have been saving. The size of the jar will depend on the recipe, so be sure to buy the specified size. If you use a larger size than listed, the boiling times may not be sufficient and your food can spoil. When the recipe does not specify the size of the jar, use a half pint or a pint jar, nothing larger.

Rub your finger around the entire lip of each jar, checking for pits or nicks. If you feel anything, set that jar aside for some other use.

The lids come in two pieces: a flat metal piece with a rubber-like coating around the edge of the side that faces down, and a screw band. You must use new flat lids every time you use a jar; the sealing compound will not create a vacuum seal the second time around. The screw band exists to hold the flat lid in place until the seal takes hold, so they can be reused as long as they are not twisted up or otherwise damaged.

The boiling water canner can be one designed specifically for canning — usually they are blue speckled enamel — or simply a deep pot with a lid. The important thing is that the pot is large enough for the jars to be covered by at least an inch of water. And, since this water will be boiling, there obviously needs to be a few inches on top of that to contain the water.

The glass jars need to be kept from direct contact with the bottom of the pot, or they can burst. So, you’ll need a commercial rack that fits into the pot or a cake or cooling rack small enough to rest on the bottom of the pot. You can also use a face towel folded to the right size, as long as it is flat so that the jars set on it don’t tip over.

Jar lifters look like large square tongs that have been covered with plastic. They open wide enough to fit over the lids and grab the top of the glass jar, enabling you to lift the finished jars out with ease and without damaging the glass.

A canning funnel is simply a funnel that has an exceedingly large mouth and large neck, making it easier to fill the jars.

The spatula needs to be long and narrow. It also needs to be non-metallic, so you don’t damage the jar while you are removing the air bubbles or cause a chemical reaction with the food.

Step 3: The boiling water bath process, in a dozen steps

1. Wash the jars and screw bands in soapy water or run them through a dishwasher.

2. After cleaning, the jars must be kept hot; if allowed to cool, they can crack when filled with something hot. This is best done by putting them in a pot of simmering (not boiling) water; the pot needs to be outfitted with a rack or towel so that the jars are not directly touching the bottom of the pot. Most people just use the canning pot.

For the smallest canning jars, the water should reach the top of the jars, but for a pint or larger, just fill them about two-thirds of the way and cover to keep up the simmer. You may come across canning directions that say you can use the dry heat of an oven set at 200 degrees to keep the jars sufficiently warm, but this is not correct. Oven heat is uneven, so when you fill the jars the hot food may touch a relatively cold spot in the glass and cause the jar to crack. Canning jars are specifically designed to endure moist heat and they also don’t do well with sharp temperature changes.

The screw rings don’t need to be kept hot, which is a good thing because trying to turn red-hot rings onto the red-hot jars of food would be a trick and a half.

However, the lids should be removed from the box and gently washed in hot soapy water. Then, like the jars, they need to be kept hot, so put them in a saucepan of tepid water and bring it to a simmer. Don’t let this pot of lids start boiling.

3. After getting the jars and lids cleaned and properly heated, prepare the recipe. Sometimes the recipe, like the apple and highbush cranberry butter I made last year, takes so long that I start the cooking first. Whatever the order, the idea is to have the jars and lids ready to go by the time the recipe is done and still hot.

4. Fill the jars. Remove a jar from the pot of simmering water, being careful to pour the water from the inside of the jar back into the canner. Use the jar lifter, not metal tongs. Put the jar on top of a wooden cutting board or a towel; setting it directly down on a cold counter can cause cracking.

Put the funnel in the mouth of the jar and fill with the hot, prepared food. The recipe will tell you how much head space to leave — what they are referring to is the distance between the top of the food and the top of the jar. Most recipes say to leave a quarter- or a half-inch of head space. If you don’t leave enough space the food can expand and begin oozing out of the lid during processing.

5. After filling, get rid of air bubbles by running a non-metallic spatula around the inside of the jar. If you forget this step, you can end up with an incomplete seal.

6. Take a damp towel and clean off the jar. It is best to use something that you know won’t leave behind lint, so stick to a well-used towel or a linen tea towel. You want to be sure that the rim of the jar is spotless so the seal of the lid will grab it correctly, and you want the threads clean so that you don’t have any trouble removing the screw lid later.

7. Pull a flat lid out of the water, shake off the excess water and put it on the jar. You can use plastic tongs, or you can buy a magnetic wand (basically a magnet on a short stick) to make it easier to lift a hot lid out of simmering water.

8. Place the flat lid on the jar and then apply the screw band to hold it down. The idea is to turn the screw top until it is snug or what they call “fingertip tight.” Too much tightening can stop the jar from sealing properly because it won’t be able to vent.

9. Use the wide tongs to put the filled jar back in the canner. Lift out the next empty jar and follow the same process, until all the jars are done and the rack is full. If the water level is now below one inch above the top of the jars, add hot water.

10. Cover the canner and bring the water to a boil. When you get a hard boil, start counting the processing time referred to in the recipe.

11. When the specified time is up, use the wide-mouthed tongs to gently lift out each jar and place it on a folded towel in a draft-free area. Don’t tilt them or you can disrupt the seal, and don’t try to wipe off the water on the top of the lid, as it will evaporate.

12. Resist the urge to pick up and admire your handiwork. The jars need to stay resting in the same draft-free spot for 24 hours.

Step 4: Storage

The next day, remove the screw bands and check to see if there is an indentation in the center of the lid. This concave area indicates that the seal has taken; if there is no indentation, the seal is incomplete and you need to refrigerate and use the product or reprocess by starting at the beginning again and using a new flat lid. If you follow the directions for processing, incomplete seals are rare.

For jars that have sealed, wipe down the jar and threads, label and store. I like to put the screw lid back on for added strength because I store jars on top of each other, but that is really not necessary.

Kept in a cool, dark location that is not too humid, the food will keep its optimum taste and appearance for a year. After that it may still be edible, but it won’t look or taste as good.

Before you open each jar for use, look for the concave lid again — there should be no buckling of the lid. Discard anything that has seepage or any visible mold or other growth. When you open the jar, the smell should be clean and agreeable.

If you have never canned, the easiest things to practice on are jams, jellies and syrups. They can be made in small quantities and are pretty forgiving of overcooking. Also, they are canned in the half-pint or pint jars, so your first experience won’t involve wrestling with quarts and longer processing times.

If you don’t have a garden, there are wild berries and rosehips for the taking all over town. And Cooperative Extension has all sorts of recipes for them, so you can make good use of this free food. They also have a very handy DVD called Canning Basics, which sells for $5 and allows you to watch someone go through the boiling water and the pressure-canning methods.

Your kids may be too young to handle the boiling water aspects of this kind of canning, but even a kindergartener can help with some aspect of cleaning the foods. Spending a fall Saturday putting away food for the winter is a great activity that gives youngsters a sense of accomplishment; each time you open a jar this winter, they will remember that they were an integral part of helping to feed the family.

CRANBERRY-RASPBERRY PRESERVES

6 cups fresh raspberries

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided

3 cups fresh cranberries (I have used Alaska low bush cranberries)

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

Grated zest of 1 orange

Stir raspberries and 1 cup sugar in a bowl; let stand 1 hour.

Stir cranberries and remaining sugar in a shallow nonreactive pan, and place over high heat, stirring constantly, until cranberries begin to release their juices, about 5 minutes. Continue cooking until cranberries pop and mixture is syrupy, and mixture comes to a boil. Skim foam that forms on top. Cook and stir until mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.

Add raspberries and all the juice that formed. Cook 10 minutes. Stir in orange juice and zest. Place a small amount of mixture on a saucer, and freeze for 5 minutes. If mixture wrinkles when pushed to one side, it is done. If not, continue cooking 5 minutes and test again. Ladle into hot sterilized jars. Wipe rims clean with a clean damp towel. Seal with new lids and metal rings. Process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. Makes 4 pints.

(Used with permission from “The Joy of Cranberries,” by Theresa Millang, published by Adventure Publications, Inc.)

CRANBERRY JELLY

4 cups fresh cranberries

2 cups water

2 cups granulated sugar

In a large saucepan mix cranberries and water; cook over low heat until most of the cranberries have burst. Force through a coarse strainer. Return the puree to saucepan.

Add sugar and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves, swirling pan occasionally, then boil briskly, stirring frequently, to a jelly state (220 degrees on candy thermometer) or until syrup drops in a sheet from a metal spoon and is as thick as desired when tested on a cold saucer. Immediately pour into hot sterilized pint jars. Seal immediately. Makes about 2 pints.

(Used with permission from “The Joy of Cranberries,” by Theresa Millang, published by Adventure Publications, Inc.)

RHUBARB ONION RELISH

4 cups rhubarb, finely chopped

4 cups sweet yellow onion, finely chopped

2 cups white vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine rhubarb, onion and vinegar in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 hour. Put the mixture through a ricer. Return mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Ladle boiling-hot mixture into sterilized hot canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

(Used with permission from “Every Which Way with Rhubarb,” by Amanda Brannon.)

RHUBARB SYRUP

3 pounds cut-up rhubarb

7 cups sugar

1 tablespoon liquid pectin

Grind cut-up rhubarb in food grinder or food processor. Place ground rhubarb in a jelly bag or line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth, and strain the juice into a clean container. Measure 3 1/2 cups of the rhubarb juice and combine with the 7 cups of sugar in a large sauce pan. Bring to a rapid boil and add the liquid pectin, boiling rapidly for 30 seconds. Remove from heat, skim and pour into hot sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust screw band lids. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath.

(From “Every Which Way with Rhubarb,” by Amanda Brannon.)

Linden Staciokas has gardened in the Interior for more than two decades. She can be reached at dorking@acsalaska.net.