I've been obsessing over the idea of canning - preserving - freezing - dehydrating - you know, anything to save all my goodies from the garden this year. Freezing's great, and fast, and easy, and simple, but... even with an extra freezer, my freezer is so jam packed right now, as fast as we're trying to empty it, it's just full full full.

I actually borrowed this book from the library twice, but didn't write a review the first time, and when I started reading this book for the second time, it dawned on me why I felt deju vu. So this time, I'm actually writing it up.

It's a canning book (duh) and I'm still not quite sure how to review cook books. I've been reading a LOT of canning books, like I said, and I don't know what I'm supposed to say about it. Since I haven't actually canned - yet - or followed any of the recipes - yet - I can't really attest to how well written the recipes or the book is, though it seems to be a straight forward enough book.

The book is broken up into different parts - getting started, the recipes (divided up further by fruit), and resources. It's handy because if you have 6 quarts of blueberries in your freezer (oh, that's me, that's right) you can look up blueberries and see you can make blueberry syrup, or use that blueberry syrup and make blueberry lemonade (doesn't that sound like Heaven!) or blueberry ketchup (ok, sounds good, but when would I actually use it?), blueberry vinegar (ditto) or blueberry shrug (double ditto). Then there's the classic blueberry jam recipe (in every canning book or site I've found), and a chicken recipe that uses the jam (which I can't eat). ( )

I LOVE this cookbook and am planning to buy my own copy. Put 'em Up! Fruit is a good introduction to preserving fruit, with a heavy focus on canning using the boiling-water method. It includes other preservation methods -- drying and freezing -- but the star of the show is definitely canning.

First off, this is a beautiful cookbook, but it is also laid out very cleverly, and it's not style-over-substance: the photos are as helpful as they are pretty. There's a boiling-water canning guide in the front that incorporates great reference photos, and I wish I had seen it before I ever started canning. Maybe I wouldn't have tried using the wrong end of my canning tongs to pick up hot jars.

There are troubleshooting guides (ah, FRUIT FLOAT, that's what happened to my strawberry jam last summer) and photos demonstrating what terms like "julienne" and "dice" mean when it comes to prepping your produce.

The info in the front would be enough for me to recommend this cookbook, but the included recipes are also great; Put 'em Up! Fruit contains a nice range of recipes, organized by fruit, from jellies to to vinegar to dried lemons, which look a little alarming but are supposedly delicious. Even better: behind each recipe, there's a recipe that shows you a way to put your newly preserved produce to work. For instance, a recipe for blueberry syrup is paired with a recipe for blueberry lemonade, which uses the syrup as a flavoring.

As usual, I picked a recipe to test out. My grocery store had blood oranges, which I love, so I figured I'd try the recipe for blood orange marmalade. This was my first attempt at marmalade, so I didn't know what to expect, but the instructions were easy to follow and Vinton's easy-going but knowledgeable style helped me not to stress about it. I made a smaller batch than the recipe called for but didn't run into any problems downsizing it.

The blood orange marmalade turned out really well! And it's very, very pretty. My only criticism is that I think the oranges should be cut in eight pieces, not four, as the pieces of rind in the marmalade were a touch too large for me -- but I think that's a matter of personal taste. I'm looking forward to trying the accompanying recipe for salmon with orange glaze that incorporates the marmalade into a sauce. There's also a variation, brandied blood orange marmalade, that I'd like to try, if I can find more blood oranges.

I try not to hoard cookbooks these days, as I turn to the internet for recipes more often than not, and I have already have too many books to fit on my bookshelves as it is, but I make exceptions for cookbooks I know I will use, and this is definitely a good one for my little canning shelf. ( )