You just have to know when to get out of the way.
When I was about nine years old, an elderly neighbor of ours diedin a home canning accident. I never heard all the details, but I knew it was a pressure cooker thing. Hers was one of the early funerals I attended (my third, I think), and for years I was haunted by visions of her crumpled old body sprawled in her kitchen, streaked with blood and pickling spices.
So I vowed never to get a pressure cooker, which I thought meant I couldn't can. I saw no need for a pressure cooker anyway ~ nothing I will prepare in my kitchen needs that much cooking! And memories of my grandmother's slimy pressure cooked green beans still turn my stomach (no wonder I ate no vegetables growing up).
But when I found water bath canning, I jumped into the fray. Little did I know that peppers can still 'splode at you.
It began auspiciously enough for Amy and me during our latest Canning Adventure.
A market pepper sale set us up with four pounds of red bell peppers, which we roasted, peeled, seeded and stuffed into jars ~ 2 pints and 2 half pints.
We whipped up a garlic, oil and vinegar pickling solution, poured it over the peppers and dunked them into their 15 minute bath.
Thank god for pot lids! We really didn't even hear the explosion. We only found the floating remains when we lifted the top to fish out the jars.
We are fine. It wasn't even scary (just a little gross ~ soggy red peppers are less than appetizing). Thus, in spite of our kamikaze pepper jar, we will continue to can and freeze and explore all the fun that the farmers' market has to offer this summer.
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