from light. A discarded window shade can be rolled down over the
shelves and easily pulled up when you desire to take a jar from the
shelves.

Canned goods are best kept at a temperature below seventy degrees
Fahrenheit, where that is at all possible.

STEPS IN CANNING SOFT FRUITS AND BERRIES

It might be well to enumerate the steps in berry and soft-fruit
canning, or do what we called in our schooldays "review it":

1. Get the canner and all its accessories ready.

2. Test and wash jars and tops and put in water to sterilize.

3. Test rubber rings.

4. Make sirup and put in double boiler to keep hot

5. Prepare the product--hull, seed, stem.

6. Place berries or fruit in strainer or colander.

7. Rinse by pouring cold water over product.

8. Pack from strainer into hot jar.

9. Use big spoon to get a firm pack.

10. Dip rubber in hot water to cleanse it and put it in place on the
jar.

11. Pour the hot sirup over the fruit at once.

12. Put top of jar on, but not tight.

13. Ready for canner.

14. Sterilize for the necessary length of time, according to the
outfit you are using:

MINUTES

Hot-water-bath outfit 16
Condensed-steam outfit 16
Water-seal outfit 12
Steam pressure, 5 pounds, outfit 10
Pressure cooker, 10 pounds, outfit 5

15. Remove from canner.

16. Tighten cover, except vacuum-seal jar, which seals automatically.

17. Test joint.

18. Three or four days later, if perfectly air-tight, label and store
in a dark place.

These steps are followed for strawberries, blackberries, blueberries,
dewberries, huckleberries, gooseberries, raspberries, and for all soft
fruits, such as cherries, currants, grapes and figs.

The other soft fruits, such as peaches and apricots, which have a
skin, are scalded or "hot dipped" for one to two minutes in boiling
water or steam and are then plunged into cold water. These two steps
of hot-dipping and cold dipping make the removal of skins a very
simple operation. After the skins are removed the fruit is put into
the hot jars and the process continued from Step 8, as with
strawberries.

SIRUPS

Of course you are wondering about the sirups for the different fruits.
There is no set rule for making sirup. It is not necessary to use
sirup in canning fruits. The amount of sugar used in the sirup will
depend upon the individual taste. In a first-