Lucky me

Every now and then something happens that makes you stop and think "how lucky I am". That happened to me yesterday afternoon. We have a bountiful harvest of rhubarb in our yard and I thought I should try to make a batch of rhubarb jam, and do a batch of rhubarb juice. The jam went as expected and I was pleasantly surprised to see it set up when I wasn't sure it would with how watery it was.

The juice simmered and steamed for nearly 90 minutes when I realized I hadn't sterilized my bottles yet. Normally when I can I put my bottles in my dishwasher and wash them that way so they sterilize with the heat dry. This time because the dishwasher was running full of dirty dishes I hand washed all my jars and filled them with boiling water to sterilize them before I added the finished product. I filled the first two quart jars with water and as I was pouring water in the third I heard a small crack and water started to pour out of the bottom of the jar. (Luckily I put my jars on clean towels so clean up no problem) after the water drained I lifted up the jar and the bottom had completely broken off in a perfect circle. As I looked at it was immediately grateful that I had chosen to do my jars this way. When we drain the juice it is a two person job, my husband holds the clamp to the tubing and I will sit on a stool and hold a jar with hotpads under the spout. If the jar had broken while doing that I would have been horribly scalded. So lucky me, but more correctly I am blessed that nothing serious happened other than the breaking of what was a very interesting mason jar.