Acid fertilizers aren't acidic, rather they use urea or ammonia based forms of nitrogen which produce acids. Generally the greater the nitrate content in the fert the more it will tend to raise pH and the more ammonium content the more it will tend to acidify. This is a pretty generic statement though as a fertilizer may contain both nitrates and ammonium and not really have any impact on pH. Anyway, of potentially far greater importance than the fertilizer is the water used. Rainwater would be ideal. Tap water may be high in alkalinity and raise pH. Alkalinity (different than pH) can be determined with a quick call to whatever agency manages the water in your community. You can likewise purchase inexpensive test strips to measure it. You ideally want the value lower than 100, but I wouldn't worry unless it was over 200. Small amounts of acetic acid (vinegar) in the water will lower/eliminate the alkalinity if it's an issue.

I don't know how you resolved your citric acid vs. no citric acid dilemma, but my suggestion is to just buy some and keep it dry in a jar, and use it whenever you are canning tomatoes or tomato juice because it has no taste when added in small quantities. It does provide a margin of safety, is really cheap, will last a long time if you buy 8 ounces or a pound, and it has no shelf life if you keep it dry. Also, if you have some over-ripe fruit to can or over-ripe fruit for jam making, you can add a little citric acid to give the fruit a little "bite". It is what they used in children's Gummy Bears and all such sweet sour candies to give them that tart taste. Del Monte even adds citric acid to canned grapefruit sections - a fruit you may not think could benefit from citric acid. Certain cheese calls for citric acid to acidify milk products. So it does have multiple uses. Just my thoughts, Jim in So Calif

Thanks again for all the input, everyone. After sharing some jars from my test batch I can definitely say that I'm going with the low-sugar this year. My main reason for wanting it was simply the amount of sugar in the normal Ball recipes - I tend to give away quite a bit of what I make and the only complaint I've recieved, quite regularly, is that it's too sweet. The reduced sugar level definitely lets more of the fruit flavors shine through, without the overpowering taste of sugar. For reference, I used the recipe in the box, 4 cups black raspberry juice (from ~1.5 quarts of berries and enough water to come halfway up them in the pan) and 3 cups of sugar - Yeild was around 2.5 pints...I could have probably got some more, but I didn't realize how fast this stuff jels up. Normally, after finishing the rolling boil, I let it sit for about 2-3 minutes - this way the foam forms a kind of "skin" and is much easier to skim off - The low sugar set so quick that I lost nearly a quarter of a pint just in skimming th foam. ...Will be clearing out my freezer this week and making up some jelly - Should get around 10-12 pints each of black raspberry and blackberry with what's in there now, and yes, I will be firing up the water canner. Thinking about taking some down to the local farmer's market as well to see if the owners would be interested in selling any. -Thanks again for the info, I do appreciate the comments and concerns...

Hopefully this will clarify. I have a copy of the latest edition. The majority of recipes in "So Easy to Preserve" are the ones you see on the NCHFP site. I haven't gone through the index to check each-and-every recipe, but my guess is few, if none, are specific to the book. Most of the book is a basic manual covering the same information about canning fruits, vegetables, meats, relishes, pickles, etc. I'd guess their main intent in offering it is to provide a print source for those who don't have computer access (or good access) and those who prefer to have a print source to refer to. So if you click on this link for tomatoes you'll find a whole range of canning information and recipes, the same you'd see in "So Easy to Preserve". NCHFP How to Can Tomatoes. To answer gran2's question, here's a clickable map of all the states. So if you click on Washington, for instance, it will take you directly to Washington State University's Extension site. Clickable Map of State Extension Services. There's a lot of "cross-fertilization" of Extension agencies. So you might find a document on canning seafood from Oregon Extension posted on Virginia's website. Colorado's info on hot peppers is on lots of other state sites and Washington Extension agents developed some salsa recipes posted all over the country. Extension agencies have limited resources, so many of them specialize. Washington, AFAIK, puts most of its energy into horticultural and environmental studies. But individual counties in the Washington system do publish home preserving info. Here's one from Clark County: Clark County Food Safety and Nutrition Page. The most efficient way to find any of the information you want is to do an advanced search on Google or other service. Include "Extension" in the search string and indicate you only want ".edu" pages. That way the results will be limited to Extension agency documents, which are as reliable as it gets in home food preservation. (With rare exceptions where an extension service will still have an out-of-date document posted.) Carol