ccaggiano, the amount of sugar used in fruit jams is not a safety issue. Traditional pectin needs a certain ratio of pectin/sugar/fruit to jell. An all fruit spread with no sugar at all is still safe to can, the issue is in whether or not it will jell. It has been noted here that "Pomona will jell water", so the sugar ratio isn't an issue. Cut it as low as you like until you are happy with the taste, it'll still be safe. I will note, however, that low sugar/no sugar spreads do not store as well or as long after opening and I've found that no-sugar spreads lose color. This picture shows this year's strawberry jam. My long cooked and low sugar jam is on the right, the "no sugar" spread with Equal is on the left. Annie

that "massive amount of boilover" is no joke. I make sure my apples come to a full boil, at which point the batch will do a serious foam up in the pot. Once that happens, I know they got hot enough to release all the air in the fruit. If you don't do that before you pack them, it will happen while processing. When you open the canner and find your jars floating because the release of air pushed all the liquid out of the jar . . . I've even had it happen with apple sauce if I did not make sure to get a good boil going ot release the air from the fruit. Apples are really prone to this. Though I don't do a wide variety of fruit, apples are the only one I know of that have a serious air retention issue. It is also why when you bake a double crust apple pie, as it cools and settles, you end up with a big hollow under the upper crust because the apples lost all thier air. That is one advantage of using canned apples for filling. Since they are already cooked, you can pile them high and when the pie is done, you still have a full pie as the apples did not have all that air to release. BTW - you don't need to cook the pie near as long with already cooked apples as you would with fresh.

Canning season is year round LOL - true for most people maybe but not for me. In winter it's cookie baking before Christmas then quilting after. Also I do a lot of my heavy cleaning in the winter. I leave a lot of stuff go during the year so I have to play catch up in the winter. Spring is for getting the yard and garden ready. After the garden is planted I start any big yard projects while the garden is growing. This year I put in a brick sidewalk that had a turn and two steps in it. Next year the part of the sidewalk I want to do is straight, thank goodness! We're also going to be putting up a second garage. Late summer into the fall is put aside for canning. If I can't get it done in that time, I'm pretty much outta luck :-) Doesn't anyone else have all this stuff to do?! Or does everyone just can all year round whenever you get a whim? Val

Thank you all for your advice. I had to act before I got any reponses because I started the pie late and had to work yesterday. I ripped open the crust and added the two missing ingredients. It was ugly, but it was just for me and a close casual friend so we didn't mind. It tasted great if not a bit too tart (used a combo of granny smith and golden delicious apples). Was pretty ugly though... but the pie plate is empty today so I guess how it looked didn't matter! I've been busy and my place wasn't very clean and organized, so the sloppy pie just seemed to fit!!! I do have a question... My crust edges folded down (as it always does) when I baked the pie. It looked like the crust had melted! I put it in the fridge for a few minutes before baking to try to stiffen it up sp it would keep its shape and "upright" position, but it didn't help. Anyone have any advice on changing things so that doesn't happen? Thanks!