My mom did a lot of canning and I so a fair amount. I live in the city, but we grow olallieberries and lots of tomatoes. I make jam from the berries and salsa from the tomatoes. I also make bread and butter pickles. We go out to Beaumont east of So Cal and pick cherries which I also can. They are good over vanilla ice cream. Our family likes what we can and friends get canned items as gifts at Christmas and seem to really like them. I agree that the Ball Canning book is great and their instructions are very good for safe canning. I have a glass top gas stove and use it every year for canning. I've canned on it for over 15 yrs. and all is still fine.
Verna in So. Cal.