You wanna make some jelly????

As I was walking through Wal-Mart yesterday, I spotted one of those clearance carts they sometimes park randomly in the store. This cart was different, though....IT WAS PACKED WITH CANNING STUFF!! The boxes of pectin were marked 10 cents...no kidding. I bought 25 of them. They're good until 2011. Score!

I also got some Pickling Salt and Pickling Lime for 50 cents each in huge canisters.

The young boy who was checking looked at me a bit strangly...because of the pectin and because of the mystery veggie he couldn't identify. I explained that it was rutabaga and he continued to peek up at me through a veil of long curly hair. I further explained that our family wanted to try a new vegetable this week and rutabaga was in season, so there you go. Suddenly he thought this was a neat idea and said maybe he, too, would try to cook rutabaga. He wanted to know how you cook it and said, "Let me know how it turns out, okay?"