I probably should not follow my own post but I just remembered back when DW was a usenet goddess and started a sub-group called rec.food.preserving. She built and maintained the faq for a couple years then we moved away and graphics took over the internet and only us old farts remember usenet. But I digress - the point of this post is the address of the faq. If you want to know how to put things by w/o poisoning yourself - check it out:
preserving faq