This book is a guide to preserving fruits and vegetables while avoiding processed sugar. Although the book refers to honey in the title, not all the recipes use honey, but they all seek to preserve food in natural ways, without sugar or other questionable additives. The book begins with a short introduction describing canning methods and equipment. Then there are chapters on jams, preserves, butters and conserves, canned fruits, pickling, and dried foods. An appendix contains useful charts with amounts of food to be grown and canned for a family of six, a calendar showing which produce items are likely to be in season when, and some tips for canning. Specific canning tips for different techniques are also included in each of the chapters. There is an index.
I've tried several of the recipes in this book and found them to be straightforward to follow, and the end results have been tasty. Geiskopf includes a nice selection of berry recipes and some for rhubarb as well. Her recipes for dips to be used with dried foods as alternatives to sulfur preservation are particularly useful. However, the introductory material about canning can be a bit confusing. The explanations and instructions are a little hard to follow. Fortunately, clear descriptions of canning methods can be found in numerous other books, so if you use this book just for the recipes and get your canning information elsewhere, you should have no problems.
