Hi ladies! Thanks so much for your responses. I found out some interesting information and thought I would share a link here. This site seems to explain everything best:
http://www.pickyourown.org/sugarsolution.htm
Apparently, sugar is not used for a preservative:
Quote:
While sugar helps hold the texture, shape and color of fruit, it is primarily added for flavor and visual appeal. It is not needed to prevent spoilage. You can safely can all fruits in water or in fruit juice by following reliable canning directions for preparing and processing the fruit. Substitute water or fruit juice for the syrup or sugar pack.
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BUT... if you can without sugar, you can prevent darkening of the fruit by:
Quote:
Take special care to follow steps that prevent darkening of light-colored fruit. Several treatments may be used to prevent or ****** darkening. One is to coat the fruit as it is cut with a solution of 1 teaspoon (3 g) crystalline ascorbic acid, Fruit Fresh, or 3,000 mg crushed vitamin C tablets per cup of water. Another is to drop the cut pieces in a solution of water and ascorbic acid, citric acid or lemon juice. Use 1 teaspoon (3,000 mg) ascorbic acid, 1 teaspoon citric acid or 3/4 cup lemon juice to 1 gallon water.
An ascorbic acid (commercially sold as "Fruit Fresh") and watersolution serves as a desirable anti-darkening treatment, adds nutritive value in the form of vitamin C, and does not change the flavor of the fruit as lemon juice may do. Ascorbic acid is available in crystalline or tablet form in drug stores and supermarkets. Ascorbic acid mixtures, such as ascorbic acid combined with sugar or with citric acid and sugar, also are available. For these, follow the manufacturer's directions. In such mixtures, ascorbic acid usually is the important active ingredient. Because of its dilution with other materials, these forms may be more expensive than pure ascorbic acid.
If ascorbic acid products are not used in the pretreatment of cut fruit, they may be added to the canning juices or liquids before processing. This will help keep the fruit from darkening during storage. Use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crystalline ascorbic acid or 750 to 1,500 mg crushed vitamin C tablets per quart of fruit. Commercial ascorbic and citric acid mixtures such as "Fruit Fresh" or "ACM" also may be used according to manufacturer's directions.
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I am printing out those instructions for my mom. Hopefully, it will work! Thanks again
Whoops.. forgot to add that instructions for using Splenda are also there, along with a lot of helpful charts and instructions!