What, may I ask, is a hot water bath?

What, may I ask, is a hot water bath?? Many years ago (about 13) I had a garden, in the village of Catskill, yup the village. I planted zucchini  & tomatoes.  I grew a beautiful zucchini. Tomorrow I'll pick that perfect crop. Yeah right. The deer thought it was ready for pickin' that night. I never had a vegetable garden again, until now. ........ The growing season is much longer in AL then it is in NY. I put most of my garden in in April. I have plenty of produce for my family, & extra to give away. There is one problem with that,EVERY ONE down here has a garden. I decided to freeze some veggies. My husband, he's the pratical one, said " if the power goes out, we lose everything". I had a bright idea ( yup every so often I amaze myself) I'll start canning. ..... I never caned before. I remember my mother making jelly.  I do wish I had payed attention back then. ( I still don't pay attention, now there's something else to blog about). Anyway, I did some research, asked some questions, bought some books, jars, vinegar......  & started canning.........  I do not have a pressure cooker, so all the canning I do is "hot water bath", as if there is any other kind of bath;-).  A hot water bath is really just Boiling your jars of stuff in water.  Perhaps someone will buy me a pressure cooker for Christmas, or my birthday;-)  ....... I've canned tomatoes, pickles, relish, hot peppers, corn salsa.  I've made watermelon jelly, mint jelly, rosemary jelly & hot pepper jelly. My son loves the sweet pickles & corn salsa. He also likes the watermelon jelly, almost too much. Whom I kidding, he's 15, he just likes to eat. I love the sound of the jars popping as they are cooling. (it's the little things in life I enjoy) ...........  I like giving away my creations, so my loved ones can enjoy, or critic,the creations too.   Some, ok almost all, my cooking is done by trial & error.  I am not good at following directions, just ask my husband. .......... I know what is going into the jars, i am trying to feed my family, & myself healthy foods, sometimes.  I'm  delighted that I can safely store my home grown produce to enjoy for months, years to come.  The squirrels  store food for winter, I think they have something here.  FYI, if ya have a banana that's about to go bad, peal it, wrap it in foil, & stick it in the freezer. It will make a great smoothy. I'm telling ya this because I have some bananas I WILL NOT throw out.