What size Water Bath Canner Do I need?

There is just me and Hubby. I Have a tree loaded with Apples and can't find a canner anywhere in town.
I have found a couple on Amazon
A 21 Quart w/ rack for $18.99
An 11 1/2 Quart for $19.99
Normally it would be a no brainer, bigger for $1.00 less, but not sure in this case that bigger is necessarily better.
I also plan to make some jams, butters etc for CHristmas Gifts.

When I first started canning I was using my two largest stock pots with a bread cooling rack in the bottom of each. Talk about time consuming! I have a 21 quart canner now.

So I would go with the biggest you can find. Once you start canning, the larger one will get more done at once.

There is just the 2 of us humans at home now and I love canning quarts of fruit or pie filling at the same time I am canning pints of jam. They require different processing times, but as long as the pot is boiling anyway...... why not?!

If you're really serious about canning: http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/pro...ODUCT&iMainCat=712&iSubCat=719&iProductID=331 this one holds 15 quarts or 27 pints per load! I love mine. However, FWIW, I think you'd be happier with the 21 qt than either the 11 qt or the 33 qt available also. The 33 is just cumbersome & bulky on the range, & the small one is just too darn small.

I was thinking 21 qt would be a good size. I need to be thrifty so I can save my extra pennies for a pressure canner later. We are planning a good garden for next year and I want to be ready to go.

I found my water bath canner at Goodwill for $5 with the rack included. It's a 7 quart capacity. I'm not doing large scale canning yet because we live in the city - no place to get that much fruit/veggies in high quantities without spending a fortune and no place in my house to store hundreds of jars. As it is, I've got about 6-7 dozen jars of various things put up. I went for a wide variety of finished products (like tomato sauce, veggie soup, salsas & jams) this year whereas last year I canned high quantities of basic ingredients (tomatoes & peaches). I'll can some more tomatoes next weekend but I'll make more taomto sauce, since that's more in line with my household's needs: fast food.

Before I got a "real" canner I used my largest stock pot with a cooling rack in the bottom, just like keljonma.

The advantage of having a dedicated canning pot is that it frees up your other pots for large batches. The disadvantage is that you have to store it when it's not in use. In my house, that means in the attic.

ETA: I got my pressure canner on ebay for around $50 shipped. It is an "automatic" canner, which took me a while to figure out how to use as it didn't come with a manual. It works great and I've used it to can green beans, corn, asparagus, and veggie soup. I'll probably can some veggie chili soon, too.