I got my first taste of canning as a wee lass, watching my grandmother "Nanny" (a sassy thing, turning a young 86 in August!) transform her garden cukes into bread & butter pickles and her grapes into violet-tinged juice. If canning wasn't part of your family's culinary background, however, and the recent resurgence of interest in this means of preservation has got you intrigued, I've got just the thing for you. The fine folks at Jardin (the maker of Ball canning products) sent me a complimentary assortment of their wares, including all of those pictured above. In case you can't make them all out, there's: an impressive jar lifter; a 'nifty' (one of my Pop's favorite words!) canning funnel; a great book of recipes from Ball; sample packets of pectin and salsa seasoning; and a "Home Canning Discovery Kit", which includes a plastic basket used for lifting jars safely in and out of the boiling water bath and 3 pint jars with lids and screw bands. These items will help transform all of you canning dreamers out there into doers.
And I'm giving it all away to one lucky small measure reader. Even if you're already deft with a water bath and can wield a jar lifter with the ease that comes from experience, feel free to enter the giveaway. These items will equally inspire, and assist, newbies and old-schoolers alike.
To enter the giveaway, simple leave a comment below describing what tempts you about canning. If you're already canning, what brings you back? If it's something you've longed to do, why? I'll go first.
For me, it's time in a bottle. When cherries are on sale here, or I pick a mess of blueberries from wild bushes up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, or a bumper crop of cucumbers show up at the farmer's market (or, even better, in my garden), I know just what to do with them. Freezing isn't much of an option for me. Not only do some things not freeze well, but, having been privy to one too many extended periods without electricity out here, and not owning a generator, a freezer just wouldn't cut the mustard for my preservation needs (when pine trees fall on power lines during snow storms and you live one mile down a snow-covered dirt road, the utility companies out here, I've learned, sort of think you're the type of person who can handle power outages longer than the "city folk" can). Canning these items, though, holds them in suspended animation, keeps 'em fresh and delicious, and ensures I can enjoy pickled cherries when the snow falls, or slather blueberry jam on my Christmas morning toast. That's why I answer the siren song.
Et tu? What beckons you? Please be sure to leave a means of reaching you, either by listing your e-mail address or website/blog, in your comment (if your profile link contains that info, that'll do). I'm open to international commenters if you're open to considering splitting the shipping costs. The giveaway will run through next Friday, July 29th, at midnight EST.
269 comments:
1 – 200 of 269 Newer› Newest»Such a great giveaway! I've always wanted to try canning. I've made and loved strawberry freezer jam, but, now that I live in the land of hurricane-fueled power outages, I too would love to see my pantry shelves (and not my freezer) filled up with canned goodness. Thanks!
pear preserves started my love. we would run around as kids trying to find the best fallen pears from my grandmothers pear tree in her back yard. ive found three abandon pear trees here in wnc that ive revisited (on multiple occassions!)the past two years and im able to recreate some of that childhood excitement with my own preserves that i can share with my grandma (mama nelle) now..
and i just burnt some stuff making peach preserves the other night, so im in need ;) happy canning y'all!
ashley- whats going on with your canning class?!?
Just received your Keeping Chickens book and am dreaming up our coop as we speak! We just moved to a hundred year old cabin and so begins our homesteading adventure one skill at a time.
e.
Oh, I would love this giveaway! I want to learn to can, so we can have healthy food on hand any time of year. I want to learn to do strawberry jelly, so I can quit throwing $2.50 at Smuckers every 2 weeks. I want to grow my own veggies soon and know how to preserve them. P.S. I look forward to owning your books someday to assist me in my homesteading efforts.
Pick me! I've finally gotten to a point in my life when I can start to learn and practice food preservation. I never grew up with it, so I'm starting from scratch.
Amazing giveaway! I am so tempted by the idea of turning an old closet in my basement into a canning pantry and root cellar!
The basement holds a constantly cool temperature and I can't wait to have jars and jars of canned goods lined up in neat rows...along with potatoes and apples and other food in cold storage. :)
-Crystal
I grew up on a small fruit and vegetable farm in Vermont, and now I miss the strawberry jam and other lovely things my mother made. Also living in Texas now I need new recipes!
I have made jam in the past, but am longing to get into canning pickles, tomato sauce, and a variety of other things because they remind me of my mom and dad. Dad grew up on a tobacco farm, and always wished he could move to a farm of his own. He turned our suburban back yard into a mini farm, with a huge veggie garden that covered most of the yard, a blackberry patch, peach trees, and bee hives. Mom used to preserve most of what came out of that yard, to help feed her five growing children. We kids spent many hours working in that garden. My favorite part of helping was sitting with mom in the kitchen, snapping beans, cutting up cukes, or pitting cherries in preparation for canning. I miss that good, homegrown food, and I miss my parents. Canning is sure to bring back memories of yesterday for me.
I can not just because of how it makes me feel secure to see all those glass jars lined up in my pantry, but also to help make it through the long North Dakota winters. When it's 30 below outside, I still have a taste of fall apples in my canned applesauce, or beautiful June strawberries in my jam.
I've done a lot of pickles (for my husband--I'm not a big fan) in recent years but I'd love to put up something that I really look forward to eating. I think it's time to try fruit. I usually freeze blueberries and peaches but never thought to can them.
I'm drawn to canning for financial and environmental reasons. Buying and growing food seasonally and having it all year round is an amazing concept to me. Of course, all I've ever done is fridge pickles because I'm sorely lacking in the supplies and know-how for much else.
I've always wanted to try canning because my grandmother used to do it. She would can tons of tomatoes every summer, and we'd have them in dishes all the way through winter. Thanks for the chance to win!
courtney [dot] elizabeth [dot] foster [at] gmail [dot] com
I too am fascinated with canning. It is my dream to have a root cellar filled with roots from my garden and years supplies of jars with preserves from the wild or my garden. I lot all my canning supplies recently when we moved from the beautiful mountains of Marshall NC to hot and sticky Mexico, and while I can harvest fresh food all year round here(once I get a garden growing), I still plan to make preserves and pickles to keep.
Thanks for this wonderful give away!
Blessings,
Christina
I love canning! It is so awesome to give something to your family and know exactly what is in it. I also like having a little piece of summer in the dead of winter. Thanks for the giveaway!
I'm drawn to canning because of the feeling of independence I get when I open a jar of tomatoes from my own garden.
Oh I would love to use these! I started trying my hand at canning last summer, but I would like to more easily be able to do small batches!
I love to see all those lovely jars lined up on the shelves and thnk of the good meals I can feed my family all year long. Every year I try to can something new; now mastering canning meats.
This is my third year canning and I'm looking forward to trying some new things. I think the reason I'm hooked is simply because everything tastes so good (much better than store bought)! Plus, I need a way to preserve my overly abundant harvest (I went a little overboard on the tomato plants this year).
Oh, since I left my home in the country with my parents when I was three, I've longed to have a pantry full of beautiful jars of all colors and sizes, full of food that I know, food that I made, food that can keep my family healthy and happy!
I was obsessed with Little House on the Prairie books when I was wee, and have always wanted to be self-sufficient in that way.
I just found a recipe to make Queen Anne's Lace flower jelly, and that's my next project!
What got me interested in canning is its history. People, mainly women, have been doing this for a looooong time. When I was a kid I always imagined I was a pioneer, and I love learning skills that aren't popular anymore. Although things like sewing and canning are getting a lot of attention lately and I think that's wonderful!
Oh, what a great giveaway, it comes perfect to me.
I'm trying to can food, this week I'll try it for the first time.
The thing I most want to do it tomato sauce, because I work on a organic's farmers market on Saturdays (I sell cloth diaper and that kind of things), and some times a particular fruit or veggie is on season, with great price and looking so good, so I wish I could buy a lot and then can it. I don't have a big freezer and I use it for compost, while I make enough material for a layer.
Also I will like to make my cooking easier, rather than make everything from scratch every time. I will be totally willing to share shipping costs.
Thanks for the opportunity!
I'm just learning the art of canning this summer. We left a busy life in Atlanta to live on a quiet farm in NC. My parents have joined us and my dad has grown a fabulous garden that could potentially feed us all winter. I long to be self-sufficient and go to the pantry for a can of my own tomatoes. Thanks for a chance to enter your giveaway.
I am a sucker for all kinds of pickles - water melon rind pickles, dill, sweet, pickled red beets, pickled green tomatoes... it's the main thing I can!
My grandmother used to have a tall metal cabinet in her kitchen, filled to the brim with jars of preserved vegetables, fruits, and creations. I would unlatch the doors and take it all in with regularity, and gobble them up with pleasure. I want the same thing for myself, my fella, and our future kiddos. To capture summer in a jar and be able to take it out when those gray skies make their way into the year. There's something sort of magical about that.
Awesome giveaway. This is just want my wife needs. (She is asking for these, not me forcing it on her!) Canned green beans! Fresh from the garden all winter long. Can't get enough of them.
Thanks!
www.concrete2chickens.blogspot.com
Summers in AL are so hot and humid, so we spent a lot of time in the basement where Mom has a kitchen just for canning. My sister and I would roller skate round and round on the concrete floor, frequently stopping to grab a piece of peach or whatever Mom was cutting up. Of course, we as we got older we were peeling tomatoes and snapping beans, too. It's such great memories and such delicious food! My husband & I are in a small apartment now, but I can't wait to start canning for real!
Oh my, this is a wonderful giveaway! My garden is producing a lot this year and I would love to learn more about canning, so I can store everything throughout the year.
Kate, kmalexander26@gmail.com
I love canning summer in a jar! Have a favorite recipe for Plum, crab apple and wine jam!!!
http://dianalischer.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/102/#comments
lavignephotography at yahoo
We just bought our first ever house, I'm 48. We have about five acres. I want to grow food and can it.
I can't wait to start canning. I've never done it and dont' have the equipment so this would be perfect for me. I think I'm interested because it's about providing something for yourself and it harkens back to an older age when people were more in touch with what they ate.
I've been making pickles with my aunt every year for the past 5 years or so. We set up a day each summer to spend scrubbing, chopping, boiling and laughing the day away. For me canning is wonderful not only because of the end product, but because of the sense of tradition I feel each year during the time I spend with a wonderful woman in my life. I'd love to have some tools of my own to do more canning at home. Great giveaway!
Kimberly.
craftylandblog (at) gmail (dot) com
I am fairly new to canning, but I have high hopes of changing that this summer. I am hoping to can tomatoes, jams, pears and apples. Wish me luck!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Amber
maar04(at)comcast(dot)net
I just, just, just canned for the very first time two days ago: raspberries! I'm sitting on nearly five acres of wild blackberries (the scourge of the PNW) which should ripen in a few weeks. I plan on canning those. Funny thing is we don't eat a lot of jam. I guess they'll be gifts this year. :)
I just got thirty-five quart-sized jars off freecycle. I plan on canning tomatoes later in the season because we do use those nearly every week.
I've only ever made freezer jam, and that is shameful since I come from a long line of canning ladies. I'd love to start canning and keep the legacy alive! I think the thing I'd like most to can would be tomatoes.
I love homemade pickles and have been dying to make my own! Thanks for such a great blog.
what a fantastic giveaway! I have always been lured by canning because it is just SO SMART and frugal...I have dreams of living on a small hobby farm and would have to 'get it in gear' as they say and do it. I took a canning class my church offered for free this summer and it was MUCH easier than I expected. It was something that, having never SEEN anyone do it before, always overwhelmed me...but now I know it's just a bit of time and clean utensils :)
Sarah M
I want the same thing! To have summer tomatoes melt in my mouth in mid-february and preserve the CSA vegetables that we can't get cooked quick enough. I want the nutrition of summer fresh vegetables or fruits to last all year long!!! This is exciting!! Thanks Ash!
I just started canning this spring, and I love it for a couple of reasons. First, I love that I am able to use all the fruit that grows on trees in my yard. I have three trees, and in years past, I'd be overwhelmed with peaches, apricots and figs. This year, the only apricots that went to waste were the few that that birds got, and I guess that's not a waste, cause they gotta eat too! I have big plans for the peaches and figs when they ripen! I also love that I can get fancy with the flavors and enjoy gourmet type food for cheaper than supermarket brands. Can you say oregano jelly, apricot vanilla bean jam, and spicy plum ketchup???? So yummy.
I really like your blog!!!!
Thanks,
Melissa
The whild blackberries that grow on the bike path near my home are calling to be made into everything! I am normally a freezer jam kind of girl, but do not have a big freezer to keep all the potential goodies.
Thanks for the great opportunity! I am going to be new at canning in the near future. I have been reading about it but I am more of a learner by doing. I have a toddler now and have a new love of making things. Making things he would love and that I can love giving him. I am not a lover of pickles by my little man is, obviously he didn't get this from me. But he can eat them with the best pickle lover. And I have noticed already that he prefers mommy made things rather than prepared things bought at the store. So he is my motivation and I just think it would be beautiful to have a shelf of mommy made things of many different colors. What an accomplishment that will be some day. Thanks again.
I'm tempted by a few things. I like the idea of having food around, and I really like being able to have the best of summer any time I want, but a lot of it comes down to control. I appreciate knowing exactly what goes into my food and knowing that it's as good and healthy as it can be.
I am looking forward to learning to can my garden's bounty. For me it is all about sustainability and providing for the needs of my family. I am not there yet but hopeful for the days when I can take food straight from my garden, to my kitchen, to my pantry. My grandmother taught me that canning is an act of love when I was very young and some day, I will pass that love on.
Every July when the short apricot season rolls around my mom and I make apricot jam. I am starting to be interested in expanding my efforts! I have been reading up on canning the last couple weeks in preparation for tomato season. I would love to can some yummy stewed tomatoes to keep us going all winter long. Wish I lived closer so I could take one of your classes!
I love to go to the farmer's market...and I often come hope and wonder how I am going to use all of the bounty I've purchased...canning to the rescue! I'm always inspired by what's seasonal, fresh and local. And I actually started my own jam and pickle business, selling at our local San Francisco Underground Markets.
I love the idea of being able to have my own canned goods on hand for those nights when I want to make dinner quick but also want to be sure that I know what's going in it.
I love that canning is the work of my own hands. I picked the fruit or veggies (often grew it all myself or, in the case of blackberries, grew wildly on my property), washed it, prepared it, stored it. I can remember the peak of summer in the dregs of winter and look forward to the harvest to come in the next year.
I enjoy the entire experience of preserving and I do if for many reasons. It makes me feel good because I know where this food came from, it allows me to rely less on our inefficient food systems, it saves money, its entertaining and it happens to taste better than anything I can buy in a store. It is also a way for me to honor my grandparents. My 91 year old grandfather is the greatest gardener I know and my 87 year old grandmother used to make the best pie from home grown/canned fruit that I've ever tasted. I might not be as gifted as them in these areas but learning these skills has allowed me to feel connected to them over the years.
But foremost, home preserving is a year-round and ritualistic expression of love; It is love to those I share this home grown, home preserved food with and love for myself because of all they joys and benefits I receive in performing this ritual. It starts in late winter when I pour over dozens of websites and catalogs searching for unique, interesting and flavorful crops that I believe my family, friends and I will enjoy. I order the seeds and patiently wait for signs of spring. I then carefully begin starting seeds inside and care for them with faith and patience until I feel it is finally safe enough to let them stretch their roots in the soil and their leaves toward the sun . For the rest of the summer, I monitor the garden's progress every day, hand picking pests from each and every leaf that needs to be rescued, I support my crops with sticks, branches and twine when their branches become to heavy to support themselves, I water diligently when the skies fail to provide rain and I weed, oh do I weed.
When the plants finally bless me with vegetables and fruits, I harvest each and every berry, tomato, eggplant, green bean, carrot, onion etc., with thankfulness and and pride for all the hard work required by both (myself and the plant) in order for that moment to happen. I take the veggies inside, carefully sort them, wash them and prepare them for preservation. With diligence, I cook, I sanitize jars, I cook some more, I fill the jars, wipe them down and process them again. This may take hours or days, but it is never wasted time, nor does an ounce of the harvest go to waste. What doesn't make the canning cut, or has been peeled off or de-stemmed will go to the compost pile so that in a few months can be returned to the soil to be used as nutrients for the next garden. All these canned veggies and fruits, the sauces, the syrups, jellies, jams and pickles I display like artwork in vintage jars that have survived generations. Jars that rest on open shelves in the kitchen and dining room (out of direct light and heat of course) because they are far to beautiful to be hidden away. some jars will eventually be given to family and friends as gifts or will be served in my own home. Providing for them delicious, healthy, and pure food is love. Love that I planted, nurtured, harvested and preserved with my own hands. There's more than just food in those jars.
Thank you for this post! What a great opportunity for me to be reminded of why home canning is so special to me.
ericabruielly@hotmail.com
I have always wanted to learn how to can esp since I moved up to rural ME from the more city like CT. Lots of blueberry fields here so I can't wait to pick fresh blueberries and make some jam. I work at a library and saw your book on the shelf. I have been studying ever since and can't wait to get started. Also I love your blog!!
Csilly24@yahoo.com
I am just now learning how to can and having this fabulous prize package would be wonderful. So far my friends have taught me to make pickled peaches and I've made spiced peach jam and blueberry lime jam. I am hooked!
babykk@charter.net
I want to can your relish recipe (I love your book on Pickles) and tomatoes and all sorts of jams.
Preserving the fresh produce we get at our CSA to enjoy throughout the year is a canning inspiration!
Gifting is why I long to can.
I am very passionate about giving a unique gift for each person I “buy” for. It is getting harder and harder to find and purchase that perfect gift. Two small children and a full time job don’t leave much time for shopping (which I dread, unless it is w/ a mouse). So last year about this time I was introduced to you. Shortly after browsing your blog for oh, only hours and hours, I became an instant fan. I ordered a few sets of jars from Ball. My intent was to make my chili, and freeze in the Ball jars for gifts. I didn’t want to can b/c it was completely foreign to me. That would be our Christmas gift to everyone on the list.
Come December, I opened the freezer and looked at the jars. They didn’t exactly look that appealing to present as a gift, even dressed up with a bow. I knew the chili would taste great once defrosted and heated, but I couldn’t go to our holiday party and expect the host to store the gifts for 15 people in her freezer until it was gift opening time. So I scratched that idea and my kids helped me make espresso mint brownies that I packaged in pretty Glassine bags for everyone (but I wasn’t as excited).
With that said…I loooong to can my chili for holiday gifts. I am scared. I so wish I could’ve signed up for your party and flown from Chicago to attend your canning session. But a book and supplies would be great and help me get on my way to gift giving this season. We purchase our grass fed meat from a small farm in Iowa and all other ingredients are organic. I would feel so great about being able to give this special gift from our kitchen.
Angela – angelaky9h@gmail.com
My Grandmother was a master canner. She recently passed away and we are in the process of cleaning out her house. Down in the cellar there are enough can green beans, tomatoes, etc. to feed 3 armies! I have the fondest memories of being with her in her kitchen.
I have been craving homemade pickles, I think I really might try to make them! Make my Grandma proud!
my aunt starts making fruit jams every spring and every time i open a jar it reminds me of the fun we had talking while i watched her stir. i hope to carry on the tradition with my own kids.
twsadmin@earthlink.net
I've only canned a few things. My jelly was a dismal failure twice and never set even though I used pectin. I'd love to make salsa this year. We eat lots of salsa and it would be wonderful to be able to can my own.
Learning to can was one of my goals this year. My grandma is teaching me her way of doing things and I am adapting them to my style. I'm enjoying the process so much. It's a wonderful thing to share with my grandmother, and it's fulfilling to be skilled in preserving what I've grown in my garden.
This will be my first year canning... Which should be interesting. I just got your Canning & Preserving book from amazon in the mail yesterday so I'm sure I'm in good hands. Hope I win!
Hi Ashley, I wasn't sure how to contact you, but I saw some of your recipes for cleaning supplies on design sponge and I was wondering if I could share them with my blog readers. I will absolutely give you 100% of the credit.
Thanks!
Kendra
kendraardis@yahoo.com
I started canning last summer because I tried Southern Living's Rosemary Peach Jam. Then I found no pectin, low sugar recipes and I was hooked. I love going to the farmer's market, picking out the produce, poring over my recipe books, planning out an entire day of canning (so I only have to run the stove once a week or so!), spending a day or two chopping cooking and jarring, then tasting summer whenever I open a jar of something I made. But what really makes me want to can is sharing those beautiful, colorful jars with friends and family.
I have been around canning my whole life. I spent equal amounts of time with my two grandmothers. It wasn't unusual for them to put up as may as 100 quarts of green beans each! That was a staple in their homes. I remember summers spent with them snapping beans and watching "Days of our Lives". I did not begin to can on my own until after my daughter, Sadie, was born. I thought then and still do think that it is important to expose her to that tradition and preserving the fresh vegetables that we gather each year from our garden.
I used to watch my gramma can and now she is gone I sooo wish I knew how! It would be great to can the case of peaches we have coming! Thanks!
The rows and rows of colorful jars upon the pantry shelf are what call me each season. My grandma canned everything - her kitchen was always a buzz of hot kettles and some freshly picked produce awaiting to be preserved in a beautiful glass jar. I spent many years with my mother canning in our tiny, hot kitchen - one of the first things I wanted to do when I left for college was can sauces and jellies. I figured I needed food for the year and I wouldn't be canning in a dorm room - ha! I'm a geek!
What tempts me about canning is the fact that I have these golden fruits put up in jars with my own hands. I read a lot of old books (Anne of Green Gables, Jane of Lantern Hill, Little Women, etc etc) and many of them have these marvelous descriptions of the light bouncing off their canned bounty. It gives me such a fulfilled feeling to be able to look at a shelf full of home-canned LOVE!
Ashley,
You may or may not remember me, but I stumbled across your blog through one of my friends. I'm Shannon Newbold (now Shannon Wright) and we went to elementary and middle school together, and I had lots of sleepovers at your house in Richlands. What great memories! I love your blog and am so impressed by your accomplishments, you're a talented lady:) What interests me about canning comes somewhat from my childhood, and how my mother canned almost everything. I have great memories of eating all her yummy fruits and canned veggies. Now, my interest in canning is born from necessity. My husband has Crohn's disease and is on a very limited diet, and so all the preservatives in canned grocery goods he can't have. I need to get started canning so I can build up my food storage for him in case of an emergency. Plus, it's so much healthier for us all! Drop me a line sometime, I'd love to catch up with you.
I have always wanted to try canning, but I do not know where to begin. I want to try canning because I don't want any part of my harvest to go to waste as it has in previous years.
I've always wanted to try my hand at canning because both my grandmothers used to do it and there is nothing so great as to be in the middle of winter time and to open a jar of something that takes your right back to the long days of summer.And to be honest, I like the more economical benefits too.
Great giveaway! I just bought my first home, the empty shelves in my pantry have me itching to fill them with all the goodies I can!!
I'm drawn to doing something that seems to be fading away in time, and also, delicious tomatoes in the winter.
I want to be able to save all the summer's bounty and be able to enjoy it in the long tasteless winter.
I live in the UK. Everyweek when I shop it seems more expensive, I am trying to do my part growing veg drying clothes outside (when its not raining!!) Canning is something I would really like to try have no idea where to start, so think this kit would be a great starting place, then the family could have summer in winter.
lindsay.james@talktalk.net
I have always wanted to can but was scared! Maybe this is just the thing to get me started!
I love opening a jar of jam in winter and remembering the sweetness of summer. It always makes me feel good to watch my family eat something I made with my own 2 hands. It also brings so many memories of my mom standing in the kitchen thanking each jar as it seals with a "thank you!"
A general fondness for (bordering on obsession with!) jam--especially blueberry--sparked my interest in canning and preserving. I've made my first few jars of jam (actually this past weekend!), but am still definitely a beginner. Thanks for being so generous, Ashley!
curlygirl8988@yahoo.com
I love canning because it makes me feel self sufficient.
thanks for the chance to win.
dorking (at) acsalaska (dot) net
I tried canning last year for the first time after finding your blog, actually. I picked up your book and did a bushel of tomatoes. The smell and taste of actual fresh tomatoes when I cracked open those jars in the dead cold of February was amazing. I'm hooked.
I've never canned before, but would LOVE to learn how! This is my first year with a garden and I've been planning on freezing whatever I could because I don't know how to can yet.
The ability to capture that freshness of summer really draws me to canning! i'm so nervous to try.. this would definitely help
I love the idea of canning as each winter I fret and fritter over the thought of the power going out in a snowstorm and losing all the hard work of the garden season that is in my freezer. Having some canned goods squirreled away in the basement would make me feel that at least there is a back up plan!
What tempts me about canning right now is the opportunity to can peaches here in southern NJ. Can't wait to use the canned peaches recipe in your book!
My aunts taught me how to can a couple summers ago. Our favorite thing is my grandmother's bread & butter pickles. I have just moved to a new city with a zillion farmer's markets, so once the heat gives, I plan on making those pickles, some chutneys, and I really want to make our own ketchup!
kevmegcorb@comcast.net
With our short-but-intense growing seasons here in Alaska, I can't wait to try canning to have blueberry jam, syrup, and all sorts of yummies all winter long!
I've been canning since my early 20's, when I taught myself from a Ball canning book. My grandmother was organizing political protests in her day and never bothered with canning, so I didn't have her to learn from.
My new fave is salsa.
This year has been a first for me for a couple of things...I have learned how to can and I planted a vegetable garden. I am so excited about canning that I have been looking on the web every day and WAALAA I found your website. The vegetables can't grow fast enough!! Thank you for your inspiration!!
I started canning {in small batches} last year. I am slowly getting equipment I need. This giveaway would be a great way to add to my "collection". I am enjoying learning new things and canning new things!
what a great Giveaway!
I watched my mom and aunts can when I was little.. I have always loved helping them.. now I do it my self and love every second of it.. I love being able to crack a fresh can of Jam or peaches or pares open in the dead of winter.. just so rewarding :)
LOVE canning - both everyday preserving of fruits and veggies in their season and specialty condiments. I just checked out your book at our local library and CAN'T WAIT to try some of your recipes!! Thanks, Leslie
I've always been interested in canning. I've never done it. The idea of providing for myself and saving some money definitely appeals to me. I've had the idea of setting up a canning instructional class for those who utilize the food bank services. I just have no experience with it myself and don't know anybody who does it.
I would *Love* to win this! My family has never done any canning, but I do make jam in the bread machine. People think it's weird when I say that, but it's true! And tasty, too! It does only make a small amount. I have 20 cups of blueberries in my freezer waiting to be made into jam and syrup. It sure would be great if I can win the prize so that I can get started on that. Thanks.
deannagoen at gmail dot com
I love canning because it is such a creative outlet that brings me closer to my mother and grandmother. I, often, can with friends so it is a great social time for us as we divide tasks and take home our treasures at the end of the day. Family and friends love getting our canned goodies as gifts throughout the year.
grow, make, eat = perfection!
I love canning! I started because I had vague memories of my mom making the best jam ever and I wanted to try my hand at it. My desire was also fueled by my need to be frugal. I hate spending money on over priced stuff. And the jam at the store is usually nearly the same costs (for 8oz) as making a 3 pints of homemade. Not to mention, I get to control the ingrediants now. I can make any strange concoction I want - like fig jello, strawberry banana or black forest. I can do low sugar. I can do whatever I want and I love it. Plus, I love the way food looks in jars.
My motto is "Eat what you can, and can what you can't"! I absolutely hate to waste food, which is the primary reason I began canning. As a little girl, I remember both of my grandmothers canning everything from their garden, and it was something that just stuck with me. It's SOOOO satisfying to hear the "pop, pop, pop" of the lids after taking them out of your canner! It's at that very moment, that I'm comforted knowing that the food I canned will not go to waste. :)
I love strawberry and raspberry jam in January. I love dilly green beans for Thanksgiving and with turkey sandwiches the next day! I am so grateful my mother taught me the basics. Now I would like to expand my tasty treats!
Really, it boils down to pride for me. I grew it, I saved it and now I'm feeding my family.
I actually canned for the first time today! I'm tempted to try canning because of all the great sounding food you can make! And I love the idea of doing stuff myself :)
I would love to do pickles this summer! We did refrigerator dills last summer, but they took up so much space in the fridge. So this year I'd like to actually can them.
I also live in the mountains of NC and canning is much like a community event in the small town I grew up in. People have butter making parties and swap treats. I live on the coast now and haven't got the canning community but I still have the passion for delicious homegrown, home preserved foods. In this consumers' age isn't it wonderful to share this art with family and friends! Wonderful giveaway.
What keeps me coming back to canning is the great favors and different concoctions I can come up with. I look at what I have harvest that season and can come up with some delicious can foods! I love how I can make something and have it for later. Though its had to do sometimes we you smell that aroma while making it but patience pays off in the end. :-D
My granparents had a fabulous canning/preserving cellar complete with a rescued dairy double freezer (which hopefully is still there). I get bit by the "pretty jam" bug every year as soon as I see local berries at the store. I'm terrified of pressure canning, and limited by the tiny size of my kitchen, but I keep pushing the envelope and learning new recipes outside my comfort zone of simple jam, frozen veggies and dried herbs/fruit leather.
I love canning! I get a sense of pride when I look at all of my filled jars in the cabinet. I like being able to provide healthy food for my family. Each year, I keep trying new recipes and thinking of new plants to add to my garden.
I love being able to make things just the way I like them to taste. Then I like being able to eat, share, trade, and giveaway delicious jams and relishes that I've made from summer's bounty.
I am fairly new to canning, only blueberries and strawberries into Jam. I would love love love to do some dill pickles!
What a generous giveaway. I'd love to get back into canning - did a lot when my daughter was young and now my grandson would enjoy it, I think...
jburton1114 at gmail
I've come back to canning after several years of hiatus. I love the fresh garden taste that comes with home canned vegetables. I adore the look of the jars lined up on the shelf at the end of canning season. Colored jewels to keep me through the winter season.
I love canning. There is something so gratifying about making something with your own hands. Add in the ability to have a taste of summer in the winter time and you have a win-win situation!
aimeerporter(at)gmail(dot)com
I've never canned but have wanted to try forever! I'd love to be able to make my own sauces and learn the art of pickling. I think this would be a great way to save money and enjoy the bounty of my garden all year round. Fingers and toes are crossed to win!!
Just something unexplainable about hearing the "ping" of the jars, and seeing them rest on linen towels to cool till the next day. My favorite gift to give is a jar of my jam (pick a flavor!), along with a box of tea, and some crumpets. I am getting ready to make the Blueberry-Lime Jam from the Ball Blue book. My favorite is Peach Raspberry Jam.
for me, it's honoring my grandmother. she always canned her own things and always let me help. now, the process of canning is relaxing and allows me to reflect on the past and family and the earth (is that cheesy?) also, i love to be thrifty! get something when it is cheap (or free!) and be able to enjoy it during the year when it's not available or is expensive!
My mother didn't can, but my grandmother did, so I have been learning from her. There is just something about making the most of seasonal foods and appreciating the bounty that really appeals to me. I have brined pickles and canned blueberry pie filling and lemon curd. I really want to get into "real" canning, especially putting up tomato products. I love your books! You are such an inspiration! Thank you for the wonderful giveaway!
I've always wanted to can and I became interested in canning after I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which affects all areas of my body at will with pain and fatigue and there is no cure. There were times when I couldn't drive, I couldn't even get out of bed and when I finally had to quit work I was truly scared about what I was going to do if I couldn't afford to buy nutritious food or if I just couldn't drive to the store. Now that I'm on medication that lessens pain, I can get around considerably better - but that fear is always in the back of my mind and I always thought canning as opposed to frozen food like you mentioned would be a more viable solution. I live out on an old farm in a very, very old trailer home and my power goes out every time there is a storm, which is often! Haha, I understand how you feel after the last time I had a freezer full of food go bad!
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE! Whoever wins this is super lucky.
rz228@email.vccs.edu
I have wanted to learn how to can forever. Now that I have got the gardening thing down I would love to learn so new things with my fruits and veggies. It would be so nice to be able to have some of our summer harest to eat in the winter.
Thank you for hosting the giveaway! I continue to can for many reasons. Probably the biggest reason is that I love providing my family with wholesome food that tastes better than store bought. I also just really find the process fun. Finally, I love how canning links me back to women of yesteryear!
kriswrite at aol dot com
My grandma turned 94 this year and lives so far away. I miss her loquat jelly and plum jelly... I would love to be able to send her a jar of something special while I can.
I started really canning just a year ago when I was overloaded with veggies from the garden and I ran out of room in the Freezer. So now I'm ready to get back into canning if the garden will survive this drought and keep growing.
i am going to start canning this year. this is my first year owning a home--and therefore having land to plant a garden! tomorrow i am making some pickles and canning some crushed tomatoes. cannot wait--would LOVE to add to my canning supply list :)
I have always wanted to learn how to can.
I used to have a neighbor who had a huge pantry with walls full of canned goods. Her bread 'n butter pickles were the best pickles I have ever had. I kept meaning to ask her to teach me how to can and then she died suddenly. I so wish I had taken the opportunity when I had the chance to learn someone who had been canning for decades. I still want to learn.
Ooh - I just did a small batch of pickled beets today; that basket sure would have been nifty! Great blog - thanks!
I consider myself very blessed to have a Mother & a Grandmother to teach me how to preserve !
Mom was a master of Pickle Making and her Mom was our family Jelly,Jam & bread maker. Sadly,her bread making skills just never rubbed off on me !
Truthfully, Grandma's Strawberry Jam,still tastes great on my baked hockey pucks !
I have since created a few of my own favorite recipes for filling my canning jars.I'm looking forward to passing these skills on to anyone who is interested...I have a few pint sized students of my own now !!!
Marianne in Pennsylvania
I've yet to can anything, but I just came into a pressure cooker / canner, though I lack any of the other supplies. For me it's the tomatoes -- I wait all year to eat fresh tomatoes, and I only eat them in summer. I'm thinking that if I canned the ones from my own garden, I could enjoy them in fall & winter.
Wow.. what a awesome give away. Im crossing my fingers for this one for sure. canning brings back so many great memories of my childhood with my whole family. Thanks.
Canning was a way of life in my girlhood home. All summer and deep into the fall we'd put up food and all winter we'd eat good food we'd raised ourselves. When I got married my parents gave me their old water bath canner. I still use it.
Really it's hard for me to say why I enjoy canning so much. I love stocking the cellar shelves with neat rows of jars filled for winter. I love sending a jar of something home with folks when they visit. I love that sunny morning in February when we've got four feet of snow on the ground and we open up a can of raspberry jam and suddenly it's August for a minute. Believe it or not in all the years I've been canning I've never made pickles! This year is shaping up to be a crazy year for cucumbers so I'll be making homemade pickles for the very first time. Wish me luck!
I would love to have it!!! it looks great!!! Thanks,
Isabelle
My inspiration to can comes from the memories of food and family. I love how if I eat a cassia bud pickle, (made from Nana's recipe) it brings me to memories of my mother and of her canning jars of pickles just as Nana had when she was growing up. I also love that if I eat raspberry jam that I made, it transports me to the process of picking the berries. Or of some other family memory that has its basis in the 'raspberry' Like when we would pick gallons of Raspberries at my grandparents, and then go to camp with them in gallon ice cream buckets, and eat them to our hearts content.
I've just been canning since last year and LOVE it. Just like you, we live "out" so preservation is important.
My fave, taste of warm summer peaches in the cold days of winter.
Pickled asparagus wrapped in cream cheese and ham. Reminders of days spent with my Grandma processing the garden.
i love canning... it's so great revisiting fruits and veggies in the middle of winter - simply by popping open a jar!
Why canning? Why not? I have a gorgeous, large mango tree in the backyard - and I know that my first attempt at mango butter is just weeks away! But I'm also intrigued by mixing up different flavors, doing something that mystifies most, and gaining some insight on how exactly pectin works (yes, totally a girl-geek). To that end, I made some cherry jam Thursday evening, prepped some pineapple-grapefruit marmalade Friday, and re-made some unset Beautyberry jelly that didn't set two weeks ago on Saturday! I've made strawberry jam and tried mulberry jam in past years, too. So, not a total novice, but not anywhere near an expert, but hoping to be and this set would surely help! Thanks!
This is a great giveaway! I have been canning for years, but really embracing it the past three years. I'm going to enter some of my jams in a local fair (life on the edge!). I love the feeling I get looking at the shelves loaded with jams and pickles that I've made for my family. Great satisfaction!
Wow please pick me! My BFF and I started making jam last year. We'd love to try other varieties so the recipe book would come in handy.
I so want to learn to can! I Love the jars! I have some antique ones that I want to decorate with and the newer ones that I have bought at garage sales I want to learn to can in them. So I guess you could say what draws me to canning is the JARS. Good Luck everyone!!
A few years ago, I started with making cranberry chutney for holiday gifts. This summer, I made up my first batch of jam and a few batches of refrigerator pickles. I love the whole process of canning...it's my therapy when life gets crazy with the kids...
The thing that keeps bringing me to want to can is a connection to our past. To grandmothers making a harvest last... to slowing down in an overly processed world and taking time to make things with my children. To show them that things don't just "come in jars"
I love canning because it's not only fun, it's useful. I recently lost my grandmother who was 93, and my homemade pickles were her favorite thing. The day she was laid to rest I made 10 jars of pickles out of frustration and sadness, and although it made me sad that she'd never say "I LOVE THESE!" to me again when I handed her a jar or two, I know that she loved them while she was here. So I'll make them forever.
I've made everything from blackberry/raspberry/peach jam to mint jelly this summer, and it's only going to continue as my garden finishes it's growing. My Roma tomatoes are begging to be jarred :)
I come from a long line of caners, my mother did it for survival during the early years of my life. She taught my sister and I, who are now doing it for our families.
She still sits buy my side on many occasions to help with the work.
I started doing it just because I wanted to eat fresh foods without preservatives year round. I also love supporting my local farmers but since I live alone, I usually could not eat all the fruit and veggies I needed to buy when I was there.
I love having seasonal food available to me at other times of the year. I also find that canning seasonal produce is cheaper in the end, plus it tastes better. I've been doing a lot of preserving of all kinds this summer and look forward to doing moe!
I grew up watching my mom preserve everything that we had extra of in our garden and trees. I have been on my own for quite a while now and am finally looking forward to starting to preserve our own garden treasures with my children. I started with no-cook freezer jam, and think I'm ready to graduate to canning! Thank you so much for this fantastic give-away! :)
This is my first year of canning and so far, so good! my husband and I joined a CSA this year and purchased a fruit share. After three weeks of getting flats of strawberries, I decided to make jam instead of endless batches of strawberry shortcake. I've made 10+ flavors of strawberry jam, 10+ batches of blueberry jam (due to the 30 pounds of blueberries ive received so far this month) and next week on to cherries and soon after, peaches! It is an obsession lately and I'm just a beginner, but I can see this being a staple in my life!
I love canning in how it can consume you entirely for a few hours and spit you out at the end of it with these vibrant gems of deliciousness captured in smooth jars. I love its exactitude and simpleness and purpose.
I really like to can so that my family can have food to eat all year long. Also I love being in control of the contents Thanks for the giveaway.
My canning drive is similar to yours. Though I've recently moved to Eastern NC, I grew up in AK... where the season in which anything fresh is available locally is really quite short. (Not to mention, not nearly the variety of what is available here in NC!)
Putting up for the winter meant that I could eat delicous produce, without paying the premium it costs to ship things to AK, all winter long. Now that I'm in NC:
OMG! SO MUCH PRODUCE!!! MUST SAVE IT ALL!!! :-)
Thanks for the chance to win!
Lets see...what temps me about canning? I think it's the possibility of tasting the summer in the middle of winter. Yum.
I love that canning keeps me in touch with the local farmers in my area and the fact that I have all my Christmas presents 'in the can' by mid-September doesn't hurt either.
I started canning because I hated fruits & veggies. Funny huh? I hated them until I got my first taste of truly ripe fare when I accidentally ran across a farmers market one day. A farmer offered me a sample of watermelon, which I always believed to be a flavorless waste of the sun's energy. Imagine my surprise at the sweet & sunny flavor that burst across my tastebuds! I soon found out why sweet peppers are named such & that tomato sauces shouldn't need sugar if you're doing it right. I knew that summer that I needed to find a way to preserve the deliciousness of summer & spare us from the dreary winter foods available at the grocery store. Enter canning!
I love that it puts me in touch with people of the past. When canning was essential. I also just love the "creations" that I can make! :)
I would love to stat canning for my family!! There are so many great items from the garden that we just don't use in time.
this is my first summer canning and I love it. I am happy knowing I can store food for my family and I am helping to keep the past alive.
Started this summer to make a case if strawberry jams as a gift for my dad. Have made a dozen or so different strawberry jams, peach, plum, fig, & hot pepper jams, peach, plum, & nectarine butters, chicken stock, pickled kumquats & watermelon rind & refrigerator pickles. Thinking of making cantelope & peach jam. It's addictive. One of the neighbors just left saying you always take something home when you visit here.
I got started canning one summer about 8 years ago when I opened a jar of strawberry jam I bought and the chunks of berry were rock hard. I went out a you-pick place and had jam in jars in 4 hours from starting to pick.
Paul Says: Deer ! Deer ! Is what I will be stuffing in 52 pints and a few quarts this year !! Canning green beans will save you some pennies !! But the price of Natural Organic Extra Lean Red Meat is in the Big Bucks (no pun) categories !! Those Deer just come and eat my organic corn out of my garden! So in the pot they go. Have not ate a rabbit in 25 years, so cute, they are. The rabbit are safe. I have only canned a little in my 59 years, my mom did a lot tho. So now I go. Did my first Deer in 2003 oh was it 90 minutes at 10 lbs. ??? I will always check before I can. So tender, so good, right out of the jar!!! pbc1951 (at) G Mail (dot) Calm
Gift for dad - previous anonymous post
Kathieadams1@yahoo.com
I love canning. I am always looking for something to can. I dont have a very big garden, so i try to can the little I do have. I just love seeing those jars coming out of the canner and sitting on the counter to cool, hearing the popping of the lids.
I am starting from scratch and am waiting for my tomatoes to come in from the garden. they are the first food I plan to put up for winter.
I have made freezer foods for years but I am so excited to start real canning and have food on my shelves.
I am brand new to canning & can hardly wait to make refrigerator pickles as well as put up some luscious peaches & berries to use during the cold winter months! Canning, here I come!!
I grew up in a very small town (117 people + dogs). As a kid I HATED working in the garden-bc we HAD to. I grew up watching my grandma grow & canning her own vegetables. The smell of a cooking beet drove me out of the house on more than one occasion. Oh but what I wouldn't give to have some of my grandma's canned goodness now! I have a small garden now that I am older & would love to start canning my own goodness to share someday w my grandchildren.
Thanks
Missy
missyxray@gmail.com
I have loved canning as long as I can remember. I grew up canning. I tried a couple of new things last year- dilly beans (I had tried them before but they were too salty) They were wonderful. I also tried a couple different recipes for chow chow. I liked the last recipe but I will use powdered spices for the larger seeds.Some how crunchy should be the veggies not the spices.
I've become addicted to canning in the past year. Just last night I did a batch of cherry vanilla butter. Oh. So. Yummy! :)
I love the memories that I have of both my grandmothers canning. I can see in my minds eye, so many wonderful things in jars, lining their pantry shelves.
I learned to can this summer from someone in my extended family, and I am so excited to be able to save the tastes of summer for the winter months!
And by the way, I just read your book this weekend. Great stuff! :)
I was introduced to the joy of making jam by a dear friend who worked my through my "fear" of the big, hot pot. Today, I made jam with an office mate and opened the door for her jam adventures. What a wonderful gift to share.
I started Canning when I moved into my house and on the property is a lovely old Pear Tree.I knew nothing about canning but knew that that tree and I would work well together.I started getting books at the library on how to can.
The first thing I made was Carmel Pear Butter.Then I moved on to Jams,Fruit Syrups and Pie fillings.
I love canning and teaching friends and family.It brings us all together.
I turn 46 this August and something recently happened to me- I have discovered a real distaste for, well.. wasted food. Why this happened I don't know but I am grateful that it did- I made my first batch of jelly yesterday: Rhubarb and tonight made a fabulous Rhubarb Custard Pie with the leftovers from the process. I have found a new frugality and canning is the next on my list: I just need some stuff!
I love to can. There are so many things I like about it. I enjoy growing our food, and canning it for healthy and inexpensive way to feed the family. I like knowing we have food in jars on our shelves in case of an emergency. And I love the look on my family's faces when they put a bite of some new jam or jelly I've made!! The happy smiles make it all worthwhile!
Oh, I am totally with you on the country girl power issues. I guess we can take it though. (lol)
I started canning because I thought it would be cool to make jam. The first batch I ever made I managed to burn and fill the house with smoke. My husband astutely reminds me of it every year now. Hasn't stopped me though. I think every time I can I get a *little* better.
Thank you for such a generous giveaway! I'd love to give all the goodies you are offering a go. :)
I love canning, I love seeing all those jars lined up on the shelf. I love being able to hand a guest a jar of something tasty to take home.
It's always been a something to do before I turn 40 thing! Well August is just around the corner and so is 40!! My neighbor taught me an dI love her!! I am hooked! Just made Blueberry Butter!
I've been canning for years. I grew up watching my mother can fruits and vegetables. As a child it was my job to wash the jars. My hands were small enough to fit through the mouth of the jars easily. I prefer canning to freezing for many reasons including a better tasting product and not having to worry about spoilage if there is a power outage. Thanks!
I love that I can get something out of the garden in July and enjoy it in December. It's a life long pursuit once you start. Please enter me. outofi at yahoo dot com
Although I've made lots of jelly, I still consider myself a beginner. Branched out into pickles last year, now I need to figure out some new things to can. Amazing give a way, I'd love to update my supplies!
I started out with strawberry jam and then pickles..now my garden is getting larger and want to try my hand at canning other fruits and veggies...I Love knowing that what I can is healthy and tastes wonderfully fresh as the day it was harvested!!! This s such a great giveaway for anyone who wants to start canning or has already started and wants to expand the knowledge of properly preserving can items...Thanks for offering this...Brenda
Everyone should learn to can! This kit looks like it would be a breeze for small batches. Too many people say "someday." ..someday when they have a house, someday when they don't have babies, etc. They reminisce how wonderful if was canning as a child...why did they not continue? There is not that much to "study" ...just start with a basic outline book as the BALL BLUE BOOK. It is practically foolproof. Write an entry here but don't sit around waiting to win, go out and get started ASAP.
I canned for my single self in a teeny apartment, I canned as a young married in a not much bigger apartment, I canned with one, then two , then 3 children , working around work schedules, naps. I still can and freeze 30+ years later, welcoming every windfall, harvest, lucky buy. So I know it can be done. Make "someday" tomorrow.
I just started learning to can! I've never been so satisfied as much as I did after I successfully pickled 5 quarts of cucumbers from my garden. I had a smile on my face all day long. I also canned green beans that day and made freezer jam too. I can't wait to get enough tomatoes out of my garden to can sauces!
I wish I'd known you when I lived in NC! ;)
I need to spend a little more time with your dairy book and start slowly...
I love having home canned foods in the pantry,good for you and less trips to the grocery store. esp love to have lots of tomatoes.
I learned to can from my great grandma, grape jelly and fig jam among the favorites. I have her old cookbooks and would love to honor her by getting back to it again. Love your blog, glad to find it.
I'm new to canning so this would be great! Please let me win!
I just started canning, and I don't have most of the "stuff" that goes with it so I improvise (which sometimes is scary and messy LOL). I am loving canning so far b/c it gives me the opportunity to make things fresh for my family (I have 8 year old triplets and a 2 year old), and the more I stock my shelves with handmade, homegrown foods the more accomplished I feel!
So far, all I have canned are jams. Wild blackberry, strawberry vanilla, and peach. I hope to expand on this experience and try some other things too. I really like knowing that I can save my garden crops to enjoy through the winter months. Thanks.
What a great giveaway! There is a trend starting of trying to live off your own land again...hoping to start our garden next year. And would love to learn how to can all that fresh produce.
There are so many reasons I love to can. I love knowing where my food came from. I love having the memory of making the food when I open the jar. We often can together as a family, so we have good memories about things that go terribly wrong (like when one of our jars exploded and we canned in watered-down sauerkraut for that batch), or very well (like when we have a bumper crop of tomatoes and end up with gallons of marinara sauce and salsa). It's also fun to have home-made gifts on hand when you're in a pinch. Everybody loves some food in a jar.
The thing that really interests me about canning is the ability to have a bigger hand in my meals through the year. I'm sick of buying flavourless fruits and vegetables that have been grown for size rather than taste at the supermarkets, and I finally talked myself into buying a few canning recipe books in order to help shove me over that ledge.
I'm still in my "let's learn more" phase, especially since I don't feel like I have everything I need to start, but I'm ready to dive right in!
I once had a canner that sat unused for years gathering dust in the attic. I had used it to make jam and can pears and applesauce but eventually got busy and forgot about canning until recently. I would love to get back into making jam again. I love the pretty colors and opening summer in a jar!
My family has been canning for many generations. I started making pickles and jam a long time ago, and then didn't any more until about 4 years ago. Now I can tomatoes with my Mom every year, if Dad's garden produces well we also can vegetables. Canning is so much more fun when you have someone to do it with.
Recently I've done strawberry jam, strawberry-lemon jam, cherry jam that didn't gel at all, and cherry perserves that failed some how. Yesterday I made pickled green beans, since I only have a water bath canner pickles are the only way I can put up vegetables until I get to my Mom's and can use hers. I'll have to get one for myself eventually I guess. LOL
It's the sense of preservation and conservation of time and season
I have just ruined a big bunch of fig-apricot butter. 15 quarts just went bad, and on the top of it, my beloved pot too... but I have to keep on canning, as this is the most amazing way to preserv the summer for the long, cold winter days
For me it's the intense joy that comes from watching my kids devour homemade preserves when they will barely touch store bought. The heartache when something runs out, knowing that I have to wait for next season. The intense longing for canning season to start up again. I LOVE canning, even though this is only my third year, I plan for it year round. I have been just using what I had, because I spend all my money on jars and fruit :) so I would love some of these cool gadgets that would make my canning so much easier.
I hart started canning yet but want to preserve my gardens bounty this year!
I'm a cheap cheap woman and I love to get things when they are in season and we can pick them at the farm. I like them even better when they are free from someone's yard. Even my four kids can't take down the 30+lbs we end up getting. Plus, they really like the popping sound the jars make when they seal.
My mother canned when I was a child and I love canning knowing exactly what I'm feeding my family.
oh I love this... we just moved to a farm and have started an orchard. THanks
Helois
heloiswegrzyn@yahoo.com
Great giveaway!! Unfortunately this oppressive heat is seriously hindering my creativity. C'mom rain!!
I have recently started canning with WECK jars - the only type available here in England for canning and haven't been able to find a company yet that will ship the Ball, Kerr or Mason jars overseas, so this is possibly the answer to my prayers! I would love a couple of jars and the right equipment to can safely! I have been quickly dipping my silicone glove into boiling hot water to scoop up lids, seals and jars! Thanks for the giveaway!
I forgot to mention that what tempts me about canning, is the opportunity to savor something I have grown in my garden. I am successfully growing five tomatoes and plan to make salsa with the tomatoes, onions and cilantro that I am growing - and I have a green-black thumb so being able to keep some salsa in the pantry to revel in until the next seasons tomatoes are ready would give me just the motivation I need to continue to learn how to grow my own garden!
Ever since reading Little House on the Prairie as a child, I knew that I was destined for some level of self-sufficiency. I have made both freezer jam and refrigerator pickles, but I have yet to try any water bath canning. I am so so interested and this year we have doubled the size of the garden so this could not come at a better time! What a fantastic prize, thanks for the chance!
I've been contain-gardening in student housing and apartments for years, and I've been intrigued by the possibility of saving some of what I grow for later. I've been playing with pickling this year, and I'm loving the tastes of pickled beets and pickled okra!
I really enjoy canning, I love seeing the rows of jars lined up in my cabinet. I'd love to win your giveaway. My sister in law wants to learn to can so I'd send it her way and pass the knowledge on.
I canned years ago, got out of the habit, but now i'm back into it for my second year and i'm loving it. Medically, I should not be canning, because of the heavy lifting, and the time it takes, but I don't mind paying the price of a little bit of pain and desperate need for resting for a day or two after, in order to provide for my family. Hubby and I have a HUGE garden full of organic, fresh veggies and I look forward to canning them each year. We converted a small closet in our spare bedroom just to hold the canned veggies, fruits, and supplies, and I love going in there and just looking at all the bounty we have! Thanks for this giveaway!
I've been 'jamming' since June 1, & knowing that I can make such an assortment of flavors & products for my many family members & friends, that the cost isn't prohibitive, and having a creative outlet all make canning a very positive experience for me. I've made fruit butters, jams, & honeys, both stovetop & crockpot...Right now, the most gratifying sound in the world is the "pinggg" of jars on the counter after I've taken them out of the hot water bath, I sit and count the pings as the jars seal & am happy to hear that my day's (or evening"s) work has been successful... To see my family's faces as they taste the freshness, to know I can eliminate some of the chemicals in the family's food --- I just LOVE canning!!!
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