Hey kids, it’s giveaway time! Though the canning high season is coming to an end, I firmly believe that truly, home preserving is an activity that can be done all year round. And sometimes, it’s helpful to have a new book or two in your culinary arsenal, to inspire you to keep putting foods in jars even in the colder months (consider, just for a moment, pickled cauliflower). And so, thanks to the kind people at Ball, I have two sets of cookbooks to giveaway.
Each set contains a copy of the Ball Blue Book of Preserving
The giveaway will close at 12 noon on Friday, September 24th, so step lively (I’m listening to an Irish jig as I type this) and leave your comment.
My canning WAY exceeded my expectations, but I think that’s because I didn’t work for 2 months during the height of the season! I’ve got WAY more tomato products than I really wanted, but they will be put to use somehow! And jam, lets not get started on jam. I see Christmas gifts coming to EVERYONE.
I’ll just be honest, which, as of late, has been my go to and so far things have turned out decent enough. I had one canning goal: find a friend who does it and ask them to teach me. How’d I do? I failed, failed, failed. Not one friend in my life right now knows how to can. Looks like it’s going to be me running this show … those books sure could help. THANK YOU, by the way, for the photos and the how-to’s. They’re impressive and wonderfully inspiring as well.
So far so good, besides the fact the heat created a peach season that lasted about 5 days. I was hoping to make Peach Rhubarb jam / jelly.
My summer canning did not go as well as planned. I had hoped to learn how to can and really experiment with it this summer and it really never happened. After taking a class I now have the supplies but not the courage to try it. I will conquer this fear 🙂
Other than being defeated once again by the quince, my summer canning went pretty well.
I had planned to have my first go at canning this summer and I did. I made my first ever batch of strawberry jam. It may have been so runny we used it as icecream topping but I made it. These books would come in very handy. I am hoping to have my first go at making a big batch of apple butter this weekend too.
What a magnificient giveaway! Preserving for me has been a mixed bag this year. The Pacific Northwest has had the coolest summer in 30 years and it was late starting with a lot of spring rain. Now it’s felt like fall for a month already. My tomatos are coming on pretty well and compared to others, very well. My zucchini is good. The lettuce and peas were good and I have a second crop growing. I’ve experimented with a borrowed dehydrator (mostly tomatos and zucchini). And roasted a lot of tomatos but the big news is that I got a pressure canner so I can do more than just BWB!!!! How totally fun! Workin on tomato sauce now…. I want to get better at recipes that are meals in a jar (soups, stews, meatballs, etc). I’d LOVE those books!
Still working up the nerve to get started!
We were able to try a couple of new things this year. We did blackberry jam, and pickled some jalapeno peppers. It’s great to be starting out and I’m very excited to try some new things.
This was the first year that I’ve really tried to be diligent about canning. And I gotta say, I’m HOOKED! My pantry is STOCKED with all sorts of yumminess. And much of it came from my garden (which is quite a feat in iteself considering I live in Las Vegas!) Next year will be even better now that I sorta have a clue what I’m doing:)
I have been canning for 30 plus years. Every year I try to can something new as I try to grow something new in my garden. This year my new canned jelly was pluot with clementine zest.
My Blue Book just got left out in the rain (long story), so I’d love a replacement.
Thank you!
My canning went well this year. Probably should have allowed more than a day for 48 quarts of tomatoes. 🙂 I also canned sweet and sour pickles, blackberry and rose hip jam. It’s my second year with the pressure canner. I’m excited to learn more!
What a great year, 320 tomato plants might have been a couple too many…140 jars so far, AND zuchinni relish, sunshine pickles, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, 12 jars of hot pepper jelly!
bring on the cold weather – we are stocked and ready!!!
This is the first year that I’ve tried to go the “canning” way:) I don’t have a garden but I’ve been foraging in the nearby woods and made a lot of blackberry jam and a bit of rosehip jam as well. I am looking forward to practice my canning skills in the years to come.
My summer canning was a good start. I live in Japan and I had a really hard time finding canning supplies. I ended up using these one piece lids. I managed to make some pickles and some pickle relish. I have been trying to figure out no pectin added apple jelly recently. I had lots of extra juice after cooking down and making apple butter.
I absolutely love this site. I used to make lots of jams and jellies with my great grandmother when I was a kid, but only after a friend sent me a link to this site did I start up again. I am enjoying it a lot.
I canned by myself for the first time, so I would say this season went GREAT! I am honestly so excited to continue learning about this.
My season went poorly, as I definitely planned to do some canning but then never managed to make time for it. Next year!
This is my first summer canning, and I have been a woman obsessed! I started a month ago, and have canned a out 20 quarts crushed tomatoes, 12 pints marinara, a few 1/2 pints jalapeño jelly, 10 jars peach jelly, lots of salsa, and 10 pints dilly beans. Hoping to do tomato cashew chutney this weekend, and applesauce next weekend. I am so in love with canning!
I did three 25 lb. cases of tomatoes this summer; two regular, one plum. I made and canned strawberry, apricot, and blackberry jam. Did around 6 pint jars of dilly beans and 7 of pickled okra, or it may be the other way round. I think that’s it. I meant to steam can corn and limas. I might do that this weekend if I can find the corn and limas.
Basically, it’s been a good summer. The tomatoes were beautiful and abundant, the fruit was sweet, the beans and okra were plentiful. I have no complaints.
it was our first canning season and it went pretty well. did a lot of research and learned a lot in the process of canning a bunch of jams and applesauce!
I just posted a roundup and what everyone sent each other for my jam exchange! I love canning!!! 🙂
We’ve had a great summer on canning…4 varieties of peach jams, cherry jam, lemon vanilla marmalade, apple butter, BBQ sauces, tomato sauces, pickles, pickles, pickles! Our major negative of the summer was my husband trying to pressure cook the bottles of our apple habanero hot sauce…don’t do it!
I’m just loving canning this year!
Well, I’m an aspiring canner, so this book would be helpful for next year for me! I’ve made jelly with my grandma before, but none on my own. We’ve been preparing to move, but I’m looking forward to settling in to our new home and planting a big garden!
I am actually new to canning and have still not actually canned this year. I do, however, live in South Florida and am hoping to can some fresh salsa this fall with Florida tomatoes. I love Food in jars and it inspires me to just give canning a whirl. I am just new and unsure regarding shelf life and acidity.
I’m a fairly novice canner, but I’m happy with my peach jam results this summer. I hope to can some late summer produce next.
This season has been great for tomatoes. I actually had to freeze some since I ran out of jars. My pantry is full and I have boxes of full jars sitting around the house, LOL.
This was my first year canning! For the most part, everything went quite well. The only hiccup is some peach jam that didn’t set up firmly, but since I mainly use it to stir into yogurt, that’s not really a problem. I look forward to continuing to can!
I was more ambitious this year — a very dear friend of mine did me a huge (financial) favor this year, and insisted that I repay him “in food”. He left the details to me.
I decided to do a tithe — one jar of each and every thing I canned, jammed, or preserved would go to him. This ended up encouraging me to branch out a bit, so he’d have a nice big variety of things. So now, he’ll be getting about 4 or 5 different kinds of jam — and I may yet make more, because he’d get a HUGE kick out of the charoses jam I found on this site — but he’s also getting some canned peaches, canned pears, some pickled jalapenos, a couple spice blends, two kinds of mustard, and even a small bottle of liqueur. (I got all the rest, of course.)
My wife and I accomplished our “canning goal” by just getting started. We have built what we call our “raised bed garden on steroids”, bought a bigger pressure canner, jars, and lids, and are looking forward to doing some serious canning. We have played around with canning in the past, but now it’s time to dive into it.
First time ever learning how to can this summer!! With a friend so it made it even more heartwarming & fun! Would love to win & have a hard-copy reference so I’ll do it the RIGHT way.
Oh, well never mind – you’re 3hrs ahead of me 🙁
The canning has been wonderful, the garden however has not been the same success story. 19 tomatoe plants and I had to buy tomatoes for salsa! I have done about 40 qrts of pickles, 24 qrts of green beans, 20 pints of dilly beans, 12 half pints of grape tomatoes(used the new BBB!)and various relishes and pickled items. We have wonderful friends that share the bounty of the garden and we can together. This makes for an awesome partnership/friendship! It makes us feel like a family, talking about what we will can, recipes to try and gifts to give.
Well, on to the green tomatoe relish! Have a great fall!
I returned to canning this year after over 20 years. Boy, things have changed! For the first time in my life I bought a pressure canner. I used it to can some soups. I am still unsure about using it and how to do everything right. But plan to use it more as time permits. I canned tomato jam for the first time ever. There are plans to can some jellies from juice I made and froze from berries I harvested both wild and cultivated. It is slow canning because I want to be sure everything is done safely.
I only completed about 1/3rd of the canning that I had aspired to tihs season, but everything that I’ve made has been delicious. Thanks for all of the great posts!