Join the Food in Jars community for a year-long food preservation mastery challenge. Each month brings a different skill on which to focus and explore!
Happy New Year, friends! And welcome to the Food in Jars Mastery Challenge!
Back in 2010, the blogger we all knew as Tigress hosted a year-long canning challenge known as the Can Jam. Each month, she’d announce a new category of ingredients and we’d all head out and make a preserve featuring that particular food. It was fun to be pushed to try new things and I so loved the sense of community that the Can Jam created.
There have been other challenges in more recent years (Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Charcutepalooza is one such memorable project) and after much pondering, I’ve decided to host one in 2017.
This challenge will be skill-based. Each month, we’ll all focus on a different pickling or preserving skill, with the intention that we end this calendar year with a greater level of expertise and comfort with a wide range of food preservation techniques than when we started.
At the beginning of each month, I’ll publish a blog post sharing tips on how to be successful with that skill and then will ask you to go forth and try it out. We’ll be talking in greater depth about each challenge in the Food in Jars Community on Facebook and I’ll be popping in regularly to answer questions.
If you have a blog or an Instagram account, I invite you to post the results of your project by the 25th of the month so that I can include it in a round-up (I’ll provide a monthly Google Forms link that you can use to submit your name and URL). However, you don’t have to have any kind of blog or social presence to participate. This challenge is about learning and sharing above all else.
Calendar of Preserving Skills
January – Marmalade
February – Salt Preserving
March – Jelly OR Shrubs
April – Quick Pickles
May – Cold Pack Preserving
June – Jam
July – Hot Pack Preserving
August – Low Temperature Pasteurization OR Steam Canning
September – Fruit Butter
October – Drying and Dehydration OR Pressure Canning
November – Fermentation
December – Fruit Pastes
If you’d like to join the challenge, please use the form below to sign up for the email list. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll try to be quick with my replies. Oh, and if you post to Instagram or tweet about the challenge, please use the hashtag #fijchallenge
I’ve been looking for something like this and hoping someone would host a revival of the Can Jam or Mastery Challenge. Any chance we’ll see a 2019 round? If not, I’ll have to rally some local pals, but it’d be great to have the whole experience.
I’m pondering doing another round, but I’m not sure I will have the capacity.
I cannot express fully how obsessed I am with preserved lemons thanks to this challenge. Thank you!
I’ve never made jelly, so tried the Apple Lemon Lavender jelly. It didn’t set as much as I thought it would, even after set test, but taste was great. Will try the Raspberry Meyer Lemon Shrub next.
Just finished my preserved lemons for the February challenge. Giving that jar a shake a couple,times a day as I pass it on the counter. Eager to eventually use it in recipes!
Please sign me up!
I would love to join your challenge.. I’m a little late to the party but.. better late than never.. right? I have my own garden and belong to a CSA plus I try to practice clean cooking and baking, I’ always looking for new info and recipes. Thank you!!
Please sign me up!
I just picked 18 beautiful Meyer Lemons off of my indoor/outdoor dwarf tree in Kansas and was trying to figure out what to do with some of them. The strawberry/Meyer lemon marmalade sounds delicious. Please sign me up for the challenge, I’d like to broaden my knowledge and canning skills.
Please sign me up for the Food in Jars Mastery Challenge if I am not too late. I am very excited to learn some new skills and try new recipes.
Sign me up please. My email is l.mcmillan_5@live.com.
Please sign me up.Thanks!
I started canning because of the Tigress challenge. I am looking forward to learning new skills! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. 🙂
sign me up
Thank you for signing me up
You’re welcome!
I would absolutely LOVE to joim if it’s not too late! My dad has been begging for a batch of homemade marmalade!
Please can you sign me up?
Although a bit late to the party, I’m in! Thanks for the challenge.
Can I please sign up if its not too late.
Hi there! I’d like to join in the fun!
I’d love to join in! Vanilla Bean Marmalade will be simmering today!
I’m in too!
I was able to get my hands on some Seville oranges yesterday at my local PCC. The produce manager was nice enough to call me when they came in. I plan to make the marmalade tomorrow. I’m a bit worried how tart it will be so I plan to do the method without the pith. This will be my first time attempting marmalade.
please sign me up too. I’ve made 2 batches so far thanks to your challenge
Sign me up please!
Please sign me up!
Please sign me up for the challenge! Thankyou
I’m new to canning, but this seems like a good way to learn. Sign me up!
Please sign me up. Thank you
I’d like to participate 🙂 Add me please.
I’m interested — gonna try to do it with a couple of friends!
I am interested! I just saw the post…please ad me. Thank you!
Yes please! I haven’t made jams for decades, & never made the others. Love to learn new stuff.
oh my goodness! Just saw this – what fun! A couple of categories I’ve been working on the last few years – but several I have no clue! I’ve learned so much from you already and have your books…. marmalade is on my list – but no real motivation or need – so….. here we go! How do I sign up?
Please sign me up for the Food in Jars Mastery Challenge.