Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Canning your food: Giveaway for my readers

They were always the hottest days of the year: my mom would be working in the kitchen, my dad would be harvesting from the garden. The kitchen steamed with the huge canning kettle and mom worked from early in the morning until evening. Jars were set out to cool, and lids popped as the warm summer evening in Southern California began to cool and the air filled with the scent of night blooming jasmine. The kitchen would smell like my mom’s homemade chile sauce for days.

I’m sure I helped, though I don’t remember the specifics. I remember sitting cross legged on the floor in the playroom, watching ChiPs or The Muppet Show with my brother while I snapped green beans. It was a three bowl system: fresh beans, ends, and the final snapped beans. I used that system just a week or so back. My little garden doesn’t produce the quantity our quarter acre of my childhood produced: my parents are amazing gardeners. There were wheelbarrows full of carrots, bushels of tomatoes, and stacks of corn. Oh for the love of homegrown corn.
lelojaamlocarrots.jpg
The cupboard in the garage stored jars of salsa, tomatoes, beans and chile. The shelves were lined with shelf paper, and everything was in its place. It was just how life was. You grew things, you canned them, you froze them, simple enough.

But it’s not that simple, is it? For many of us, we’re not taking up the art of canning until it’s introduced to us through the lens of eating and supporting local economy. Of eating healthy. Of growing our own. And for many of us, we don’t have a clue what we’re doing.

I was so fortunate to have my “homestead hook-up” two years ago show up on my doorstep with her daughter, books, and her canning equipment, prepared to show me how to can foods. We spent an afternoon canning pickled carrots, apple ginger jam, and cinnamon apples. She taught me about carefully wiping the edges of the jars, sterilization, and how to pull hot jars out of the kettle. And she left all of her equipment with me to safely hold onto until she needs it back. I am blessed to have good people in my life.
JiFa and her lovely daughter, we'll just call her Emo :)

So it’s time to pay it forward! And that’s where you come into play, my dear readers. I’m giving away a Fresh Preserving Kit from Jarden Home Brands, the makers of Ball Brand Fresh Preserving Products, to a lucky reader of this blog. The kit has everything you need to get started preserving food, including a large water bath canner, a canning rack, jar lifter, lid lifter, funnel and bubble removal tool. Score! It looks like this:
To enter to win the kit, leave a comment on this post of your fondest memory or memory you hope to make, about canning. I’ll randomly select a winner: you need to leave your comment by midnight, Monday August 10th, and I’ll announce the winner on August 11th. Make sure you leave an e mail address!

Thank you to the committed food preservers and bloggers who are a part of Canning Across America: Canvolution! Check out the blog for how to get involved this month in helping grow awareness, demonstrate and can the bounty of this year’s harvest in your community.

104 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never canned anything, I thought it was too hard. I have watched my Mom from afar my entire life.
So, I had the today show on the other morning and the guy showed how to make the brine and everything else, and I could not believe how easy it was. I'm going to the farmers market this weekend and could maybe borrow everything I need to try some canning...Wish me luck!

PAgent said...

When I think of canning, I think of my mom's ancient pressure canner. When I was a kid, my job was to sit in a chair in the middle of the kitchen, and watch the pressure gauge. If the needle got above a certain number, I was told to get out of the kitchen immediately and tell my mom.

Mind you, the canner had a safety valve, and it probably would have worked even IF the pressure had inexplicably started rising. But I didn't know that. All I knew was that this giant silver thing was a time bomb, and I was the only thing keeping it from blowing up.

I spent many hours in our kitchen sitting in a hard wooden chair and suffering from the unlikely combination of absolute boredom and sheer terror.

brett said...

I have memories of my mom canning, but they are of scary situations. Not scary because my mom didn't know what she was doing, but scary because she scared us into staying away from the canner. "It could blow up..."

So, when I began pickling last fall the Okra I picked up from Philadelphia (another story,) I used the words canning and pickling interchanged. Mom said I would die from those veggies because I said canned instead of pickled. Once that was cleared up, she immediately offered me my grandmothers canner and assorted jars and lids.

I've canned a beet veggie soup so far and the deep red turned orange at 15lbs for 15 minutes. It is still good soup.

I hope to can more as the summer goes on. We have salsa to make with the tons of assorted peppers and tomatoes we have growing in the garden. We'll pass some on once we get our act together. First, gotta get home from the roadtrip.

Greetings from New Mexico. Happy Canning!

Kathleen McDade said...

I'm remembering my grandfather making pickles and salsa, and giving us a big dish of fresh cucumbers with vinegar, salt and pepper to snack on. And having really good salsa with our steak. :-)

Katie said...

We had a cherry tree in my backyard when I was growing up, because my Dad grew up on a cherry orchard in Montana. One year my parents decided to go crazy and make cherry jam - that tree produced more cherries that year than ever before!

What I remember most is my parents were out in a freak late rainstorm (it doesn't rain after April here usually) picking cherries in a thunderstorm in the dark, only illuminated by flashes of lightning picking as many cherries as they could so they wouldn't split and go bad.

We ate that jam for at least 2 years. I still remember how good it was.

bemused said...

There's a jar of dill pickles sitting on the shelf in my pantry. My mom made them. They had been pushed to the back, lost among the spare condiments and spices. I had forgotten they were there. Until Saturday. That's when I went on a whirlwind kitchen clean-up and clear-out.

I picked up the jar in amazement. I smiled. I cried. I put them back on the shelf. I can't bring myself to eat them.

My mom made them.

She died almost 4 years ago after a very long illness. She made these pickles during one of her good spells. This is the last jar of the last batch of pickles she ever made for me. I couldn't eat them then. I can't eat them now.

It's not as if I don't have other keepsakes of hers. Her wedding ring graces my right hand.

But I can't bring myself to eat these pickles.

Katherine Gray said...

Oh, this would be wonderful. You know how much I want to learn to can but I'm too scared to try all by myself.

My favorite canning memory is something I actually don't really remember myself. My nanna (my caretaker my whole childhood) would can on those horrible hot days and one of her specialties was sweet bread and butter pickles. I loved them. I would place them on my tongue and suck them like candy. The story goes that she put me down for a nap one afternoon and when she got me up a few hours later I opened my mouth with a big "Hiiii!!!" and one of those pickles was STILL on my tongue.

JKoch said...

We always had shelves and shelves and shelves full of canned goods out in the garage. Veggies, fruits, jams, jellies, syrups, salsas, pickles, even tuna. Seems like my mom was always after canning something and sometimes we spent days cutting and prepping for her.

She was a huge fan of those "pick your own" places you could always find along the road or advertised in the newspaper. She once sent my dad off with me and my brother, her '73 Chevy Impala station wagon, and instructions to "get as many as you can" from that weekend's orchard visit. We came back with 100 pounds of apricots. I b'lieve we ended up with apricot everything and I wouldn't be surprised if we still had some. Two things I do know: 1) she never sent us picking again and 2) we grew 5 apricot trees of our own from the some of those pits.

Deborah said...

I just started canning and preserving this summer. So far, I'm having a ball and my relatives are enjoying my jams! I'm planning to teach my nieces, at their request, so I expect we'll be making a memory that hopefully they'll continue with their children. asthenight at gmail dot com

jbeckett said...

I remember my mom canning tomatoes and dill pickles. The pickles were my favorite. They were so much better than pickles from the store.

cdmtx said...

I remember beeing a little Girl and sitting in my Grandmas Kitchen watching he canning Cherries,Peaches and Plums. I never did any canning myself but would love too ...

thanks :)

Janet said...

At a prior job a coworker brought in some fresh blueberry preserves she had canned, and after tasting them I was floored and had to try it myself. I made my own blueberry preserves with her instructions, and they weren't as great but they they were still delicious. I never tried canning anything else. I sold all my canning stuff for our big move to Portland, and would love to take it up again, especially now that we are moving into a new house where I can have my own garden!

Unknown said...

Canning!! The wonderful world of canning. As a child that is all my childhood. My best memories are the for canned pears or peaches for breakfast. Homemade applesauce....simply the BEST!

When I became a mother, I learned to can from my grandmother and great-grandmother!. My girls are now 15 and 19 and still crave my home canned goods! Spread the word that canning is the BEST way to give to you friends and family!

Last week I made some homemade jam and applesauce and my 15 year old daughter said, "Mom, you are getting back to your old ways and I LOVE it!" How do you reply to that?

Desert Diva said...

Please DON'T put me in the running for the canning equipment - not enough produce here in Southern New Mexico and as a single what would I do with "stuff" anyway.

However, you did remind me of an idyllic summer I spent in Bar Harbor, Maine where I rented a room at the YWCA. I picked blueberries in Acadia National Park and then made jam. Surprisingly, I was delicious. Thanks for the memory...

Jane said...

For me it's making the memories. My mom didn't like cooking. I love it.

Canning for me is relaxing and I'm passing it on by teaching my nieces and sister-in-laws how to can! It's very fun to see their face light up when what the can pings and they don't have to find space in the fridge for the yummies.

Christina said...

On labor day last year, my girlfriend and I went berry picking and came home with 20 pounds of apples, despite having a drawer full from our farmshare we'd yet to eat. We invested in some canning jars and an apple peeler. After chopping what felt like thousands of apples, I popped them in the crockpot before going to bed. When I woke up (to a delicious smell), I added some spices and blended it up, and went to work. I came home to apple butter freshly canned by my girlfriend. It was delicious! We've given it to various people as gifts since then. I don't think we have a jar left, though we do have a couple jars of chutney I made as a way to use some applesauce I made and added way too much cloves to.

Cher said...

Oh, how I miss the canning. My mom used to do it when I was young, and I remember the crazy hot and steamy kitchen and the very scary boiling and steam and the enameled cast iron pot she did it all in. And the amazing Concord grapes. Oh! My brother and I would eat so many of those our stomachs ached.
It's only now that I am a mama that I see the time and space in my own life for canning, and I'd love for our kids to have these same memories.
I've been making freezer jam since the beginning of summer, but after the 20+ lbs of blueberries, we've run out of freezer space! So I think I'd better move on to this instead.

Heather said...

I'm looking forward to raiding the stash of canned goods in the winter . . .

Anonymous said...

I remember that my grandma canned everything! The kitchen was hot and steamy in the hottest part of the year, and all my aunts and my mom would be there, and it was loud and crazy. I was such a teenager about it, just like: omg they are canning NEAT! :) Now, I would give anything for her to be back here showing me how to do it.

Anonymous said...

Two memories:

1. My grandma was a great canner and I grew up with her pickled beets, among other yummies. I was forty years old before I found out that beets are naturally that gorgeous color. I always thought my fancy grandma dyed them!

2. I've done a little bit of my own canning. The year I processed bottles and bottles of concord grape juice into big, expensive half gallons jars, I stored them all on my screened-in porch. I lived in Utah then, and with the first deep freeze (can you see where this is going?) they all froze, expanded, and broke those beautiful jars. Oh no!

Happy canning,
grey

MJ said...

My first and only canning attempt came 2 summers ago, just a couple of months after my triumphant return to Portland from the frozen North East. My partner had heard through her work that there was a berry farmer who was transitioning to organic, and the commercial cannery refused his crop. So, it was u-pick, for $1 per pound. We paid $12.

Not realizing exactly how much we had until the haul was in the back seat, we decided to think about it later to stop in an antique shop in a random and very tiny town. Lo and behold, an old canning kettle was found, complete with jar rack. Now we had a plan!

Fast forward to a tiny apartment kitchen steaming to the heavens while we try not to burn ourselves extracting hot jars from the tub. After all was said and done, we had about 20 half-pint jars of jam (I had reserved some fruit for pies...made 3).

Two years later, we are down to our final jar. And no reported cases of Botchulism to boot.

Amanda S. said...

My dad was the canner in the family and I most remember him canning pears and cherries. We had a huge pear tree in our yard and it would take days to can them all! He passed away last year and seeing canning jars always makes me think of him. :)

idahomom said...

I have never canned, but this would be perfect for my father in laws new wife.

TZel said...

I remember my grandma canning every summer and the rows and rows of plums, tomatoes, dilly green beans...Then a little later I canned tomatoes and homemade salsa with my aunt- hot work, messy, but what a great great thing! I would love my own set to continue the fabulous tradition- thank you!

nwgirl28 said...

The memories I have of canning are from when I was around 5yrs. old until my teenage years. My mom and I would make applesauce and anything with tomatoes. The other fun canning would come after going out to pick our fresh berries to make jam and jelly from strawberries and blackberries. Oh it was so yummy!

Sd said...

My mom used to make all sorts of jam and jelly when I was a kid I loved bramble jelly. I'm just getting started with a fruit and veg garden this year so am thinking about preserving

Karolcooks said...

In the 505, we had a huge cherry tree in our backyard. For me it was a time I dreaded! I had to stand at the kitchen counter for hours on end pitting cherries. What does a kid want to do in the summer? Run, bike, make up crazy stories and watch cartoons. I did not want to stand in the hot kitchen pitting cherries. I came to hate that damn tree.

Now I look back and wished I would have paid more attention to the canning itself. I was little, so no Karol Ann by the stove. I didn't get the tricks I would love to learn now.

The cherry tree is gone now but those pitting memories stay! :)

Dipsy said...

I come from a large family; eleven boys and two girls. Once in a while we also had a foster kid or two. My mother would get so upset because one or two brothers would always ask for more to eat before the dishes were done being washed! My father bought a small farm. This was in addition to our house in the city. Dad said we were going to grow as much food as possible because he couldn't afford to feed all of us. My mother canned anything and everything she could get her hands on........from the farm and our fruit bearing trees in the city. We kids shelled a lot of regular and black walnuts too! My fondest memory of mom canning is the aromas that filled the house! In addition, I just loved having blueberry preserves in the middle of winter! We plucked chickens and dressed a cow in Fall. Dad and the boys went deer hunting. I always wanted to help my mom with the canning, but because I was the third oldest child, my "help" was to oversee the younger kids. Like my mom and dad I not only have my own kids to feed; I occasionally take-in foster kids. This summer we are preparing parcels in our backyard to plant vegetables come next summer. I too plan to plant an apple and a plum tree for us, and to share with my neighbors. Like my mom, I will preserve as much produce as I can. I expect the first canning season will be slow moving because I'll be learning by trial and error.

denyse said...

I'd like to make fond memories. I'm finally moving back to Nj where I can grow vege's. I can't wait!

roguewoman said...

I remember hot summer childhood days in my paternal grandmother's basement canning corn and tomatoes with my granmother's friends. It was really hot work and I didn't like it, but I sure loved the results! I know grandma also canned asparagus and made jams & jellies. Now, I want to be like her. I'm growing my first garden with my newly-wed husband, large enough to produce tomatoes for canning, no asparagus and too little corn. Just eating that fresh this year! I also want to attempt plum jam as the plum tree went nuts this year. I don't even know if I like plum jam! LOL!

Heather said...

I already have my grandma's set (yup, good midwesterner that she was - tomatoes, pickles, beans, and more tomatoes), so I don't have a need for your wonderful prize. But it's such a great idea! (Now I just have to get my ass off the couch and actually use it!)

Cheyenne said...

Without any canning relatives, I've never had any hands on instruction. With turning 1/2 of our backyard (and a good portion of the front) over to edible production- I need to experiment with non-freezer related preserving (we're running out of room!) Have had both success and failure with freezer jams so far and am really looking forward to lots of tomatoes/sauce.

Tricia said...

Wow, just reading all of these stories brings tears to my eyes. Seems like everyone has a connection to a time in their life that relates to canning - what a wonderful way to bring those stories out!

The only memory I have is going over to my dad's in the fall and there being cans spread out everywhere ready to pop. I never got to actually watch the process, because I didn't live with him and my stepmom, but I never left their house (and I don't to this day) without taking a jar out of the pantry of seriously good apple chutney and amazing sunchoke relish. It's tradition, and all my sisters and stepsisters (6 of us total) LOVE raiding the pantry when we come home!

Michael Nolan said...

It was my grandparents that first gave me my love for gardening and my grandmother who first taught me the virtues of canning.

Whether it was stewed tomatoes, pickled okra or the most amazing jellies, jams and preserves in the world, she did them with such relaxed joy that I couldn't help but understand and absorb the love myself.

My granny passed away three years ago now and every time I look in the pantry and see that last jar of 'Strawberry Fig Preserves' that we made together I can't help but realize that I am the only one in my family who has the knowledge to carry on the canning legacy.

When I moved from Birmingham to Atlanta this past April I was unable to bring my canning supplies with me and after founding a community garden in my neighborhood this season I could sure use a hand in preserving some of this amazing harvest!

Unknown said...

Now this story really does start with.."Back in Kansas..."

When I was little, my grandmother from Kansas, had one of those dark, cool basements which housed multiple shelves of canned veggies and fruits. You think about those things so little when you're in grade school, but they come back later in life. Once I started thinking about it, I realized that's the way grandma kept not only her family of a husband and 7 children fed on an everyday basis, but it's also the way she prevented potential hunger if that year's crops had not panned out. Finances can be hard to manage when a large family has to depend on crop yield for income, as well as the food stock for everyday use.

I recall her picking over her gardens, washing, peeling, and canning many different foods. Even though I detested walking down into that dank basement back then, for a jar of potatoes or pickles, I'd gladly repeat the same scene for my 3 kids if I had the resources to do so!

Currently, we have a small test garden for our young family, as I'm still learning how to grow things in the magnificent northwest! Soon though, we'll have more room, and have agreed that going back to canning will be much smarter and saves an enormous amount of money!

Besides, it's important to show children what it means to eat things in season, and to learn to associate those times of year with the life-lessons that can be offered though advance food preparation.

Natalie said...

When I was a teenager my mum was making some tayberry jam from a box of the berries we had hand picked out at a local farm. Normally I didn't participate in the canning, but this time she asked for some help deseeding the berries. As that was my first time doing such a task, I was a little overenthusiastic and cranked the food mill a bit too quickly. As you might imagine, I ended up splattered with pink. I think my hands were dyed pink for a good day as well. Despite my unintentional splattering of berry juice everywhere, the jam turned out excellent. :)

Jenna Z said...

I have two stories, my first memory is of my mom, sweltering in the kitchen canning tomato juice and tomato sauce, dripping with sweat so I'm sure it didn't need any extra salt! Straining over her chinois in the sink over the pot, pressing the wooden pestle in it's small circular path. And I wasn't allowed to help, everything was too hot, too dangerous. My other memory if that when we moved to our farm when I was 8 or 9, we found ancient and I mean ANCIENT canned peaches, pears, tomatoes and grape jelly in the root cellar. The lids were so rusty and dusty an disgusting! We threw it all away, jars and all because mom was afraid to open them for fear of germs/smell, even though she lamented the waste of all those jars!

jennem said...

The first time I canned beets, my daughter was alternating eating them, and using them to draw with. It was a fun experience.
Jennifer, jennem22 at yahoo dot com

Sunnyvale said...

My mother used to can using a hot water bath by heating water in a huge tub over a fire pit in the back yard.

Ali said...

Oh thank you for the giveaway! My moms cellar was packed with cinnamon, regular and peppermint pears for years. She kept meaning to teach me to can but hasn't yet.
I have a ton of tomato plants this year and want to can some of them but I'm a bit overwhelmed and keep putting off buying supplies to give it a shot!

Unknown said...

Last year my husband and I tries making jam for the first time. It came out so-so, but we had such fun making it together. Later, everytime I ate some, it reminded me of the fun we had while making it. We're going to try it again soon, and this year we have a garden full of hot peppers and tomatoes. This prize would be great to win!

Anonymous said...

I always thought my grandma's canned beans were the best, and so were the peaches. Then there was the jelly she sent with me to college. My roommate and I didn't end up eating any of it. When we opened the jars it smelled like wine.

My mom started making chili sauce last year and I think it would be fun to try making some pickles.

I enjoy reading your blog and seeing the pictures of your garden.

Michelle C.

mverno said...

my mother canned everything mverno@roadrunner.com

Tes283 said...

The memories have to be about grandma. Fresh rhubarb canned for juice, and sweetened for pie. Soups of summer vegetables waiting for the chill of winter to instill within us the summer heat. Watermelon pickled and served at Thanksgiving.

Canning is about taking the overflow of the bountiful summer and having it warm the stark winter.

Anonymous said...

I have been terrified of canning since I read Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres (the one where she kills her sister with botulism). I overcame this 2 decade long fear last summer. My neighbor's mom was visiting and convinced us we could spend an afternoon making jars of strawberry jam from our freshly picked strawberries. So, with her encouraging/roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-on-with-it guidance, we did. This summer, she didn't visit, but we spent a morning picking and the afternoon canning without her. It is our new tradition. Incidentally, we ate the last jar of the 2008 jam a week after we made a pantry full of 2009 jam! Perfect.

Sharon said...

Just wanted to say I love that you are doing this. I think canning is fantastic and I am so glad to see others promoting it.

Please don't add me to the contest. I am already set up. Let someone who needs it get the kit.

Stephanie said...

My parents and grandma used to can an ENORMOUS amount of tuna each year. It's the best thing I've ever eaten, and there was never enough! I'm thinking about trying my hand at it this year actually! I know this kit won't help with that adventure, as it's not a pressure canner, but, it would help me can my tomatoes!

jlmk said...

My mom always had a huge canning production in our kitchen.

small town dyke said...

Ok so if this is the winning comment you'll have to pick again. I just wanted to tell you that I think what you do is awesome!you and the pay it forward attitude are to be admired!

cstironkat said...

I remember helping my grandmother can strawberry jam and grape jelly. I got to put the wax on top of the jar before the lid went on. I thought that wax was so cool.

Julie said...

My Gram makes the BEST strawberry jam! You can build a whole mean just around the jam! She also makes pickled peaches. Have you ever had them? My family seems to love them or hate them and I LOVED them. My Gram would make them just for me every year (none of my 4 siblings would eat them!)
Now that I have a garden of my own, I would LOVE to pass the tradition on. I have no direct experience. But I also have no direct gardening experience and this year (my first year) my garden is flourishing!

Gudrun said...

great giveaway idea! I remember my grandparent's garage being loaded with jars of every shape and size. Not sure what was in everything, but I remember their presence.

And, with my Mom, we used to go berry picking every summer then come home and make jam. She would skim the foam off the top of the cooking jam and let me dip my spoon in it!

makeetis said...

My husband and I are hoping to can this year. It will be my first year but we have our first big garden on our place and I am really excited and hope to teach my kids about canning. Thanks for the chance.
brewerchickey78(at)yahoo.com

Hetal said...

I do more of blanching and freezing, never done canning although I have always wanted to do that.thanks for the chance.

Kristina said...

One of my favorite canning memories is of my parents canning homemade sauerkraut. They used the old-fashioned zinc lids and I remember not understanding how people could not like sauerkraut. Then I tasted store bought canned sauerkraut and I understood perfectly.

Milla said...

Dilly beans are my favorite thing to can. I remember spending my summers in Vermont when I was little and learning how to make them from one of the farmers and having a hard time not eating all the green beans before they made their way into the jars

MamaFeelgood said...

My hubby and I canned seperate batches of Strawberry jam this year and I'm hooked. This giveaway is perfect for us to begin our canning together.

nancy =) said...

hiya lelo =) i've been following your blog for years and i want to thank you for letting me peak into the wonderous days that are your life...i love the rudy stories, i love wink's pictures...i love all of it...you are such an insiration to so many...

i've always had a green thumb, so after moving into my new home two years ago after life altering circustances, i planted my first garden in many years last year...and i think since it was the first time the earth had been planted, we had a bumper year in the garden!! we grew bushels and bushels of tomatoes and gave them away to everyone we know...and i made gigantic vats of pasta sauce and salsa and tomatoe soup...i had never canned before in my life, but i always loved those canning jars and used them for storage of other things...

so i had so much tomatoe everything that i bought 4 case qt size canning jars and filled them with soup and salsa and sauce...and i kept them in the spare fridge in the garage...i had no idea how to can...until, of course, i read your blog post re: "the big book of preserving the harvest", which thanks to you i now own a copy of...i still don't have any thing i need to can, but i will be canning tomatoes again this year, and if i have this kit, it will make things twice as sweet because i won't have to run the extra refrigerator all winter...

thanks lelo, for your blog...keep it up, i love coming here =)

p.s. i am saving up for an 'i can' t-shirt, too =)

Heather said...

I just remembered - this is a perfect description of my grandma's canning memories:

http://queenofdestiny.com/?p=77

Happi Shopr said...

my first and only canning experience was with my mil a few summers ago. she came down to visit and we canned jalapeno peppers my parents grew for hubby. it's a sweet memory. would love to be able to can stuff from our garden this fall and next summer.

trinitygsd at yahoo dot com

tatertot374 said...

My fondest memory is when I was small and my wonderful grandparents had a large garden. I used to love sitting on the front porch with them in the evenings snapping beans. It was also so much fun and so yummy in the winter with some fresh canned tomatoes and macaroni.
Thank you for the chance
tatertot374@sbcglobal.net

Anonymous said...

I plan on making some memories with my mom in the process.

cav1129@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I have never canned but I think it would be a great experience to share with my 3 kids. We live in the city but still have a garden, we go to farmers markets and u-pick farms, and I would love to learn how to capture all that goodness to enjoy during the colder months.

Unknown said...

Oh, and I am at heatherkleinman at gmail dot com.

vibrantfun said...

I never canned nor did my family. But I want to start.

Kimberly said...

Growing up, we had grape vines in our backyard along a fence. We made jelly out of it every year that was so good. I can't even eat grape jelly now because no store bought will compare. I was so mad when my dad had to replace the fence and take the vines down. We just purchased our first home and I will be planing grapes and other fruits next spring!

Tammie said...

My fondest memory is that of helping my grandmother can a wide variety of foods each summer with the knowledge that everyone would come to appreciate the fruits - and vegetables - of our labor! :)

mcj4tlj(at)comcast(dot)net

Anonymous said...

I have one memory of canning, but I'm in the process of making many many more! My mom used to can a lot before I came around, but only did it once when I was there. When I was 10 or so, a student of hers gave her a huge container full of concord grapes. We spent the entire day turning it into concord grape jam, which I remember eating for years later. Of course I was young, so maybe what was only one year felt like many.

I made my first batch of jam this afternoon - peach blackberry - and I called to tell my mom all about it. :)

PhDKid said...

My husband and I have just started canning our garden this year. I hope for many happy memories to come!

Unknown said...

Years ago my husband and I were right in the middle of canning pickles. There was a hurricane brewing of the shore and one of the stronger rain and wind bands knocked out the power. Luckily we had a gas stove. We lit our kerosene lamps and candles and finished making our pickles up. I would love a better pot for canning. I have to boil a second pan of water to add to my pot with the jars when doing the hot bath step.

hafner611{AT}gmail{DOT}com

Matt in Overlook said...

I would love to learn the art of pickling and jamming...I can only seem to get past freezer jam!
scogginm at gmail.com

erma said...

I hope to learn and my daughter learn to can.
erma.hurtt@sbcglobal.net

Molly K said...

I have never canned myself but I remember my mom canning everything when we were little. My favorite is canned tomato's. I have a small garden this year (I hope to expand next summer) and I hope I get enough tomato's that I can atleast can a few jars of them.

LittleEagle said...

I had never canned until 5 years ago when we moved to a place with a huge garden area. I made pickles and canned tomates and it was wonderful.

chelle3230 said...

I learned about canning from my grandmother. I am now canning with my kids! What a great bit of family heritage to pass along!!!

checkers said...

I canned stewed tomatoes about 25 years ago that was memorable, was fun to see how it all was done being my first attemp at it.I learned by trial and error.

Oi! said...

I love a good dill pickle but for some reason was afraid of anything else pickles. I am not sure why...then one day I somehow got fed some saurkraut and I thought that was amazing. But still I did not trust other pickled things.

Years later I tasted a large green pickled olive and that was very good. Some years after that I had an asparagus pickle and that was it...I finally got the message. If you pickle it, it is probably pretty darn tasty.

So, I want to make pickles.

Can can I just say, I have yet to taste the pickled egg...

Anonymous said...

I grew up in rural North Carolina and we canned just about everything. I still can salsa, beans, and tomatoes. I remember canning string beas the most. We ate a lot of them and would sometimes can 30 pint jars at the time. My fingers still hurt!! scrudley at embarqmail dot com

Unknown said...

My husband just started a garden last year and started to can some of the goodies. He grows a lot of it for other people as they can't grow it sometimes do to health issues. So he does that to give them fresh vegetables and/or canned vegetables. I would love to win this for him.

Michele P. said...

No one in my family canned that I knew of, however I happened to watch a neighbor do it last year and I was really intrigued by the process. She spent the winter giving me jars of homemade tomato sauce and pasta sauce, homemade salsa and pickles. This year we had planned on doing a garden together and getting some canning done but the weather here in the Northeast has been terrible. The cucumbers are not growing, and all the tomatoes we planted got the blight because of another neighbor's tomatoes that already had them...:( I do hope to learn to can a few things this fall before it is too late and this kit would be a wonderful way to get me to start after such a disappointing gardening season so far.

micaela6955 at msn dot com

Anonymous said...

My fondest memory of canning was when I was a young girl. I would stay at my Gram and Paps a lot!! I remember my gram, in her apron, canning green beans, tomatoes, jelly,pickles..etc. The one main thing I remember were the boiling pots!! We have a garden this year, and it would be wonderful to do some canning of my own!

Kate said...

I've never canned but my parents love to. This may be my start! Thanks for hte great contest!

strycker@slu.edu

Renee G said...

As a child, I remember running downstairs to the storage cupboard to get a jar of my mom's dill pickles. I wish she still made these, maybe I will have to start my own pickle stash.
rsgrandinetti@yahoo(dot)com

Axyro said...

Well, I could write something here, but I feel it will pale in comparison to your intro; excellent writing. Your right, in the modern world we look more to frozen which is much less healthy than canning, hence my interest in this contest.

gillis said...

i can't wait to pickle some nice fresh cucumbers with dill and garlic...maybe some grape leaves too.

Whitney said...

I am canning for the first time this season and I can't wait to open up a jar of sweet summer fruit preserves in the dead of Chicago winter to give me a little taste of the summer that is long gone.

Sweep Finds said...

My fondest memory was canning fresh picked tomatoes every year with my mom.

jeanilynne at gmail dot com

Sonya said...

Strangely enough, we used to make blackberry jam while we were camping! Every summer we camped near wild blackberry bushes and we'd make 2 dozen or so jars of jam every summer (on a tiny campstove!)

Unknown said...

My father's mom used to make jelly and pickles and such. They had a small farm. Her canning is the only good memory I have of the witch- she made it clear she didn't like me because I was too much like my mom (and yes, my parents were married at the time) and the feeling was more than mutual. But OMG the jelly and pickles, how I loved those.

MJ said...

Eeep! Original comment is above...Commenter "MJ" = meghanjames at gmail dot com

blogggggg said...

I have never done canning before. With food costs rising, my family decided to grow our own vegetables this year. I am excited about trying it out!

wordsmoveme at gmail dot com

Kathy P said...

i remember my mom and her friend who lived next door used to get together every friday and do canning while all us kids used to watch donny and marie on fridays night..lol a long time ago

Anonymous said...

I can remember as a kid, my Dad and Mom had a very large garden. Us kids had to pick those greenbeans and I remember snapping them and loading them into the mason jars.

rodger said...

As you well know we don't need this kit so draw again if you pull me out of your hat.

I just wanted to say that this is too kewl and I hope the winner really does try canning something, anything. They'll be hooked in no time.

You rawk Lelo!!

mudrunnersmom said...

My grandma used to make the most incredible currant jelly. I remember sitting up on a stool watching and waiting for wooden spoonfuls of the ruby liquid

AB Smith said...

haven't done much canning in the past - but this year our garden is doing great and we need to start making persevering memories ASAP!

thanks for sponsoring this.

2kidsblogger(at)gmail(dot)com

Sarah Z said...

I remember my grandma canning when I was a little girl - her strawberry preserves were the best. I would love to be able to can as well, maybe I can talk her into visiting to show me how!
Thanks
Sarah
believedreamcourage (at) gmail.com

Unknown said...

My mother was always cnning in summer. I remember how good her cucumbers were. garrettsambo@aol.com

Anonymous said...

Nothing more rewarding than growing you own and canning your harvest. My 15 yr. old son loves my watermelon pickles so this year I passed my recipe and the art of canning on to him...so special to me!
Thanks
Rose
sbmyers.1@verizon.net

chicohog said...

This would be great! Last spring, I put in eight dwarf fruit trees...now I know what to do with my harvest!!

Bakersdozen said...

We had a friend who gave us the most delicious canned peaches from her tree. vidomich(at)yahoo(dot)com

masonsgranny59 said...

I have fond memories of my mom,mother,and motherinlaw canning all kinds of goodies:)
They used everything in all kinds of ways:)watermelon preserves,okra and green tomatoes etc.

cman said...

I grew up canning tomatoes and tomato sauce with my mom. It took two days to do but lasted all year long in it's deliciousness :)

lilyk said...

The fondest memory I hope to make is to have a pantry full of tasty canned food.

lilyk@mail2world.com