Growing up we would spend part of our summers in rural Virginia at my grandparents house. I think the road leading up to their house was a dirt road and wasn’t paved until we were in high school. It was such a small town that we would actually make the local paper that we were visiting from Chicago! The neighborhood kids would ask us the weirdest questions about Chicago. I guess if you’ve lived your whole life in a town of 500, Chicago can sound like an exotic location! They would ask us if we had trees and grass. Or if there were mobsters on every street corner. They would ask us to say certain words because of our “accents.”
My grandma had grape vines. I am sure they weren’t as big as my childhood memory is making them, but one of my favorite things to do would be to pull the ripe grapes off the vines, suck all the sweetness in my mouth and throw away the skin. I’d make myself sick I ate so many grapes! But that’s the first memory I have of canning. Watching my Mom and grandpa squeeze the grapes, then hang them in cheese cloth (maybe overnight?) in order to make grape jelly and can it. Every time I eat grape jelly I think of my grandma!
So when I was approached to talk about Can it Forward Day – I was thrilled. Because check out the new canning product they are sending me!
The Ball® FreshTECH Automatic Home Canning System is all about taking the guesswork out of canning. It’s made with SmartPRESERVE™ technology, a suite of sensors that control the time and temperature needed to can popular Ball® recipes all on its own. These recipes are preprogrammed into the appliance, so we can guarantee your food will be perfectly preserved every time!
I cannot wait to try this product. Right now I do a water boiling method in a giant stock pot. It can literally take me an afternoon to can half a dozen jars of salsa. The fact that I can just set it and forget it is amazing!
On August 16 you can check out “A day to celebrate home canning, International Can-It-Forward Day allows food enthusiasts to connect via a variety of online and in-person activities. New and experienced canners can participate in a live webcast on www.freshpreserving.com, taking place on ground in Brooklyn Borough Hall Farmers Market, filled with canning demos where viewer questions will be answered in real-time by Chef Acheson and other experts while they learn the most popular (and delicious) home canning recipes. Twenty five farmers markets across the country will also be hosting Can-It-Forward Day celebrations! In addition to the canning demos, there will be segments on crafting, herb gardening and the brand’s new drinkware line. We will also be attempting a Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Mason Jar Mosaic.”
And because they are so generous – they are offering two products to give away!
· The Ball Canning Discovery Kit (one for giveaway): A kit designed to demystify the home canning process and make fresh preserving accessible for even the most novice canner(Retail value $11.99)
· The New Limited Edition Spring Green Heritage Collection Jars (2 cases for review, 2 cases for giveaway): These limited edition jars commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Ball brothers’ “Perfection” Jar and come in a beautiful green tint. These are being produced only in 2014 and are available in both pint and quart varieties. We would offer a case of each size for review and also for giveaway. (Pint retail value: $9.99 per case/ Quart retail value $12.99 per case)
All you have to do is leave a comment telling me a canning memory, or your favorite canned product given to you by a family member or friend. I’ll choose random winners on August 16 – the International Can It Forward Day!
A friend of mine makes the most amazing blackberry jam.
I remember going into the basement and seeing rows of canned fruit, tomato sauce and several varities of jam. It was going shopping in your own house.
This year I canned beats, beans, peppers, hot pepper carrot and onion mix and tomatoes. I love the beans my MIL cans and gives me each year. Thanks for have a give away!
We had a cherry tree in our backyard growing up. One summer in my early teens, my mom decided to make cherry jam and have me help can it. My favorite memory from that experience was inviting all my neighborhood friends over to have a cherry pitting party. We all stood around the kitchen table pitting cherries, telling jokes and stories, and just laughing our heads off. Pitting was actually fun and we had stained fingers to prove it! Thankfully all the jars sealed and everyone got a jar of cherry jam to take home.
When I was a kid my mom, who is no longer with us 🙁 would send my brother and I out to our back yard where we had wild blackberries and rasberries and we would pick and pick and pick. Then my mom always made jam and we would give it as Christmas presents and eat it ourselves all year. I never realized how spoiled I was and back then I looked forward to when school had PB &J because they used that store bought grape jelly!!! She used to put wax on the top which we would pop out and save and use to wax our sleds int he winter!! Great memoris, so glad you ahve the bell jar giveaway!
My grandmother made the most delicious peach jam EVER. Kind of miss that old lady!
Pickles, peaches, green beans……..my mom and gramma use to can EVERYTHING!!! I loved seeing the jars lined up, so pretty!!
My memory of canning is one year when we were living in our first house and Charlie (your brother) decided to start his own garden so he could can spaghetti sauce and salsa. The spaghetti sauce canning went great, but the salsa was a different story. Charlie forgot to put on gloves when handling the hot jalapenos. His hands were burning from the jalapeno seeds and the fumes (or whatever you call it) also permeated the house so much that it stung my eyes. I had to go into our bedroom and shut the door it was so bad. This was also when I was pregnant with Sarah. Charlie might remember this story differently!
My fav canning memory is smushing strawberries with the potato masher to “help” my mom make strawberry jam when I was a kid. 🙂
I canned for the first time last year. It still scares me! Therefore I freeze most of my stuff. But if I had this system….. it would be different!
My earliest canning memory I was about 8 and my mom canned for the first time. First we went apricot picking. Then she canned apricot jam and it took all day at a friends. Later we ate apricot jam for over two years everyday. I still don’t care for apricot jam 🙂
I’ve never had a canning memory! Isn’t that crazy! I am not sure if either of my grandmothers ever canned anything, and I sure as hell know my mom didnt! 🙂 How great that you have those memories! I’d love to make some one day. 🙂 <3 PS in your post about your panini at work with no butter…. THAT PLATE IS DARLING. 🙂
I love mason jars but in my house, I don’t can with them, I use them for drinking glasses, and grain, bean, and baking supply storage. They work great. My favorite canned items are my grandmas applesauce and my friends homemade grape jelly. I am too chicken to can anything myself yet!
My favorite memory is going to the farmers market for the first time and seeing all the beautiful canned pickles, tomatoes, peaches! Homemade canned products taste so amazing compared to factory processed.
The only time I canned salsa, I used peppers a neighbor gave me from his garden. I didn’t wear gloves. And ended up with chemical burns completely covering my hands and lower arms. I spent a LOT of time in the next week with ice packs on both hands. The salsa was great, and I now wear gloves when I handle peppers. And I will never make salsa again. Ever.
My first time canning was quite the experience. I had a brand new baby at the time and I had strapped him into his baby sling and we set out to pick a bunch of blackberries. Once we were home and he was fed and changed, I placed him in his bouncy seat while I worked on the jelly. Just as I was about to start ladling hot jelly into the prepared jars, I heard an explosion and my baby started to cry. So I stopped what I was doing and picked him up only to find that the explosion I heard was a major diaper blowout, completely up his back and all over his bouncy seat. He’s 18 years old now and every year when I’m canning jelly I think about that first time.
Oh yes! Spent many summers in my Granny’s kitchen helping with canning! Wish I had those days back again! I do my canning in a big ole pot of boiling water. lol Nothing like strawberry fig jam on a hot biscuit!! 😀
nothing beats homemade salsa! Love trading our versions with friends.
When I was a child, one of my favorite memories was of my mom making wild plum jelly. It was do sweet and tart at the same time. It seems like we would spend the whole day in that kitchen laughing and talking. Of course I was so excited because I was getting to help! What I would give to just spend one more day in that kitchen with her!
I used to can tomatoes with my mother in New Orleans when I was a kid. Louisiana tomatoes are specially good and I remember it fondly. I’ve only been canning myself for a few years, making mostly jam.
My mom and grandmother use to always can jams and the BEST bread & butter pickles (so sad when we used the last jar)..still haven’t figured out the recipe they used 🙁
My favorite canning memory is helping my mom snap and cut green beans in preparation for canning when I was really little.
I love canning! My first canning adventure was a few years ago when I had my first garden, and I remember how proud my Grandma was of me! I miss her so much! Pickles are probably my favorite thing to make/can and that canning system looks awesome! I will put it on my wishlist 🙂 (The jars sound really cool!)
My one and only canning story is from when my friends’ (two sisters) mom left her daughters to mind the jars of peaches she had in a big pot of boiling water on the stove. All I recall is coming back into the kitchen to find peaches everywhere. But that doesn’t deter me from wanting to learn to can, especially salsa!
My first canning attempt was salsa last year… It wasn’t as difficult as I had thought it would be. And the salsa turned out great! My favourite memory of canning was my grandma’s icicle pickles and her peaches. So good!!
I am very new to canning, I have started to can fruit jam and its going well. As a child my Mum was always canning rhubarb and apricot jam and it was delicious.
My mother and grandmother canned lots of foods over the years but I was never interested in it. A couple years ago I decided to attempt salsa and became hooked on canning. Like many, I use the water bath system. The new system looks really interesting. Can’t wait for your review.
I can Apple Butter. My kids love it and eat Apple Butter & Peanut Butter sandwiches almost every day. To make it easier, I make the apple butter in my crockpot.
The small appliance they are sending you is interesting. I’m curious to see how it works for you.
My Aunt still cans to this day and she makes the best apple butter and lemon curd. She lives in OH and I am in SC, but evertime I go up she has something new for me to take home. The best part is everything she cans comes straight from her garden or trees.
canned peaches are the best. when i was little we’d pick (what seemed to be) billions of peaches, and while my mom worked hard to can them all, opening a jar of canned peaches in the middle of February is heavenly!
As you saw by my Facebook post post we are still canning. We canned 17 pints of Salsa on Saturday and 26 quarts of Homemade Soup on Sunday. It something I love to do with my Mom. I also did it with my Grandmother and treasure all the memories I have!
This is amazing!! We actually just finished our marathon pickling weekend. We did almost 80 quarts of pickles….we too use the old boiling water method…I might have to check into one of those new machines!!
I have never attempted canning. I am very intimidated even thinking about it. I remember every summer helping my grandmothers can blackberry jelly/jam. I helped by picking the blackberries, eating the blackberries and playing with the paraffin. I bought a slew of mason jars a few years ago with the intent on attempting to can, however, they sat so long I used them last Christmas when I made homemade spiced nuts and put them in gift baskets. That could be considered canning right? 🙂
My most vivid canning memory Is not necessarily my favorite, HOWEVER, it has made me be a very cautious canner.
I LOVE to can. Jams, ‘dinty moore stew’, venison, fruits, veggies, sauce, salsa-we can it all and I love it. When I was a little girl, my Mom was canning in a very old pressure cooker. She made a mistake and didn’t depressurize the cooker and the cover blew off, and she suffered a severe burn. Luckily, she recovered beautifully, but I will never forget it. I still possess a love of canning, I believe I always will, but I am VERY aware of the steps and methods to take to prevent injury.
OH and your canned Baja salsa is especially yummy 🙂
Peggy
Man oh man! This new Ball thing looks amazing! My maternal grandmother was a canning nut and her entire crawlspace was full of jars. Jellies, pickles, preserves, you name it and that woman canned it! My fondest memories are of her raspberry rhubarb jam – she would send us home from Minnesota with a jar of that stuff and I would cherish it down to the last drop! My Mom and I made a few types of jams last summer but they didn’t turn out like Grandma’s but they were still good. My Mom certainly did not inherit the cooking/baking/canning gene from her mother, but apparently it landed on me! My favorite thing to do with Ball jars is to make pickled everything – cukes of course, beets, carrots, zucchini, etc. If you can pickle it, I want to try it! :-)) I am soooo jealous that you are getting this auto canner!
Ha! The best thing I have ever received that was canned was *your* salsa that I won in an online auction! 🙂 I do collect Ball jars though and use them for storage of just about everything because I don’t like using plastic. We have all sizes from 4 oz up to quart. I love the beautiful green jars and last year my husband gave me some lovely blue jars for my birthday!
Oh where to begin? Let’s start with the grapes, because that is my childhood memory too. You were probably eating Concord grapes, which made great jelly and fabulous grape juice, but the skins tasted horrible if you ate them – only the insides were delish. We lived in suburbia, but my Dad planted two vines and every summer I was the kid that had to go out and pick them for canning. I HATED it – the bees were insane and I can remember crying, doing it, because I was so afraid of being stung [how did you forget about the bees Bizzy. 🙂 ] Ahhhh, but? The sweet nectar of those grapes kept me in jelly and juice from my Grandma for the whole year.
My grandmother canned everything. I remember shucking bushels of corn, snapping bowl, after bowl, of beans, peeling mountains of apples – and OH! Her canned tomatoes. Legendary. There wasn’t a food that we ate at Sunday dinner [every single week, my entire childhood] that she didn’t plant, raise, harvest, butcher or can on the table. Everyone thinks they are so forward thinking in the “farm to table” movement, but it cracks me up. What do they think poor farmers used to do? And that is what my grandparents were. But they sure did feed everyone well – and to see the rows upon rows of the cans in the cold cellar? Sigh. miss her to this day.
So there ya’ go. Oh, and fwiw – I have never tasted a sweeter canned peach or more delicious vegetables than my grandmother canned. There is simply no comparison unless you do it yourself. 🙂
Love ya Biz, always!
We never canned growing up a city slicker but my sis in law cans all the time and sends me some of her harvests. What I wouldn’t give to have this for her since they literally live off their land. <3 thanks for sharing with us Biz
My family never canned anything, really. I got into jam making a few years ago and never realized how much fun it was. I participated in a jam swap – and that was a ball! I got to try some fun jams that way.
I Never knew that you could buy veggies and fruits, jams and jellys in cans at the supermarket until I was in high school. Being the youngest of five and having a dad who was a butcher and a mom who could can anything we always “shopped” in our basement for food. They are both gone now passed away 9 months apart both in their early 60’s. Every summer just the smell of peaches brings back sweet memories of helping to can them. Now I am starting this with my kids.
Bonnie
My favorite memory is of my mother and myself canning elderberry jelly we made from the elderberries we had picked from the bushes growing wild on the banks of the creek that led through the marsh of the 40 acres I grew up on…Mom is gone now, but not the memories!
I just today borrowed a canning book from a friend! I’ve never canned anything BUT IM GOING TO! But my favorite thing I’ve been given was some strawberry vanilla jam! Holy yum!
A recent memory was helping mom can tomatoes when she had a broken wrist. I had to put the tomatoes in hot water so I could peel the skins off. And of corse watching Grammy and mom make jelly
My favorite canning memory is last summer when I bought half a bushel (26 pounds!) of seconds heirloom tomatoes for $12 at the peak of the season. I canned salsa, tomato puree, tomato sauce, you name it. In the dead of winter, it was great to pull out a can of sauce I’d canned in the summer and be halfway to a soup or stew.
My favorite thing to can is pear-cardamom jam. My favorite canned item that has been gifted to me is anything from my local foodswap. We meet every two months and exchange homemade and canned items. Such a great community of like-minded people who are committed to local, sustainable food. 🙂
I have a lot of memories canning tomatoes and sweet corn at my Grandma’s house.
My favorite canning memory has to be canning with my grandma and my mom. Though my grandma isn’t able to can anymore I gained valuable experience. I still can tomatoes each year with my mom and beef every other year. I would love to win!!
I do not can but would love to do it. I bake and cook. But canning seems so different to me. I live in the Hudson Valley and there are alot of farmers selling veggies. I stopped today and there were little cukes. So pickles came to mind. My sister in that lives in NC does canning so I think I would live it.
Thank you,
I laughed out loud because I thought you wrote, “Or if there were monsters on every street corner.”
My mom made the best dill pickles. Everyone who tasted them had to have the recipe.
My Grandmother Moses made amazing apricot jam and sealed the jars in a pressure cooker. The best jam ever!
I hated canning when I was little – I guess now looking back, my mother was a little stressed. Now I enjoy canning – and opening up a jar of summertime in the middle of winter. Green beans are my favorite. I am thinking of trying a new tomato jam recipe tomorrow!
Growing up on the farm we had a mulberry tree …yum I can still recall the taste of mulberry jam on freshly baked bread.
Salsa is my favorite canned product. A coworker shares her efforts every year. I would love the discovery kit to make it myself.
I actually tried canning myself in my apartment a couple of year ago. I got to the point where I had the water boiling and discovered that the cans were too tall for my largest pot! After an emergency call to my dad, he brought me the pot for frying a turkey and I could finish 🙂
Every year my sister and I get together to can is a memorable one. One more year that we are healthy enough to put in a garden, keep the weeds out and reap the harvest. Always fun to find a new recipe to try. Last year it was apple pie filling and sweet pickle relish. Don’t know what this year will bring. Looking forward to finding out!!!
Man that is a neat gadget you are going to get…I think “momma Louise” needs one. But when I saw the cost, I fainted away…..oh well dream on.
My canning experience. They weren’t too funny or too memoriable. But I did do a lot of canning. In 1976 we moved from Chicago to 20 acres in Northern WI. I had a BiG garden with lots of vegies growing. Canned everything, beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, sauces, jams and jellies, pickles, even my “chickens” and venison. There was nothing I wouldn’t try a least once.
Oh but the reward of opening the cabinet and seeing all my hard work. We always had enough food to last through the winter….beans and tomatoes were my favorite to can……..yeah, a lot of good memories. I don’t remember my mother canning or grandmother…..so I learned on my own plus asking the farm ladies in the neighborhood where we lived. They probably thought “poor city-slicker, we better help her or else they will starve this winter.” I still have my canning stuff, always thinking some day I will do it again. I do make over night pickles, still trying to duplicate my stepfather’s pickles….I am getting close.
Great blog, I am happy for you, now you will be canning lots of salsa.
Sweet memories…I remember doing the same thing at my grandmother’s house.
What a cool canner!
When I first moved to Canada, I thought that I wanted to can some peaches. I ordered half a bushel( not even knowing how many that was). I had to peel the peaches first and by the time I finished canning( an all day affair), the entire kitchen walls and ceiling were covered in peach skins and juice. It was so much work!!! I did enjoy them when the winter came and there was very little fresh fruit to be had.
Wow, that canning system that you will be getting looks way cool. My grandmother has always canned her garden harvest. My favorite, was and still is her dill pickles. However, when I think of canning I mostly remember third grade. During third grade, my parents were divorced and over the entire school year my sister and I had to go to my best friend’s house after school until mom would pick us up later in the evening. My friend’s mom (who will always be my second mom and one of my best friends) would send one of kids downstairs every evening to get jars of food out of her pantry/cellar. I was most excited when she had me fetch the yellow wax beans, which like grandma’s pickles were kind of zesty. Not sure what spices were used, but I still haven’t found a match for the taste. Yum!
My favorite that has been given to me is strawberry jam. Yum!!
I remember always my Mom canning with her pressure cooker. My dad lined our storage room with little narrow shelves all the way from top to bottom. All of her summer canning would line that room – green beans, soup stock, figs, plum jelly, blackberries, canned pears and maybe some watermelon rind preserves. There were some things that just had to be put up in the freezer – butter beans and fresh scraped off the cob corn. I loved to cook and I did not shop at the grocery store. We just went out to the storage room for our meal planning options.
I had a peach tree in my backyard and made peach jam for several summers until the tree died : (. The taste of homemade jam is unbelievable. Continued prayers for you & Tony. No voting link today?
When I was in HS my mom decided to make good use of my dads tomato garden and decided to make catsup. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it takes bushels of tomatoes to make ketchup. My mom only got about 5 jars of it but I tell you it was soooooo yummy! Great memory!!
A friend of mine used to make the most amazing peach jam! It was the best I’ve ever tasted. I’ve thought about getting into canning but it seems like such a huge production. Maybe if I had this kit, I’d give it a try!