Depending on your age, I think almost everyone in the 40s, 50s and 60s grew up with someone in their family canning. For me, it was my Grandma and my Mom. My first experience with canning was when we would pick my grandmas almost black purple grapes into a big basket and would carry them into the kitchen of my Grandma’s house. There she would dump all the grapes into her sink and sift through them all, pick all the stems off before putting them on the stove to cook down. The sweet smell of grape jelly being cooked will always take me right back to my Grandma’s kitchen. After the grapes cooled down, she would let us stick our hand in the pot and squeeze all the grapes out of their skins until our skin turned purple up to our elbows. Then the mash was hung over a pot in cheese cloth for what seemed like days, but I don’t actually remember. THEN it was finally time to make the jelly!
My Mom canned lots of veggies growing up. Mind you, I was a picky eater as a kid. The only vegetables I liked were cucumbers and carrots because those weren’t cooked. I distinctly remember I was in high school when my Mom was sick with a cold right when the tomatoes needed to be canned. You had to blanch them in boiling water, then peel off the skin before slicing the tomatoes. I had an aversion to tomato seeds back then! I remember yelling to my Mom “you know I love you because I am doing this for you!” Well, that, and I am her favorite child.
Now that I’ve opened my eyes to all the goodness of fresh vegetables the color of the rainbow, I love canning. Especially my salsa. There is nothing like opening a can of salsa in the middle of January in Chicago and have the taste of summer on your lips while there is six inches of snow on the ground.
So I was thrilled when Jarden Home Brands asked me to join them in celebrating their 5th Annual Can-It-Forward Day to share the joys of home canning. Not only is it economical, but I actually really enjoy the process. With everything moving so fast these days, it’s nice to take a step back and spend time doing something healthy and nutrition for your family. But because we do live a fast paced life, you will love their new canning system!
Not only can you can up to 8 pint jars at a time, but this is also a multi-cooker. You can make everything from soups and stews, to using it to boil water for pasta. And it’s huge! If you go to pot lucks or have big family gatherings, you could fit a ton of chili in that pot.
The top right picture is a steamer rack that sits about half way through the pot – I can imagine us cranking out a ton of potstickers in that pot. Another awesome feature is the spigot on the side of the canner. No longer do you have to try to dump what seems like ten gallons of water from your canning pot, simply put this pot on the side of your sink and drain the water away.
One of the first things I knew I was going to can is my grilled cherry salsa. I have Tony to thank for that idea, and still need to try grilled pineapple salsa, grilled peach salsa, etc. I love the sweet/heat combo of this salsa!
Grilled Cherry Salsa
- 4 tomatoes, divided
- 1 jalapeno pepper
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 cup cherries (I used Rainier cherries since they are in season, but regular cherries work well too)
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
- juice of two limes
- zest from two limes
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
I did this on my gas grill. Just char three tomatoes, the garlic, jalapeno and cherries – it took me about 15 minutes at a temperature around 350. Let the cherries cool, then pit the cherries and add all the ingredients to a food processer and puree.
The wonderful people from Jarden Home Brand are going to share the love with my reader – one lucky reader will win this!
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- FreshTECH Electric Water Bath Canner + Multi-Cooker: In 2015, Jarden Home Brands launched the third appliance in its FreshTECH family. The new FreshTECH Electric Water Bath Canner + Multi-Cooker is a plug-in, countertop appliance that eliminates the need for stove top heating. This removes the concerns of ceramic-glass stove top owners and makes it more convenient to handle than traditional water bath canning pots. The appliance enables users to multi-task during the canning process, eliminating the need to monitor boiling water or move the pot to fill and drain. (Retail value: $149.99)
- Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving: The new 37th edition of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving is the most trusted resource in home canning for over 100 years and this new 2015 release is its largest update since the first edition in 1909. Expanding 56% from the previous edition, the 37th edition of the Ball Blue Book includes 75 new recipes, pictorial step by step
- One case of regular mouth pint jars: (Retail value: $9.99 each)
All you need to do is leave a comment with a canning memory you might have had, or if you won the canner + multi-cooker what would be one of the first things you’d make in it.
I would also think that this would work if you were camping where there was electricity – what are your thoughts on that Marcia? I also know that this will come in handy during holidays, where you just need one more burner – it’s like having your own separate stove top on your counter!
Check out this video below – you will discover:
DETAILS:
- Tune in to the live webcast of canning demonstrations from 11:00am – 4:00pm EST, featuring an integrated chat function to submit your home canning questions to be answered in real time. New this year, there will also be an exciting celebrity mason jar auction unveiled during the webcast!
- Share what Made From Here means to you by hosting a home canning party on Saturday, August 1!
- Share your home canning creations, tips and tricks via social media with the hashtag #canitforward.
http://www.freshpreserving.com/community/events/can-it-forward
If I won. I’d like to make different flavors of fresh fruit jams like apricot and strawberry.
I would love to pickle some cucumber, carrots, and onions.
we used to have shelves of canned fruit, vegetable and tomato sauce in addition to jams & jellies. wish we had that again!
Ohh how exciting! I had been wanting to learn to can for years and years. I kept having family members and friends tell me theyd teach me, and nobody ever followed through even though I’d sometimes bring supplies from states away on visits to learn during visits. Two years ago I said enough is enough & started signing up for canning & cooking classes at my local extension center! I now refer to myself as a “canning nerd” & am so proud to gift & eat my home canned items. I use my big stock pot with a make shift tray Johnny helped me cut from an old aluminum pan in the bottom. I would love an actual canner! I’d continue to can the yummy recipes I’ve mastered from my Ball Blue book, but come solid food time, I’d also add in canning for baby Cison! 🙂
I grew up helping my Granny & Mama can. Seems like I spent all my school summer vacation in the kitchen canning vegetables & fruits! Fast forward 30+ years & I’ve only canned once in all that time. A few years ago I decided I wanted to can again…so I did. That summer I canned fig & strawberry jam, squash relish & salsa. A few months ago my neighbor asked me if I was going to make more squash relish cos he sure would like to have some again. Lol 😀
I grew up in rural Alabama and my parents always had a gigantic garden I hated working in as a child. But, on a freezing cold day in January, my mom would pull out her canned tomatoes, okra, corn, and green beans and make a huge pot of vegetable soup with a side of crunchy cornbread for dipping. I remember her working for days on end to put up all the veggies from our garden. As an adult, I invited my parents to my house one day and they had a big laugh when they saw I had planted a vegetable garden. They knew how much I hated working in it as a child…..but, as you age I think you really start to appreciate homegrown produce…especially tomatoes!
I don’t have anyone around me that canned but I’ve always wanted to learn. I’d make jam.
I can see it now a huge pot of crawfish Gumbo, thats what I would make…thanks
I used to can long ago with my Mom…wild grape jelly, tomatoes, and tomato sauce from the tomatoes we grew, got us through the times my dad was laid off from work. Then there were the spiced crab apple pickles mom made, that I hated as a child. Nowadays, MANY years from those memories, I can green tomato pickle relish, tomato jam, salsa, various chutneys, apple jelly, apple sauce and tomatoes…all from my garden or yard. ‘Tis wonderful to open a jar of summer when it is snowing and 10 degrees below outside!
Unfortunately I have never canned but have always wanted to and have been doing a little research on it as i think it would be something that I would enjoy doing. I want to learn to can all my own jams, salsas, and pickles and whatever else I could manage.
I remember canning tomatoes for the first time in an apartment and my dad had to bring me his turkey fryer pot because I didn’t have one that was big enough!
My mom canned for as long as I can remember; lots of peaches, tomatoes, okra, and since we lived on a farm, she also grew her own vegetables. Last summer, the last I had with my mom, we canned 34 quarts of peaches from my brother’s tree. My mom was 93 at the time. My personal favorite, tomato preserves Yum!
I’m “only” 30 but have many memories of canning from both sides of my family. My mother’s mother was a canning queen – she had it all. Pickles, jams, jellies, tomatoes, tomato juice, etc. My father’s side of the family was big on pickles, too, and out of all the options they are probably my favorite. I usually do some small batches of corn, pickles, and jam each year, but I’d probably go to town with pickles if I had something like this to make canning more convenient!
Nobody in my family cans whomp whomp but if I won this I’d love to make I think pickles first and can them because my garden is insane and I have a zillion cucumbers so I’d love to be able to enjoy them in January
Plum Jelly is the first memory I think about my memaw (grandmother on my father’s side). It still brings tears to my eyes to remember picking all the plums from their farm, then watching her can the old fashion way. I also remember strawberry, blackberry, peaches, cucumbers, okra and very tart pickles. I still regret that I never learned how to make her recipes and there is nothing in writing to help me.
I would love to have one of these to teach my college age daughter some new recipes. She has enjoyed helping me make your roasted salsa, but we just don’t know how to can it to save it for the fall and winter. It would be a joy to learn to do this with her and hopefully find some recipes that my memaw might had made…
I loved my grandmas canned peach preserves and would love to sart canning my own with the peach tree in our yard.
I can at least two big sessions every year, tomato sauce and ” Christmas Jam” which is a strawberry cranberry mixture. Everyone loves the jam and I have to remember who I gifted the year before because everyone always asks about it. My mom wasn’t into cannng, so I’m self taught 😉
My family wasn’t into canning, so I was on my own a few years ago when I decided to make peach jam. It was delicious, but challenging to do by myself. I like this product because it seems like you wouldn’t be quite as frazzled with a hot pot of boiling water on the stove…I’d make jam with it if I won!
My Mom and I still love to can! I can remember my Mom and Grandmother canning when I was younger and now me and my Mom do it. At 82 years young, she is still going strong!
My biggest memory of canning…my dad canning tomatoes and having flecks of tomatoes all over his belly and the whole kitchen…it was so hot that he always did this shirtless 🙂 I also remember delicious bread and butter pickles…none ever compare.