Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Lost Art of Home Canning

I love to home can my own Jams and Jelly's, as well as Salsa. Occasionally I will make recipes in the pressure canner too. Canning is really not hard, it is a little time consuming, but the rewards are unbeatable. This info was taken off of the Ball Canning Website, I hope you find it useful. Oh and by the way.... I found an old Kerr Canning book (from 1947) just a small paper one at a yard sale last month for 25 cents. Have a Fabulous & Frugal day!!!

Why Should I Can?

Fresh Preserving provides a number of great benefits which are relevant to today’s lifestyles. While home canning has been around for generations, the reasons why people can today are different than the reasons why people canned products years ago.

Gardening and home canning can lower your grocery bill. Burpee Seed Company (www.burpee.com) estimates that for every $50 spent on seeds and fertilizer, a gardener can yield $1250 worth of produce. As it’s not feasible for a family to enjoy all of that fresh produce all at one time, home canning allows you to preserve that fresh, home grown flavor from your garden for use all year long, and saving on your grocery bill.

Home canning supports sustainable lifestyles. Canning locally-grown produce reduces the carbon footprint created by transporting vegetables around the world in off-seasons. A study by Carnegie Mellon found that 11% of the average American’s household food-related greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation of foods. You can reduce that by growing your own produce or purchasing it locally, and then fresh preserving the harvest and re-using Ball® Jars year after year.

Fresh preserving allows you to manage your family’s nutrition. Many canning enthusiasts enjoy the versatility and control they have with fresh preserving recipes. When you fresh preserve foods, you can avoid additives and preservatives found in many commercial products, and you may even opt to use organic ingredients.

According to research from The National Gardening Association, 48% of consumers’ garden to ensure their food is safe. Canning is a perfect way to manage the ingredients in your recipes to ensure that your family not only gets the garden fresh flavor of fresh produce, but that they also avoid any undesired ingredients.

Express yourself through unique and creative recipes. For generations canners have used fresh preserving to showcase their own unique style with creative canning recipes. Impress your friends and family by creating unique jams, jellies and other culinary creations.

For tutorials, videos and other information on how to can visit our Intro to Canning section here.

Search our database of fresh preserving recipes and start your culinary adventure now!

2 comments:

  1. Just wanted to point out that the old canning books are fun for historical reasons but are not necessarily safe. For example, tomatoes have been bred to be less acid and canning methods have changed.
    Here's a link to the USDA's National Center for Home Food Preservation. It tells you how to make everything from jam to jerky:
    http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
    Enjoy! Some day I'll have a place of my own, with a garden. For now I glean fruit and freeze, can and jam it.
    Best regards,
    Donna Freedman
    http://www.donnafreedman.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh Donna, thank you for that insight, yes I did know that some of the older recipes are no longer deemed safe, I usually try to check them against the Ball Canning website too. We do not want anyone to be unsafe or catch some food-born illness. Thanks for the info

    ReplyDelete