Canning-tacular giveaway: Food in Jars book & Ball Canner Kit
Summer just snuck up on me, and I feel sort of unprepared. Spring lingered longer, rains fell. Blueberries came and went (already).
I live in Texas and it’s summer for about 9 months of the year, so summer isn’t usually a surprise, but that’s enough about my confounding climate zone. It’s nearly officially summer, which means the possibility of preserving wherever you are.
First off, I’d like to start this giveaway out with a small quiz:
This year’s July 14 is a special date because:
A. it’s Bastille day, vive le France!
B. it’s the 100-year anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s birth, vive le revolucion!
C. it’s National Can-It-Forward day, where canners across the country will seal some jars in solidarity, vive le Canvolution!
D. it’s my birthday, vive le cake!
E. all of the above
You got it right. The answer is E.
I’m so jazzed for this giveaway, a can-tastic (yes, I just went there) prize pack from Ball Canning paired with my good friend Marisa’s first (and very fine) book, Food in Jars: Preserving in small batches year-round. This is the perfect prize for newbies and old hats alike. And if you already have a canning set-up in place, then wouldn’t the Ball kit be a nice prize for an aspiring canner in your life?
You’ll get this 21-quart canner pot that includes the rack:
;)
And this utensil kit (half-filled jar of jam not included):;)
Aaaaand a copy of this great book:
The Food in Jars book is every bit as delicious as the blog by the same name, but tactile, with a sturdy hard cover and beautifully printed pages to turn. I had the pleasure of seeing the galleys for this book when Marisa visited in November of last year, and I must say, Running Press did a lovely job putting this book together. Moreover, Marisa’s recipes are simple and straightforward yet incredibly inventive with flavors. This book reads like afternoon tea with Marisa, like you’re sitting at her kitchen table and she’s pulling out jar after jar and telling you about each of them.
I’m especially excited to make her cranberry ketchup (must use last year’s fruit in the chest freezer!) and intrigued by the cantaloupe jam (hello exotic Creamsicle). I like the inclusion of other recipes, the non-canned goods and gifts you can put in jars, too. There’s a cinnamon vanilla sunflower butter that sounds delightful!
I just love how Marisa reminds us that canning is totally on our terms, that you don’t need tons of produce (and a car to drive it all home), a fancy kitchen or much equipment to make things you and your family like to eat. I hope with this giveaway you’ll find a way to make preserving your own, to wrap it into your life, whether it’s a small batch of dilly beans or a few jars of fig jam, or an entire closet tiled in the bounty of the seasons.
In order to get you your Canning-tacular prize pack in time for July 14, we’re running this giveaway through midnight CST, July 5, 2012. Enter by leaving a comment on this post, telling me What’s your favorite thing to put in a mason jar? Don’t forget to add your email address to the box on the comment form where I ask for it. No email address, no winner (because I can’t reach you).
Hey, while you’re at it, pop on over to Local Kitchen (through June 22) AND Punk Domestics (through June 20) for another couple chances to win Marisa’s book!
Canning, Cookbooks, Giveaways, Small-Batch Canning
Reader Comments (328)
I'm new to canning myself so I would have to say blackberry jam! But ultimately the best thing in Mason jars is my dad's salmon. Straight from the West Coast of Vancouver Island where we spent COUNTLESS hours waiting for the "big one" and most days ended up pretty happy with the catch. Every summer of my childhood is filled with memories of canning salmon; the kitchen filled with "that smell", supplies everywhere and the occasional "oh boy, it's going to blow so stay out of the kitchen for a while!" That's how I learned to love things in Mason jars.
I love putting anything and everything in a jar. My family's favorite thing to eat though is dilly beans.
My favorite thing to can is homemade jam, just like my mom made when I was a child. I just made a batch with beautiful North Carolina (home) strawberries and a bit of orange zest. Delicious!
I love to put dried beans and grains in mason jars for eye-appealing storage in my pantry. I'm a novice canner, have just done simple fruit jellies and jams so far. Really looking forward to expanding my repertoire!
Anything to do with blood oranges…..usually I make a few batches of my own jammy spin on marmalade and then try to keep some extra around for gifts at holiday time…unless of course we finish it all!! This year I used it to make Rosemary Thumbprint Cookies filled with Blood Orange Jam.
My finger... Ok if I am being hygienic, then a clean spoon, because my friends and family all make amazing berry jams and plum compotes and fresh canned peaches. They all happen to live in the PAC NW where the up pick and wild pick grounds are a plenty. I live in the desert and make amazing dry spice rubs for BBQ. And we swap. But I would love my own actual canning setup- Cactus Pear jelly anyone?
Salsa! This year we planted enough tomatoes and chiles in buckets to make an ample year's worth of salsa...now all I have to do is learn to can...!
Pickles!!! My favorite thing to take out of a jar too! :) Great giveaway, thank you!
Well, I just learned to make strawberry jam and that's my introduction to putting anything food related in mason jars, but I am an artist, so until now, I've filled every mason jar I can get with paintbrushes and pens and markers and pencils and so on... but now that I'm diving headfirst into the world of using mason jars for their intended purpose, I'm really looking forward to making my own salsa!
Jams are my favorite, but I also love experimenting with pickling veggies of all kinds. Last year I made the vanilla strawberry jam from Food in Jars blog and got tons and tons of compliments on it.
I am a newbie to canning, so the only thing I have put in my mason jars are my green onions. :D This will be my first year attempting to can produce.
My favorite thing to can is tomatoes because I use them for so many different things throughout the year. Aside from canning I put everything in mason jars: iced coffee, beer, granola, yogurt, dried goods, and bouquets of flowers!
I love to make meyer lemon marmalade
So many things to choose from! But since I'm on my third pull of rhubarb right now, that's what I'm going to go with. Ginger rhubarb jam, vanilla rhubarb jam, rhubarb relish, rhubarb "juice". Of course, this will change in the fall when the cranberries are harvested. :) Oh, wait, there are still some in the freezer! I think a batch of drunken cranberry jam is in order.
I haven't tried canning YET, but look forward to giving it a try this summer. I want to make some bread and butter pickles and some chutneys, too.
My family's favorite is pineapple jam! I love homemade tomato soup from canned tomatoes.
Favorites here are Rhubarb Gin Rickey Jam (amaaaazing!) & our own Muffuletta Mix, which is a pickled menagerie of olives, cauliflower, carrots, onions and whatever else is ready for harvest at the time.
These days I'm into anything pickled! So far this season I've done radishes, sugar snap peas, asparagus, and red onion. Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
Pickles! I have great memories of pickling with my mom when I was a kid, and have recently started a few pickling projects of my own.
My favorite things to put in mason jars is lovely alcoholic drinks! (But if I won this, it'd be raspberry jam!)
My favorite is my Pickled Squash. Everyone loves it. My second favorite is my Cherry Jam.
I love making jams from our trees and garden. Apricot, passion fruit, spiced fig, orange marmalade, lemon honey, and plum. Yum!
I love to put spiced South Carolina peaches in Mason Jars. I also put strawberry, peach,and blueberry pie filling in them.
I love putting up tomatoes! Just simple whole peeled tomatoes with lemon juice.
I'm just getting into canning and so far the only thing I have canned has been blackberry jam from the wild blackberries I picked in my back yard. But really looking forward to canning tomatoes and pickled okra like my mom! thanks for this giveaway..would love to win!