Giveaway: Gloria Nicol's preserving book & Ball's vintage edition jars
Spring is here, for many of us (sorry snowy midwest!), which means fruit is on its way. I’m excited to offer up a preserving book from an e-friend in the UK, Gloria Nicol, whose lovely blog I’ve tracked for some time now. When browsing in a local shop for resources supporting my kitchen book research, I came across her book:
;)
And absolutely fell in love with the simplicity and style of her recipes.
They’re fruit-forward and elegant; I think this is another great book to have when considering what delicious end your strawberries or [insert fruit/veg] might face. Thanks to CICO Books, and her publisher’s US office, I have a copy to send you!
As a bonus, courtesy of our friends over at Ball, I’m also able to toss in a flat of their newly-released Heritage Collection jars. They’re blue, like the old quart jars I’ve been collecting from every antique shop I run across. These limited-edition jars come six to a case and match year-appropriate writing for the 100-year anniversary of Ball “perfect mason” jars. Read more about them here.
Ball also announced that their lids no longer contain BPA in the sealing rubber effective last fall. New packaging is rolling out this spring indicating the omission of the toxic plasticizer. Good news for us!
Back to the book and considerations for what you’re going to put in your brand new, not-chipped, old-timey jars.
Reading Gloria’s book is like going on a trip overseas and visiting your cool aunt. She takes you to the market (you probably ride cute, old bikes), she feeds you scones and lets you taste a bite from all the jars from the pantry.
Here are a few highlights from the book, which features lovely photography and a blend of unique and classic flavor ideas.
I made her strawberry jam last weekend with our stash of berries and it was a vibrant and dazzling spread.
I love the nectars section!
Yes, she’s in the UK, where preserving practices differ from our USDA-prescribed methods, but you need not worry about safety. Either reduce the recipe and stash your jars in the fridge, or (ever so blasphemously) just process the jams or chutneys according to waterbath times listed for other US-published recipes of the same fruit jam. (Pretty much any jam gets a 10-minute processing time…)
For shipping reasons, we’re asking for entrants from the US & Canada only. Sorry international loves. Please enter by Friday, April 5, 2013 at midnight CST by leaving a comment below telling me about traditions, anything large or small that you’re continuing or bringing back with your family or within your friend circle. Good luck! (p.s. if you don’t leave your email address in the little box where the comment form asks for it, you won’t win because I can’t track you down otherwise)
Kate
Congrats to Kymm, lucky number 117; please check your email. Thanks everyone for entering and sharing such wonderful comments about traditions.
Canning, Cookbooks, Food Preservation, Fruit, Giveaways, Pickling, Traditions, Vegetables
Reader Comments (224)
Strawberries + vanilla = yum! A spring tradition is for my daughter to pick out her own plant to add to our garden that she then takes care of. This year she chose milkweed so the monarch caterpillars would have more to eat.
I have a wonderful recipe my grandmother gave me for chili sauce - her mother used to make it, and it has been passed down on a scrappy bit of paper to me!
I love Gloria's blog!
I grew up canning with my Mom and her canning friend in East Texas. Two years ago I started canning for the first time as an adult and it's been such a joy to rediscover this art. Mom and I canned together for the first time in years last Fall. :-)
I love the tradition of home canned goodies!
What a great giveaway--this book sounds fantastic, and who doesn't want to get their hands on some heritage blue mason jars? It's hard to answer the question of traditions, though--I mostly associate them with the holiday season, and spring has my brain going in an entirely different direction. How about the traditional starting of seeds and growing of the gardenful of vegetables? :) Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
We make our own butter and our own cheese whenever possible. Nothing like homemade butter on freshly made biscuits and some homemade jam!
Book and Jars look awesome! A tradition I am continuing (or kind of restarting) is gardening and canning with my children. I remember doing it as a young child with my Mom, then we didn't do it as I grew older. But I want my children to learn how and have those memories, and I love both!!
Canning has been on my Dad's side of the family forever. I remember going to visit my Nono and the first thing I wanted was to open a jar of pears or peaches from "down the cellar", as she would say. I would have to be stopeed from opening jar after jar. It wasn't until I started canning myself that I realized why I was stopped - while enjoyable, it is A LOT OF WORK to can things. My Aunt also cans, not so much these days as she gets older. She has been passing down my Nono's jars to me and I smile every time she says she has a box fill of them for me. I will be having my first child in July, and even though he is to be a boy, I hope to instill my love of cooking and preserving in hm at a very young age. I am the only one of my generation of cousins to preserve food and I do not want it to end with me.
I make it a tradition - that for every meal that involves 2 or more people- everyone should help out with the meal. It not only gets to the table faster but there's always a conversation between everyone - be it with only the dish we're helping prepare or creating a new memory with friends and family.
I love to put up pickles of any stripe, but garlic and garlic scapes are my favorite! I'm eagerly awaiting the garlic that I planted last fall to send up their sinewy, curling scapes, but until then, I may have some bulbs harvested from last summer that are now in need of pickling.
As for what friends are currently reviving: making butter! How freakin' easy could it be, and it tastes sooo much better than the stuff from the store! Finally, taking advantage of living in the middle of dairy country, in Central PA!!
Oooh! How exciting! We are just starting sugaring with our family in the old sugar house on the family property we moved into last spring. It is challenging, but the perfect family adventure for this growing family. We love it.
I've been doing a lot of Japanese-style pickling like my mom used to do when I was growing up.
i got some of those jars recently.. love them! would love to have the cookbook!
A tradition I have started is that our Christmas gifts to the neighbors consists of mostly things I have put up over the summer, and at least one new thing for everyone to experiment with. It's fun to hear how they end up using things!
Most food-related traditions skipped my mother's generation, but I can remember that her aunt grew veggies in her garden and even made her own pickles (which I thought was very strange at the time). So, learning to can and preserve was a challenge for me, one I accepted and have learned to enjoy. And when I make pickles, I think of my auntie and wonder if my nieces think I'm a bit strange. ;)
My great grandmother and my grandmother both canned and made jams and jellies. I remember as a child stripping elderberries from branches and making jelly. To keep the tradition alive I use my great grandmother's jelly bag stand that's close to 100 years old. Every time I use it I feel connected to my heritage.
I didn't grow up doing a lot of canning, but once every year my parents would be gifted a huge bin of eggplant from a friend's garden and we would spend the day making pickled eggplant. I now live on the opposite coast from my parents, but every year they continue the tradition and send me some. I think it is an old Italian recipe, but whenever I bring some out at parties to share, none of my guests have heard of it before but it is a big hit!
I have gotten into canning myself over the past few years and find it to be so comforting and rewarding. Haven't tried my hand at the pickled eggplant yet, but I think I will give it a go this summer!
Thanks for your awesome blog!
I'm so excited to find your blog and the first post I see are the new heritage collection ball jars that I've been drooling over! :)
A tradition that my fiance and I have started in the past few years is the summer garden. We have a small piece of dirt out back at our condo and we maximize that and my mom is nice enough to let us plant in her yard too. Last weekend we planted 12 tomato plants that we've grown from seed, with about 12 more to plant this weekend, lettuce, basil, peas, chives and chard. The tradition we're growing into is having a pantry stocked with our own delicious, homegrown food!!
Off to read more blog posts... :)
I'm originally from England and I love make a seville marmalade that has been handed down to me!
We make a bunny cake every year for Easter. It's two yellow cakes shaped like a bunny in a bowtie, covered in frosting and coconut!
My grandmother passed away on Valentine's Day. In looking through family photos for the funeral, there were countless shots of the two of us cooking, from the time that I was so little I was standing on a chair to reach the counter until last Christmas (I'm 40 now). There were only two things I wanted from her house--her copy of The Texas Cookbook by Mary Faulk Koock (complete with Mamaw's handwritten notes in the margins) and her pink 118 Texasware mixing bowl. Since her funeral, I've made Sunday brunch for my family every week using that bowl.
Traditions, a huge tradition to me is my cast iron pans. I inherited them from my Great grandparents. Every Sunday I season them. I cook with them almost everyday. They are amazing. Like Ball jars they are always useful and in style.
I would love to check out this book. I have been doing some preserving with my girls. My daughter's favorite thing is actually elderberry syrup, and she loves making jam.
My grandma canned and made jelly, with wax, and as a kid it horrified me. My mom canned and made applesauces and butters and things but I don't recall much of that. Now that I've started canning, independently from them, I've gone back and reconnected with those parts of them, and it's brought us closer. It's a really amazing connection now to my childhood as well.
My Mom always had a garden and I keep that tradition going. Also starting to can like my Grandma used to do. Thank you for the giveaway!!