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)
I have been canning for few years now, personally I love it! I have expanded my circle to include a best friend that now loves canning. Most of all though, I love canning with my kids. It is so excited that we can a jam and then they get so excited to open it up and use it! Especially the ones that they helped make! I have 4 kids and each one has a different kind that we make together! The memories are priceless!
I haven't canned in many years and here on this little island, it's not easy, since no stores carry any jars, so it's a trip to the big island by ferry and hope you can find some, usually not. I do make hot sauce though and this year a woman here has talked to me about canning ginger and mango jam, both products easy to get here. I'd so love to surprise her with some jars I know will remind her of her childhood days. What a great thing for Ball to do! I have some of their really old ones for storing beans and rice, but the new tops? Even better!
I've been putting together a cookbook of family recipes, some of them go way back, and was excited to find many canning recipes in the stash my grandmother gave me. I've never known anyone in my family to can/preserve, so I suppose I am bringing that tradition back. :)
This Christmas, we did a "handmade or second-hand" gift exchange rather than buying a new gift for everyone, and everyone had such a great time with it that we decided to make that a new tradition.
I learned to can from my mom, my mother in law and a close friend. The other day my four year old borrowed my food mill and told me she needed it to make applesauce! So the tradition continues ...
These so remind me of canning with mom when I was a little girl. Now that we have the space for gardening, I plan to start canning again this fall. I can't wait to share the tradition with my daughter.
Year by year, we are bringing friends with us to the dark side. A camping weekend becomes a black cap raspberries picking spree. A day hike suddenly involves having enough pockets for huckleberries. A weekend road trip to another climate means that we're all on chokecherry alert. Yes, fruits that are available at farmers markets and u-pick farms are great, but locating produce out in the middle of nowhere makes us think of our pioneer ancestors who 'put up' food so they wouldn't starve. And it doesn't hurt that the jam, jelly, syrup, chutney, and other goodies are tasty tasty tasty.
I'm bringing back home cooked food, including drying and canning in the summer/fall for the long winters!
We have a tradition among friends of a Christmas tea and cookie exchange in the beginning of December.Also, we exchange homemade presents among friends--jam, soap, soup mixes...
I have made applesauce with my mother and pickled beets with a friend; every year I expand my experimentation (pear-cardamom butter, spicy-pickled asparagus, sauerkraut, spicy apple-tomato chutney, tomato marmalade, etc....) Every year I pledge to do more - it gives me so much joy and pleasure and it is wonderful to give those jewel-toned jars of goodness as gifts. Tradition amongst my friends? The edible Christmas box, with an assortment of preserved goods (sometimes some homemade crackers and / or dog biscuits or flavored salts thrown in for good measure) - I don't think I dare NOT do it for some of my friends!
I have done home canning since my teens with my grandmother. She taught my all of her tricks. She saved her blue jars for special treats, and never let them out of her house. She passed away in 1982 and I miss her everyday.
We traditionally have pancakes for breakfast on Sunday mornings.
When I was a child, we made honey and bottled rootbeer every summer. I can tomatoes now and am excited to start pickling and canning more. I would love these jars and Gloria Nicol's book. Thank you for the giveaway!
My brother has been helping me learn to bake bread. I just baked a loaf with my fresh wild yeast starter. At some point we're going to swap starters and see if they make different tasting bread.
My Romanian grandmother made fantastic pickles! I am trying to keep that tradition alive.
That book looks pretty awesome! I just started canning in the fall.. so, I suppose in a way I'm bringing that tradition back. My Mom canned when I was a baby.. and stopped for various reasons. My Aunt still does, however. Made her "million dollar relish" in the fall - so, I guess its somewhere between bringing back, and continuing at the same time.
Gingerbread cookies! We use my Great Grandma's recipe she brought over from Germany. My dad made cookies with her and my Aunts, my dad and I made them and know I make them with my kids!
I learned to can from my mother, who learned from her mother and grandmothers. I still use some of their equipment, including some jars (which I mostly use for display these days).
My favorite memories are from visiting my great-grandmother and being fascinated by the rows and rows of different preserves she had in her pantry. I'm certain this is where I got my love of canning, and why I'm so excited my daughter has finally exhibited an interest in learning.
I'm not sure if I could ever store these jars away in a cupboard, they are just too pretty! My husband and I love to make a huge batch of pasta sauce; strangely it never lasts as long as I think it might. I would love to can tomato sauce using tomatoes from our garden! It would make the recipe that much more 'ours'.
Today, my 3yr old told me her memory of making candy with her grandma and then delivering it to grandma's friends. I hope this is a tradition they continue and that my Stella and her little sister Evie will look forward that that part of Christmas.
Our summer tradition is visiting the farmers market on Saturday mornings. I want to start canning to take advantage of the beautiful produce and share that with my girls.
I don't have many traditions in my family, and I'm the only one left...but baked Mac n cheese was the family favorite, so I've been trying to recreate my mom's recipe. I remember it being sooooo amazing!
I learned to can (tomatoes) with my mom. She also makes killer bread and butter pickles, which I then canned with two friends several years ago (one of them still makes them as well)...then, when my daughters came along, one of them took a liking to it and we now can tomatoes, pickles, spicy catsup, and jams! We loved the blue jars so much that she used them filled with red tulips as centerpieces for the reception tables when she married!
Well, with the last name BALL, of course I collect old Ball jars! Some are from my grandmothers' pantries, some were gifts from my mother-in-law (who has her own collection), and others were gathered here and there from antique shops. We had to move into an apartment a couple of years ago, and all my jars had to go into storage... I miss them.
For several years I have wanted to learn how to can. My mother and my grandmothers did it, and it's just something I want to know how to do. I got as far as making freezer jam one summer (the last one before we moved), but for real canning just keeps getting put off, One of these days... maybe a new book and some pretty new jars would be just the inspiration I need! ;)
A tradition I am finally continuing is container gardening. My dad used a red rider wagon as his first continer and expanded from there over the years. This year my garden has become our children's home soooo My garden will be in big pots filled with tomatoes for sauce and salsa
My Grandmother made currant jelly & concord grape jelly every year. Not because it was trendy or a cool thing to do (in fact, it was August in New York - it was hotter than hell!). Not because she particularly liked jam (though her grandkids did). She made jam because she had lots of currant bushes and grape vines and made use of what she had growing in the garden. She also put up zucchini, beans, peas, tomatoes, and other garden surplus to ease the grocery bills in winter. I think she thought it was what she was supposed to do...and in many ways it was. She did well with what she had. Tradition? I don't know, but it makes sense - the thrift, the intention to use what you have, the thoughtfulness to plan for lean times. I like it, and these days I'm finding it more necessary than ever in my life.