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)
My family doesn't have a rich history relating to food, and there's no canning history at all. I learned to cook when I was first out on my own, over 30 years ago now, and I just learned to water-bath process fruits a couple of years ago, on my own.
One tradition we did have, however, is baking Christmas cookies. I started baking cookies with my cousin's two daughters when they were little girls. Over the years, my cousin and I started baking cookies together, then my sister joined us. When my spouse joined the family, he also joined us on Cookie Day.
Now my spouse and I live far away from our families, but this past December I baked a lot of cookies and sent them to my sister and my cousin, in honor of our old cookie-baking adventures. And that's a new tradition I plan on carrying on.
I'm teaching my four-year- old daughter about baking like I did with my mom and gramma when I was a little girl. We also tend a garden each year and she just loves to pick and eat the vegetables. My goal for this year is to learn how go can foods and I'm hoping she'll want to learn with me.
Years ago when gas was cheap and people still had campers on the backs of their Ford pickups, some friends of mine took a weekend trip to Grand Junction, Colorado. It was peach season, and they thought it would be fun to bring home a sampling of the varieties they found. A few days later, they were home with ten bushels of peaches, all ripening at breakneck speed. They gave a few away, and then we set to work canning, freezing, pickling, making jam... Our fingers wrinkled up like prunes from the hot water and the steam, but the house smelled like heaven. Every now and then, someone would run out for another box of jars. I have never duplicated that crazy summer binge, but the idea of putting up a few jars of fruit and some lemon curd is still a great pleasure. Scones and tea, anyone?
I only recently got into canning a couple of years ago, but I remember my grandmothers applesauce growing up. I feel like now that I know how to make my own jams and things like applesauce that I'm able to connect with her in a totally different way than I could when she was alive.
My niece came to live with me a few years ago, and while we are 20 years apart in age, we both were partially raised by my aunts (her great-aunts). Most non-meat foods in their house were made from scratch, even breadcrumbs. Household items were reused, and re-purposed.
We try to live the same lifestyle because it is now a way of life in our family. We are a lot healthier because of it. We don't eat as many preservatives, and we have good memories of times that we picked berries and made jam, or the time the pasta came out oh so wrong.
Following their thrifty lifestyle, we re-purposing item that are past their usefulness in one way, to usefulness in another. While their thrift was born out of a family of 1 parent and ten children growing up through the early 20th century onward. Ours is born out of a respect for their ways, the earth, and also ensuring finances make it through our current recession/depression. Interesting that many call this way of life earth-friendly, and recycling. When in the past it was just what they did.
For the last couple of years, a couple of girlfriends and I have gotten together for a weekend of "putting up." We gather our collective harvests and start cooking, baking, and canning. Last year we made about 50 cups of pesto and about 20 loaves of zucchini bread. This year we hope to expand into jam and other preserves (although we all do plenty of that on our own). It's a great way to enjoy each other's company, catch up on the local gossip, and sip a couple of glasses of wine. It feels very old fashioned (except maybe the wine part)... :-)
i grew up snacking on my grandmother's bread and butter pickles straight from the crock in the back of her fridge that was somehow always filled. for the last few years i've been learning how to can and pickle my own fruits and vegetables and have kept the pickle crock in my own fridge alive (in the form of a very handy "pickle tupperware" with a built-in strainer for easy snacking).
I'm half Cuban and half Irish, so I have a fun mix of traditions I get to continue from both sides! For example, I always make Irish soda bread in March (Irish--clearly), and I ring in the new year by eating 12 grapes and celebrate Three King's Day in January (Cuban).
these are awesome jars! what a great prize and the cookbook... want! i have been teaching people to can and garden for a couple of years now. it's a great skill and we don't want to lose it. love your site. <3
I'm working on the traditional large family (I have 7 children) and we all eat dinner together at the table every night. We also garden in our suburban lot; I have 31 fruit trees in a .24 acre lot; today I planted a cherry tree and 2 more blackberry bushes in my garden.
I make gifts for my children, for their birthdays and for Christmas. My children have turned that into a tradition of their own; they make gifts for one another and for their friends for their birthdays and for Christmas.
My grandmother canned, all the time. The only thing I regret, was not really taking the time to learn, all I could about canning, from her! But, with great perseverance, I have learned how to can (with all the canning supplies that she left me, when she passed away), and I LOVE it!! :)
A preserving book I don't have? For shame! :) I love traditions. I'm so glad to pass on the tradition of berry picking. My children know how to forage their way through the woods, and I couldn't be more proud! At scout camp, my son was picking currants and the other boys were scolding him for eating something that might be poisonous. He was like "hey, I know what this is. It's a currant, and we pick them all the time." I was beaming! :) A rare proud-parent moment! :)
I'm on a serious jam/jelly kick as of late. Teaching my daughters to preserve is such a lovely time.
Every year my mother and I go strawberry picking and spend the next day cutting, mashing and mixing. Sounds like Nicol's book would have some new ideas for an "old" tradition.
planting a garden with my kids and teaching them how to use it all!!
The past few years, my son (now 5) and I have loved starting our tomato and pepper seeds indoors in preparation for the oncoming gardening season. Just after the spring equinox, we plant the seeds and eagerly await the first little green sprout. So far, he and I are loving this tradition.
Thank you for the chance!
The slow life.
Every Christmas I make my relatives baskets of jams, jellies and other canned goodies from my harvest. Canning and preserving are my "therapy" for a very stressful job and I look forward to every season.I've even taught classes on jam making and apple pie filling at a local apple orchard. Love it!
That book looks great!!! Love the jars too
This year my daughter will get her first Easter basket from us, continuing that tradition (only no candy....she's too little anyway haha)
I am bringing back the tradition of canning to my family. I can't wait to get started again for my second year of canning. Love those jars & a great book!
I grew up learning to can from my mom and my grandmother. My sister and I carry on the tradition in the hopes that our children and grandchildren will learn. We use some of the same recipes we learned as a child and I am now able to use some recipes from my husband's grandmother, too. Many family members get my canned goods as gifts and really look forward to it. It warms my heart to be able to do that for them.
We have been expanding our garden for each of the last several years. I can/freeze as much as possible, just like my grandmother did. With such busy schedules, it's easy to say "there isn't enough time to can"; but I love being able to put our own fresh produce away for the future.
My mom canned tomatoes and pickles when I was young, and my grandma canned a lot of produce--I sure wish I had learned more from her!--so I started canning about 8 years ago and love to try new recipes.
In my family canning and the art of cooking skipped my parent's generation, but I'm a full blown enthusiast! I just started canning in recent years, and was able to make a wonderful peach/lemon verbena jam last year. We had to horde the final jar! I have a beautiful 2 year old daughter who I hope grows up to share my passion for food!
My father and I have been making the same German cookies, Springerle, for Christmas, since I was able to stand at the table. It is a cookie that you can't find anymore around here since all of our German bakeries have long-since closed. I was also lucky enough to learn how to make my fiance's Babci's 'panny-cakes' before we lost her last year. I was raised to understand the importance of tradition in a family and I loved to read the comments about other people's traditions.