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)
In our family, it's not a holiday without elderberry pie. We harvest berries every year and either freeze or can them. This year I'd like to put up something rhubarb-y too.
Thanks for a fabulous giveaway! We are following traditions from my grandmother, growing a big garden and using her big enamel bowls to shell peas, using her recipes to can vegetables! Even have a few of her canning jars.
Picking up the tradition of canning, started out of necessity by grandmothers and great-grandmother. What a pleasure. The scents of fruits and sauces cooking, the colorful finished products and the full pantry remind me of much younger years. Something my daughter and eventually my granddaughter will enjoy doing with me.
I'm the first and only canner in my family. I've been at it about 5 years now and just love it more and more. It's funny how fast family members came to expect and wish for their favorites in such a short time. I'm constantly asked when "Mom, when are you making that yummy peach butter? I eat that stuff with a spoon!" or "Peggy, are you making that Cowboy Candy this year?" I just love sharing my love of family and food with my canning. I would just love to win this book and the jars. Thanks for a great giveaway!
The big thing I have brought back are homemade birthday cakes complete with homemade decorations. My oldest son just celebrated his 16th birthday and requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I never buy store-bought cakes. We mix the cake up and put it in the pans and then ice it and everyone gets some icing to lick up. Oh bliss! We all had fun decorating with ballons we blew up and decorations we made. It is so fun to do it with our three kids.
We actually plan to start canning this year. We have been growing a garden for several years now and mostly we have been eating the produce fresh and freezing the rest. I really want to learn to can. We have also planted fruit trees and strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries so I can't wait to get going this year. Blessing to you and yours.
My daughters and I can everything we bring in from the garden.At canning time it never fails that there friends want to come and help and I always have people asking if I will show them how to can.
My Nana made Sunday gravy (or to most people, pasta sauce) weekly for her family. For a while now I've been making me own gravy but I've just started to follow her tradition of making gravy on Sunday. It's so nice to have a delicious, nostalgic meal every week.
My grandmothers made the tastes and bounty of spring berries and fall fruit trees last all year long by canning and I keep that tradition by teaching my own granddaughters! Life is good!
Hi,
I never learned to can until my Mom passed away, after she died we were like OMG no more Dill Pickles so my Dad and I had to figure out her recipe it took a couple years of trial and error but we figured out the recipe, my Dad helped her every year so he knew part of it but neither one of us paid attention until we had to learn! I love canning now and do alot of jams, pickles etc would love a new book and those cool canning jars:)
We've started gardening and canning. My Grandma did it for years. My kids love it. They love helping.
My paternal grandmother canned. I remember, as a young girl, going down into her large Michigan basement & seeing rows of green beans, peaches, & cherries. Such gorgeous colors! I am, slowly but surely, bringing this wise tradition back & planning on teaching my grandchildren :)
Everybody in my family made jams and jellies. One of my favorite ones was always quince jelly, but I had never made it since I moved to the US from Germany. But last year I found a Chinese quince tree. And there was a lot of fruit lying on the ground. I brought them home and turned them into jelly. Not exactly like the German quince jelly I remember, but nevertheless very yummy.
I have vague memories of my grandpa's pickles - he grew pickling cucumbers and tomatoes around the perimiter of the yard, behind the hedges so you couldn't see them from the road, and continued this late in his life after he had given up the bigger garden. This reminds me that I need to ask my grandma for the recipe before it's lost entirely. Food is one of the best ways to continue family traditions.
My family has a tradition of making peach marmalade, and applesauce from Cortland apples. The peach marmalade recipe was handed down several generations, until it never seemed to gel properly. I used the pectin calculator on http://www.freshpreserving.com/tools/reference/pectin.aspx and was able to adjust pectin and sugar to get a good gel. Now I'm having a baby, and I'm hoping to enlist the help of my family to keep the marmalade and applesauce tradition going!
This year I'm hoping to finally learn (and write down!) my grandmother's chili sauce. It is the best accompaniment to just about everything and she's slowed down to making it only ever 2-3 years so this year... it's on!
My friend and I (& all our kids!) started a tradition a few years ago of going fruit picking every spring/summer - strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, figs (and stock up on corn, tomatoes, apples, at Farmer's Market)- Then we get together to can all kids of goodies... We are always on the lookout for new recipes! and those jars are Beautiful :)
Preserving like my grandparents did.
I love the blue mason jars because they remind me of canning with my grandmother. I remember our big harvest week each year. My favorite part was holding the funnel while she poured in the fruit or vegetables and then she'd let me put the flat and ring on. As a kid, of course she had to follow behind me and tighten the jars. I have one large blue mason jar left and I guard it with my life. It sits on a special shelf where it can't get harmed. I use mason jars now myself for everything, including canning. I love that I can especially keep lettuce fresh for so long.
LOVE love those blue jars!! I have a collection of vintage ones I have been finding for a few years. My mom taught me how to can and my grandmom showed me how to enjoy getting my fingers dirty in the garden growing beautiful and yummy plants. So now I grow an organic garden to know what is in my food(don't trust the store or Monsanto) and I can my fruits and veggies from what I grow every year. AND they taste sooo much better fresh from the garden. I would love to win the jars and book. Thanks for your generosity.
I did a little canning when I was a young woman, but then life happened to me in a big way. Now, I'm retired and nothing has given me more joy than getting back into it. I have a friend with a year round creek that has massive blackberry stands on both sides for a very long ways. This bounty has inspired me to be more adventurous each year. My favorite new thing this last season was to combine my serrano chile peppers (from my plot in our community garden) and the blackberries into a sweet, spicy jam. It was such a hit with everyone, that I'll have to double the amount I make this coming year!
I am trying to bring a tradition of getting back to nature to my family. I am doing this through small batch canning with fresh local ingredients, but also by keeping chickens and purchasing a 40 acre parcel of land on which to build and live.
I started canning a few years ago when my husband started his garden. It always reminds me of my grandmother who used to can watermelon rinds when I was a kid. I am still looking to duplicate the recipe if anyone has one.
Dinner parties and board game nights! You don't need high tech to have fun. Going back to the basics and enjoying a delicious home cooked meal with the board games we all grew up playing makes for an awesome time together.
Im keeping up the tradition up putting up food to enjoy later in the season with my family and...... I really love the help they provide
My 4 year old daughter and I started making jam and pickles last year. We hope to keep the tradition going, especially since her favorite thing to tell her friends is she made the jam for their sandwiches.