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 son is almost four now, and I'm thinking a lot about preserving traditions and creating new ones. It's funny (though not surprising) how many of them revolve around food...pullaway rolls at Easter, Mom's cranberry relish at Thanksgiving, snowball cookies at Christmas...I wonder which foods my son will reminisce about when he's grown?
We've started a yearly end of season canning party. Great way to show off what you did all summer and trade skills. TY for the giveaway!
It's been a long winter here. There is still snow & ice on the ground & it snowed again last night. But the snowdrops are up. The red-winged blackbirds are singing. I saw my first robin today. In January, I began a medical leave from work. I'm still a bit shaky & tired & can't return to work yet.
Long days of rest are slowly restoring my body & I'm beginning to dream of what yet might be. I found your book at the public library & was so inspired by it, I bought a copy.
While lying in bed, I've thought of little tweaks I can make around my funky, old, stone cottage. Small changes are already emerging.
I've asked my cousin to teach me how to start seedlings. I've asked my parents if I might garden alongside of them and (re)learn about planting, maintaining & weeding. I hope gardening will continue to strengthen my body, mind & soul. If all bodes well, I've chosen 3 canning projects for late summer--another old tradition I want to (re) learn. Maybe we'll even make sauerkraut again!
We always do a huge Easter Egg hunt. Since all of the grandkids are now adults, the eggs have numbers that match up with lottery tickets. The first great grandkid is on her way, and we're looking forward to watching her search for eggs next year.
My single greatest story is when I went to my dad's to drop off some pickles a few years back and I went into the basement and found two jars that my grandma made. My dad insisted there still good.. So funny she died in 1968. I took the pickles and use the jars all the time. No I did not eat them. I have taught my daughter to can and many a friend xoxo thank you
My dad always had a huge garden and would trade vegetables with neighbors for various types of fruit. My brother, sister & I would then be enlisted to help my mom can it, make it into jelly/jam, or preserve it some other delicious way. I have had a garden now for several years, but am just starting to take baby steps into the canning world. I made jalapeno pepper jelly last year with peppers from my garden and can't wait to try more recipes. I am happily carrying on this family tradition.
My grandma was an amazing cook and her Kosher Dills were ridiculously famous all around the town my father grew up in. She made them every year without fail, and gave many thousands of pints away and I remember every time I went to her house I would ask for one. We have been making them every year since she passed. These will always be a tradition in our family.
All of our favorite traditions stem from food. It's spring here, and the frogs are singing. I take my kids amongst to dew to carefully harvest stinging nettle. We are teaching them to prune our fruit trees, and harvest and preserve, but our most favorite traditions are heading north in the summer, to our traditional territory, to live in the bush, and salmon fish and can enough to get us through the winter. We are there with generations, and it is beautiful as it is productive. It doesn't seem like work to them and it feels really good to put our traditional foods away every year. It keeps us healthy and keeps us all grounded together as a family.
I learned how to can on my own, but my family has a lot of food traditions. For example we just made matzoh brei for Passover.
I have loved Gloria since the Can Jam!
Traditions are especially important to me as I live away from my family and move a lot because my spouse is in the military. We must hold on to what we can. We always have the same Christmas breakfast that I grew up with no matter where we are.
I inherited my great aunt Florencie's cookbooks and recipes, but have hesitated to begin canning after a disatrous escapade a few years ago. I loved her peach preserves and plum butter. Well, if she canned in her tiny efficiency kitchen, I can do it too! Let the tradition begin!!
Berry picking and then a lot of jam making
I always make a blanket for a newborn family member. I still have the ones that were made for me.
My family doesn't have a tradition of canning. Although I do have childhood memories of my Nana and mother making and freezing applesauce. I've really started canning, especially jams, in the last few years and giving it away to family and friends. I can't wait to start my first garden this spring.
The "whole canning thing" reminds me of the year my grandmother thought that her tomatoes were just "not up to snuff" so she planted another couple ofl rows of them. Oh my gosh! The tomatoes were just fine, for sure! All of the many, many rows of them!! So, to call it a bunker crop doesn't even come close to adequately describing the enormous, ridiculous amount of that year's bounty. So when life gives you tomatoes, duh!, make (among many other things) the best tomato soup I've ever had. Ever. Thinking back, we must have looked hilarious in our canning bucket brigade canning escapade!
Years later, thinking I could replicate the cherished memory, I set out on the tomato soup quest. OMG! It called for a peck, a whole peck!!!, of tomatoes. That's a helluva lot of tomatoes. No mention of the emormous number of enormous pots it requires to accomplish this feat. All that said, THANK YOU, GRAMMY!!!! Yeah, I know, plastic containers doesn't cut it so obviousy, I need these canning jars for this summer's harvest!
We have a tradition of doing pick-your-own strawberries...but our favorite place closed down last summer! :( Have to look for a new one.
I've only been canning for a few years and I don't know of any relatives that are really into canning, so I like to think I'm creating new traditions for myself and others. One of my favorite things to do each spring is to go pick strawberries at a local farm and then come home and make fresh strawberry jam. Last year I was able to find some rhubarb, too, and made some really delicious strawberry-rhubarb jam. I could really use a canning recipe book like that one - it looks like a good one!
I love having family dinners with all my friends. We usually do pizza potluck and have everyone bring a topping.
Maybe next we can have a family breakfast with home-made jam
There is a generational disconnect in my family. I am the only one of us 'young ones' (and I just turned 40) to do things that my grandmother did, quilt, can, sew, garden, raise chickens, knit and crochet (taught myself off the net, heh ;-) ) etc. I do sometimes feel like the odd duck or outsider LOL but I am slowly teaching my children and friends the joys of canning, cooking, making your own soaps, things like that. I don't know, I guess I just like working with my hands and my enthusiasm shows through when I teach or help help others. I've mostly canned veggies from the garden but last year I ventured into the world of jams and realized I have soooo been missing out!
Fermenting!!!
Canning isn't a family tradition for me; I taught myself after moving across the country and leaving all of my family back home. I don't get to see them much anymore, maybe once a year if I'm lucky. This summer, my mother is coming to visit me for the first time; I'm planning to surprise her with jars of strawberry jam to take home. She grew up in Louisiana, near an annual strawberry festival, and is sad every year now that she can only find flavorless, flown-in strawberries instead of the tender, local ones she grew up with. I can't give her strawberries to take home, but I can try to make her jam that will remind her of her childhood, so that she can bring a piece of it (and me) back home with her.
I'm trying to learn to crochet and knit and quilt so I can make beautiful things like my grandmother did!
My family picks fruits and have a family garden (with heirloom seeds and organic practices), all of which we do together. We process and can together, my 8 year old will even stir the ingredients.
I remember picking strawberries with my mom and then watching her in the kitchen making jam with them. It was so delicious!!
I recently read that life should be more about creating experiences than accumulating things, and it started me thinking about how to make small and subtle changes. One was to sign up my daughter,19, and myself for a Weston Price Conference. It was expensive but I have valued nutrition and majored in it in college. My daughter just took her first nutrition class last semester, so I felt the timing was appropriate. When we came home from the conference her father asked her if she enjoyed it and she said "very much, it blew everything I learned in my nutrition class out of the water". I am so grateful that I made the investment, because that led us to traditional methods of cooking and eating, links to further resources, blogs, the Healthy Living Summit at Village Green Network, and to your site through a link. My son surprised us by coming home and to my surprise asked if I would teach him to can this summer. So we are embracing a new journey which will definitely create cherished traditions.
The thing we enjoy most is cooking together as a family, using fresh foods and visiting while doing so. My sons enjoy hunting with their father so I have wild game just waiting to be put into some new recipes. Thanks for sharing a great giveaway that will nourish the heart and soul of the home. Grace.