A Year Long Canning Challenge for Everyone!

When the folks at Canning Across America said they wanted to feature the Can Jam on their site, of course I jumped on it. We are of the same ilk, my fellow preservationists and I, both on a crusade to bring back the art of the can.

And we are not alone.

It has been less than a year since the start of my two blogs, when I and fewer than a handful of others were firmly on the jarwagon. Blogging about our canning forays from late spring through early fall and enjoying the fruits and pickles of our labor during the leaner months. Since then Dorie Greenspan and Kerri Conan (on Mark Bittman’s blog) and a whole host of others seem to be shouting from the roof-, er, screw-tops that canning is back, and with a vengeance!

And why not? Canning is so right now! It is:

Local – I think many of us became interested in canning as an outgrowth of the Locavore movement. Preserving fresh produce grown in your area is the logical progression. And when you grow your own, and a glut is on, it can become a necessity!

Organic – In an effort to control what we eat, be it produce, sweeteners, flavors, etc., when we make it ourselves we know what went into it, and we know how we like it. It’s having a real choice about what we consume.

In Season - Canning produce in season keeps it in season all year (in a certain way). Ergo a much tastier interpretation of eating seasonally than abstaining from certain foods except for once a year!

Humane – I heard tell that veggies get a kick out of being pickled, and fruit, well, who among us canners has not witnessed that barely audible exclamation of fruit about to be jammed, “Sweet!”

Never one to leave a jar unopened, I started thinking…”What will it take to motivate even more peeps to get off of their cans and start canning?” Hence, the first ever “Tigress’ Can Jam! ”

Here’s how the Tigress’ Can Jam works:
Registration to be done by: December 22, 2009
Start: January 1, 2010
End: December 29, 2010

The Basics

• Each month we’ll focus on one fruit or vegetable to preserve. Recipes may include other fruits or veggies but the food of focus must be integral to the preserve, and the recipe must include hot water bath canning. Canning 101 post

• The month’s produce of focus will be announced the last Friday of the prior month (we will rotate the choosers by order of sign up). The focused food cannot be repeated in subsequent months.

• Bloggers will post their recipes on their blogs by midnight Friday on the 3rd week of the month.

• No blog? No worries! You can still participate by following along every month, trying one of the posted recipes or use the fruit or veggie of focus as a jumping off point to finally try your hand at jamming & pickling, or to hone your skills. Don’t forget to post your experiences in the comment section on the monthly round-up post on the last Wednesday of each month, and we’ll have a Flickr group set up just for you, so you’ll be able to post pics too if you are so inclined.

• On the last Wednesday of the month I will post a round-up at Tigress in a Jam or Tigress in a Pickle and direct you to the blogger who will announce the next fruit or veggie of focus. Said blogger will have until that Friday of that last week of the month to announce new focus.

Additional notes:
• Though this is not an ‘eat local’ challenge it is understood that in the spirit of the movement the fruit or veggie of focus should generally be in season at that time – at least for the blogger that is choosing that month. My hope is that it will mean that it is in season for many if not most of us.

• Substitutes of food in focus is acceptable only if it really is not in season where you are and you would rather use a fruit or veggie that you can source locally. In this case, effort should be made, if possible, to choose a substitute that is closest to the focused food. and please, don’t let this stop you! We’re learning about canning here people! So can what you can!

• For the ‘leaner’ months. This is a year long challenge and I know that January, February, and December especially pose a problem for many of us in finding local produce.  So even if you are the chooser it is understood that there may be months where the choice won’t be local– say citrus in December–but perhaps in season in many parts of the world (and a fine time to can citrus I may add)!

Let’s Get Rolling:
• Thus far close to 30 bloggers have signed on, from all types of keyboard.  From fellow canning bloggers excited to share ideas and techniques, to those new to the blogosphere inspired to jump in the water for the first time just for the can jam. Now that is exciting! And at this writing, there is still a whole month left to sign up!

• Linda Ziedrich of The Joy of Pickling, and The Joy of Jams, Jellies and Other Sweet Preserves fame, has happily agreed to stop by the jam as a guest participant one month and I’ll be interviewing her too! Other guest participants are in the works, and some give-aways and other fun stuff too (’cause we like those)!

• Oh, and in case you’re asking, “Why can all year?” The answer is: Because it’s a challenge, people! And because it’s fun, and by the time summer’s overflowing we won’t feel like Lucy and Ethel in that famous chocolate factory scene, nope, not us. We’ll be lean, green, cannin’ machines–able to can bushels of produce in a single bound!

Gettin’ Jiggy Widget

• If you would like to help spread the jam please copy and paste the html code below to place the tigress’ can jam widget on your blog (the graphic will show on your blog and it will link back to this post). Please don’t hot-link!

<a href=”http://tigressinajam.blogspot.com/2009/11/tigress-can-jam-food-blog-challenge.html”><img src=”http://tigressinajam.com/images/canjam01.gif” border=”0″ alt=”Click for tigress can jam food blog challenge” /></a>

How to Sign Up
• Deadline for sign up is December 22nd, 2009

• Sign up by sending an email to: tigressinajam(at)ymail(dot)com please put” Tigress Can Jam” as the subject and include your name, and your blog URL if you are a participating blogger.

• Final participant list will be announced on January 1st, 2010 along with the first month’s fruit or vegetable in focus.

That’s it! 12 months, 12 cannings, it’s a can jam people!

Get your jars ready and screw your lids on tight–’cause we’re gonna have a ball.

CAA Contributor Tigress hosts some of the most successful electronic music events in the country by day (and night). When she’s not jammin’ in her field, she’s jamming and pickling in her kitchen. Her love of historic foodways and home preserving was borne out of a utilitarian spirit and a passionate obsession with growing what she eats. She divides her time between the industrial bog of Long Island City, NY and a little white farmhouse with a big garden in the Berkshires of MA. Inspired by the great ethnic cuisines of the world that focus on the vegetable at the center of the plate, you can find her at Tigress in a Pickle and Tigress in a Jam blogging with both joie de vivre and tongue-in-cheek, and one spoon in the mason jar.