As part of my quest to eat seasonal foods, I preserve year round. In the middle of winter that means preserving citrus so that I have some to enjoy in the summer. Right now Meyer lemons are plentiful and next to salt preserving them, one of my favorite ways to preserve them is in a [...]
Posts under ‘Guest Essay’
Spreading Holiday Cheer, One Can At a Time
So many people have told us of their Plans-to-Can for the holidays, that they are going to be gifting their homemade jams, chutneys, pickles and other preserved goods to friends and family. If you’re among those with holiday Can-Do spirit, the Canning Across America community would love to see what you’re creating. We’ve set up [...]
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 [...]
Keeping Up the Family Traditions
My 80 year old grandmother, who was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, has been “putting-up” for as long as I can remember. I don’t ever recall a single summer where she wasn’t freezing green beans and bell peppers, canning tomatoes, or making jar after jar of strawberry jam. The summer I [...]
Dispatch from Dallas: A Can-A-Rama Event
A group of twelve convened Saturday afternoon, August 29th, to undertake an ambitious canning adventure. The group was comprised mostly of Slow Food Dallas members–some had home canning experience, others none. All shared a love of good food. Three recipes had been chosen based on the recommendations of the group. We would make Peaches in Brandy, Watermelon Rind Pickles, [...]
Jammin’ With Kathy Casey
There is no better way in my mind to preserve the abundance of summer than by making homemade jams and preserves. It has always been the perfect way to make the summer fruits bring us joy all year long — whether on warm homemade bread smeared alongside crunchy peanut butter for a gooey PB+J sandwich, [...]
Canning Fall
The summer that I first discovered home preserving, no produce was safe. There was something so gratifying about containing brightly colored fruits and vegetables in clear glass jars that I wanted to preserve everything in sight.
Apples from neglected trees all over the neighborhood were captured in jars of sauce. I didn’t wait for tomatoes to [...]
Aunt Dana’s Austrian Apricot Jam
Come summer in the Wachau Valley, Austria’s Napa, the apricot trees are so draped with fruit that growers have to prop up their tree limbs with wooden crutches. Orchard after orchard in this eighteen-mile stretch of land along the Danube drips with clusters of apricots—making kitchens all around the region the headquarters for edible delights [...]
Yes, We Can, Freeze, Dry, Pickle, Salt. . .
Until fairly recently (certainly within the past couple of generations) families harvested crops in the fall and stored enough food to get them through until the next harvest. Today preserving is enjoying renewed popularity and extending the harvest is HIP! “Canvolution” has quickly entered the digital lexicon.
For our grandparents and great-grandparents, a routine [...]
Granddaddy and the Fig
“Where I grew up, grown men did not eat grilled figs with baby greens and artisanal goats’ milk cheese.”
My maternal grandparents, Grace and Mitchell Walters, came from warm, happy-go-lucky Irish stock, and their house in Mississippi became my place of refuge, where I was treated to much love and affection, not to mention the [...]
