Canning Across America (CAA) is a nationwide, ad hoc collective of cooks, gardeners and food lovers committed to the revival of the lost art of “putting by” food. Our goal is to promote safe food preservation and the joys of community building through food. We believe in celebrating the bounty of local and seasonal produce and taking greater control of our food supply. Together, we can.
The Collective
Working Group
Nicole Aloni is the author of 3 books about the art of cooking and entertaining: The Backyard Bartender, Secrets From A Caterer’s Kitchen, and Cooking for Company. Nicole makes frequent television appearances, including The Food Network, and locally for KOMO News. She also teaches cooking and entertaining across the country at schools like Sur La Table, Draeger’s, and Central Market and contributes articles to national magazines. Presently Nicole is focusing her attention on her blog, A Conscious Feast, which chronicles the development of her forthcoming book A Conscious Feast and other topics that catch her attention as she eats her way around the world. Prior to her writing career, Nicole completed the diploma course at La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, owned her own restaurant, directed one of the country’s largest catering operations and produced a line of gourmet food products for fine grocers. You can find out more about Nicole at her website. She lives, cooks, and preserves in Seattle, WA.
Jenise Da Silva is passionate about cooking, gardening and the “farm to school” movement. Jenise’s experience with canning started when she was a kid in the Midwest and she continues that tradition today. She has used her experience in community building, marketing & brand management to create many award-winning projects including FireFree which was recognized with top honors (the Golden Smokey Award!) by the US Forest Service. She authored the book Women and Money and launched a national facilitated discussion series (years before Suzie Orman penned a book under the same name). Jenise is an avid supporter of community gardening and farmers markets and you can usually find her at Pike Place Market, in a PCC Cooks classroom, weeding in the Interbay P-Patch or at a farmers market in Seattle.
Stephanie Gailing a nutritionist and wellness consultant, is the author of Planetary Apothecary and the Canning Across America community outreach czar. As a natural health writer, she has covered whole foods, dietary supplements, and complementary medicine for numerous media outlets and has served as a writer/editor for The World’s Healthiest Foods website for the past nine years. Stephanie’s career in the natural health field has also encompassed operating her own eco-products retail store and serving as a nutrition education consultant for companies in the natural products industry. She holds a master’s degree in nutrition from Bastyr University.
Brook Hurst Stephens is an enthusiastic canner who spends quite a bit of time in her kitchen, the whole year ’round, developing, writing about, and photographing recipes for her aptly-named website Learn To Preserve. She enjoys sharing her knowledge with friends & family as well as teaching the joys of preserving at Preserving Parties. Another passion she has is volunteering her time to teach such deserving groups as Jubilee Women’s Center. Her hope is that the tradition of canning “as a group” continue through the generations. She mostly loves the way people’s faces light up the first time they hear their jar “ping”.
Naomi Kakiuchi is President of NuCulinary, a culinary education company with a mission of sharing food and culture to bring people together. NuCulinary specializes in creating interactive cooking classes, parties, corporate wellness education, and teambuilding events that offer a balanced blend of food, history, nutrition, and fun. Every summer, Naomi enjoys highlighting Washington’s produce, farmers, and chefs by coordinating the Chef Demonstration Program for the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance’s seven Seattle-area markets.
Leslie Kelly, a veteran food writer, is the former restaurant critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She’s currently working in kitchens around Seattle and chronicling her journey from pen to pan in a series called Critic-Turned-Cook. Her grandmother taught her to can pickles and peaches, but she’s still trying to get it right.
Shannon Kelly is the ceo and principal catalyst behind In Your Head, a trends research, creative development and marketing consultancy. She passionate about understanding consumer culture and transforming insights on food, fashion and lifestyle trends into business-altering initiatives. Her love of pickling and new media has earned her the title of marketing/tech guru for Canning Across America.
Lucy Norris is the leader of the Puget Sound Food Network, a project of the Northwest Agriculture Business Center. She is the author of Pickled: Preserving a World of Tastes and Traditions (2003), a collection of stories and recipes that emerged from a three-year oral history project with the New York Food Museum. Lucy helped launch the New York City International Pickle Day, which just celebrated its tenth year. She has been a member of Slow Food since 1999, has been involved in chapter leadership in Portland from 2004-2006, and co-chaired the Seattle chapter from 2007-2009.
Kim O’Donnel (founder) is a trained chef, nationally recognized online food personality and longtime journalist.Her book, Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores Will Devour, came out in September 2010. Formerly of the Washington Post, Kim now writes Family Kitchen, a twice-monthly column that appears in USA Today. In July of 2009, Kim asked out loud on twitter if anyone was up for a can-a-thon and the rest is canning history.
Jeanne Sauvage is the Editor of the Canning Across America website. She was diagnosed with gluten intolerance after the birth of her daughter 11 years ago. She has spent those 11 years developing delicious baking recipes, which she shares on her blog, Art of Gluten-Free Baking. Her first cookbook, Gluten-Free Holiday Baking, is coming out Fall 2012 from Chronicle Books. Jeanne has a Ph.D. in theater theory, which is helpful in her never-ending hunt for new recipes, ideas, and concepts to ponder and loves to can jams and pickles and enjoys using her preserved foods in the meals and baked goods she makes.
Rachel Thibodeaux is the Photo Editor of the Canning Across America website. She works in web development and is a great lover of all things culinary. She’s always planning her next meal, enjoys working in the kitchen, and cherishes old & new cookbooks. While a novice at canning and preserving, she gardens and is looking forward to canning this year’s bounty. She writes at Rachel: Photo Diary and posts pictures on Flickr at Sally Simpleton.
In Memorium:
One of our founding members, Kim Ricketts passed away in April 2011, but she is with us in spirit. She was founder of Kim Ricketts/Book Events, a company that connects people, stories and ideas: one book at a time. One of the most popular series created by Kim Ricketts Book Events is the Cooks & Books series: in the past 6 years they offered over 100 dinners with the world’s most interesting food writers and chefs. At home, Kim was an energetic and enthusiastic home cook, and always excited to jump into the fine art of canning and preserving.
Friends of the Canvolution
Shauna James Ahern
Cathy Barrow
Keren Brown
Willi Galloway
Lisa Kennelly
The Lazy Locavores – Shannon and Jason Mullett-Bowlsby (aka The Shibaguyz)
Janine MacLachlan
Marisa McClellan
Kate McDermott
Lucy Norris
Emily Paster
Traca Savadogo
Viv, Seattle Bon Vivant
Tara Austen Weaver
Audra Wolfe
[...] 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment Urging Americans to ‘Join the Canvolution’, Canning Across America is celebrating the joys of ‘putting up’ food and food as a means of creating community. [...]
[...] event to teach canning in kitchens across America created by the collective preservation blog Canning Across America. Join in! Those raspberries aren’t going to jam themselves, you know. And your [...]