Guess what today is? It’s National Can It Forward Day. In an effort to bring back the simple joy of growing and preserving your own food, the Ball Brand invites you to begin learning more about home canning today. You can find out more about hosting your very own home canning party or watch live streaming of demonstrations and the celebration on Ball’s website. Better yet, if you’re an Indiana gal like me, you can join the party in person! If you are new to canning, I’ve shared a super easy–not to mention delicious–spread to get you started, this Basil Butter. Also in honor of Can It Forward Day, here’s a darling, printable label for fresh strawberry jam, yummy! But enough about my own love of canning, it’s time to introduce you to great ideas and recipes from around the blogosphere with these 5 Ways to Can and Preserve Produce. Bon Appetit!
1. Canning Lite
If the idea of hot water baths and pressure cookers scares you, here’s an easy alternative to build your confidence, these Salads in a Jar from My Not-So-Simple Life. Besides a Mason jar, traditional canning methods aren’t involved. But you do get to enjoy delicious salads prepared in advance and enjoy the pretty presentation. Awesome!
2. Canning Fruit
If you are looking for a twist on traditional canning, here’s a recipe that sounds delicious, Canned Pears in Vanilla Syrup. Find this recipe and others–along with plenty of home food storage tips–at Put Up or Shut Up.
3. Canning Meat
Creative Canning shares a recipe for preserving chicken, with this copycat recipe for Panda Express’ Bourbon Chicken. Spend a little time in the kitchen to bottle up this entree, and save a lot later when you can simply open the jar and reheat!
4. Pickling
Cucumbers aren’t the only things that can be brined and pickled. See the gorgeous proof of that in these pickled cherries from She Simmers, along with recipes for using them.
5. Sharing the Fruits of Your Labors
Remember the canning party I mentioned earlier? Well, if you’ve never heard of such a thing, you can find out how to host one of your own at Cottage Industrialist, and get free printables for your shindig. It’s a great way to sample new recipes and techniques.
Hopefully you’ve been inspired to preserve the bounty of your garden or to hit your local farmer’s market for extras of summertime produce. I’d love to hear about some of your own canning adventures. Have you ever canned before, or do you remember helping your mom or grandma during canning season?
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We can a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers, but haven’t tried many other things. We will now.
thanks for sharing the ideal on can it forward day.
love this post!! I am so doing that salad thing, and I always seem to buy waaayy to many cherries so I am going to try that too. I am going to try to can my Kung Pao Chicken now too. I never thought of that – I’ve been trying to figure out a way to freeze it for a while, but think this will work better. I used to help my mom can and always regarded it as a giant pain but the results were so wonderful. We would go on vacation and come back with laundry baskets full of peaches and apples. We would always have those awesome summer peaches and homemade applesauce with our thanksgiving dinner. We would do strawberry jam too. YUM!!