Local food movement spurs canning trend: Get those jars ready

[phantom power]

Once dismissed as a tradition of a bygone era, canning is making a comeback. "There's a lot of interest in these old ways," says Olson, who attributes the growth to the local-food movement and food-safety concerns. "It's funny because in my generation growing up, we had no interest in this."

At the National Center for Home Food Preservation, a project established 10 years ago with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding, director Elizabeth Andress says interest in canning has picked up during the past two years. During the first four years of the center's online course, 3,000 people registered; in the past 18 months, another 3,000 have signed up. Reasons for taking up the hobby, Andress says, range from saving money to keeping home-grown produce fresh to preserving traditions.

A National Gardening Association survey showed 28% of households that participated in food gardening also preserved food in 2009, says research director Bruce Butterfield.

Sales of food preservation products at Jarden Home Brands, which makes Ball and Kerr canning brands, have jumped 60% from 2007 and have risen about 10% this year, says vice president Chris Scherzinger. Last month, the company launched a Ball canning Facebook page, which has more than 1,500 followers.

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/food/2010-09-22-canning22_ST_N.htm

[jaksavage]

1. Welcome to the club

some of us never quit.

[grasswire]

2. I'm doing my part

Red plum syrup, plum jelly, crabapple jelly, heirloom gravenstein applesauce, green tomato pickles, green tomato spicy jam, tomatillo enchilada sauce verde (freezer)....that's a start this year. Still to come, bread and butter pickles and half sour dills. Also froze quarts of halved red plums, and sliced apples for pies.

[Lochloosa]

5. Grow one Jalapeno plant. Throw then in a jar w/ vinegar and garlic.

That would go great w/ the tomatillo enchilada sauce

[hunter]

3. My Idaho wilderness great grandma fearlessly canned everything.

Some of those jars in her pantry were scary. It's hard to say what was worse, that she would serve something from a can in her pantry for dinner, or she would kill one of the chickens. Sometimes she'd do both.

But I don't think "food-safety concerns" would get me canning again.

I've canned a lot of food in the past, and I can see myself taking it up again, but I've always been extremely conservative about safety. Even so I figure the risks of bisphenol-A or pesticides and such in commercially canned food are roughly comparable to the risks of my own canned product.

[phantom power]

6. We used to can vennison.

Pretty good, really.

[Kolesar]

4. I prefer to grow potatoes and squash that I put on the shelf until I need it

Fresh food is better than canned food, even if I can it.

I also grow a late season garden. I will be harvesting greens and carrots until January or later. I use row covers for the fall and a cold frame for winter.

[Tippy]

7. I canned for years...always tried to get my youngsters to learn...but....

I am no longer able to do any canning but my second oldest daughter decided it was time for her....She has been canning everything she can get her hands on, supplying me, she had friends helping to, she canned some in exchange for free produce. Guess she did learn something after all.

[eridani]

8. So does anyone have a recipe for a good tomato salsa that can be canned--

--in a waterbath setup? I don't have a pressure canner.