{"id":2225,"date":"2016-07-23T02:43:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T06:43:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-13T17:29:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:29:55","slug":"international-can-it-forward-day-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardern.co.za\/2016\/07\/international-can-it-forward-day-and\/","title":{"rendered":"International Can It Forward Day and a Give Away"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A load of cherries comes in all at once, which means a few busy days of canning. Today, Friday July 22 is International Can-It Forward Day. Ball canning company asked if I would participate and help promote their new book on home canning.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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\nIf there is one thing that I remember that my mother used to tell me, was that when it was canning day, it would always be the hottest day of the year. Today, it was near 99 degrees F here in central Massachusetts, full-on cherry season, and of course, canning day. International Can-It Forward Day, to be specific. A couple of months ago, the fine folks at Ball Canning company contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating, and I gladly accepted – even though I try not review too many products or participate in too many partnerships, there are one or two a year which come along that are a good fit – an believe me, this was a good fit. This kitchen, which was my moms from around 1940 until her death in 1997 was canning central. Anyone who knew her, knew that canning was her passion. Our cellar was full of canned goods from my parents huge garden, if you don’t believe me, look at the list below. I really wanted to help the home canning movement with #CanItForwardDay. TO make the whole thing sweeter, Ball Company is donating a dollar for every like or hit, on the posts we did for them, on their website. Good people.<\/div>\n
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\nNeedless to say, my brothers and sister always joke that we felt like slaves. Really. Most of our summers were spent weeding, picking tomatoes, peeling and prepping produce for canning which my mom called “processing’. She was a depression-era mom, and even though I was late (OK, an accident), I was able to appreciate her later years when she still canned actively. In fact, she canned nearly up to her death from Pancreatic Cancer – that summer, we helped her pick black wild raspberries and carefully cut pickling cucumbers for her well known and loved Bread and Butter Pickles. <\/div>\n
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\nShe was one of those women used the pressure cooker with which to can. Such pressure is needed for wild mushrooms, string beans and other low acid crops – but I, like many younger people just rely on hot water bath projects – at least for now. The old pressure cookers were plain, old scary. Mom loved her old Ball Blue Book – the circa 1960 or 1970 canning guide which the Ball company produced. The canning jars in our cellar, in our ‘store room’ range from versions made from around 1910 when our house was built by my grandparents, to the 1990’s. So to make a long justification shorter, the Ball company logo probably should have been my first tattoo.<\/div>\n
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\nThe folks at Ball sent me their their new canning book, The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving – which we (Joe and his nephew who is spending the summer with us) spent hours looking at. We’re all guys, so food is central to our being – and it only took a day for post-it notes to appear on the pages, marking recipes such as Bourbon and Sour Cherry Barbecue Sauce, or Smokey Sour Cherry Tequila Salsa. <\/div>\n