Welcome to canningculture.ca
After many, many months, www.canningculture.ca has finally gone live and I couldn’t be more pleased. This site is the culmination of years and years of hard work and planning. Canning has been a passion of mine for more than 30 years and I started thinking about creating this website to share my passion of canning with others about five years ago.
I have spent an enormous amount of time researching, analyzing and producing the recipes and content for this site. Every canning recipe follows all the safety guidelines set out by the United States Department of Agriculture, the government body at the forefront for research on all things canning. Many people are afraid to can their own produce due to concerns of food born illnesses. Preserving one’s own food can be very satisfying and as long as you follow safety guidelines while preserving, those concerns should not be an issue. The goal for me is to teach others how to can in a safe and economical manner.
The recipes on this site progress from beginner to advanced level canning processes. If you have never canned anything before, it’s probably best to start out with something easy like jam or jelly. Then you can progress to pickles, salsas and canned fruit, which can all be processed in a boiling water canner. Advanced level canning includes low acid foods like carrots, beans, potatoes, soups and beans like kidney beans and brown beans. These low acid foods need to be processed in a pressure canner, which is a little more complicated than a boiling water bath process.
Not only is processing your own food healthy, it’s also very economical. I always preserve product that is in season. When produce is in season, you can either grow and pick it yourself for the cost of seeds or you can buy it for a lot less than when it is out of season. A good example is fresh raspberries. I have a raspberry patch in my garden. I usually harvest enough raspberries to preserve 25 to 30 jars of berries, as well as making a batch or two of raspberry jam. The only cost to me is the sugar and in the case of jam, pectin. When raspberries are out of season in the winter months, I can open a jar of canned berries to eat. That jar would have about 2 or 3 pints of berries in it and cost about 50 cents. If I were to buy those berries at the grocery store, I could spend anywhere from $5.00 to $6.00 for just one pint of berries. I also find that when I buy produce in bulk, I tend to get a better deal. I always shop at the local Farmer’s Market when buying produce in bulk. I can buy 40 pounds of tomatoes for about $25.00. Buying tomatoes at the local grocery store can cost as much as $2.50 a pound in the winter months. Another concern for people is the environment. Canning is a very sustainable way to live and produces a smaller carbon footprint than for someone purchasing all their food needs at stores that have items shipped from thousands of miles away. Jars are recyclable and the equipment required is very inexpensive. Often times items can be purchased at thrift stores and garage sales.
If you want to know exactly what your family is eating, where your food comes from, are interested in eating organic and you also want to save money on your grocery bill, it’s time to start canning. I hope you find this site useful and you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I will be adding recipes and tips on an ongoing basis. Watch for my weekly blogs for inspiring tips and seasonal canning information. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions as you start your canning journey. I would also appreciate your feedback on ways I can improve the site or add items you feel are missing and please share, share, share this site with all your friends and family. I ultimately plan to hold classes where we can get together and share our love of good food and canning. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on class content, time and location. I’m working towards having products for sale here in the future such as jams, jellies and pickles. I plan to have custom labels, canning equipment and canning related products available at some point. If you are a bride looking for wedding favours, jams and jellies with custom labels are coming soon.
Although I have a thorough knowledge of all things canning, I’m not particularly good at taking photographs or building websites. That’s where my very creative, talented and energetic daughter, Melanie Grisak, comes into the picture. She has spent countless hours of her free time designing, building and maintaining the website as well as taking, editing and posting most of the photographs. I couldn’t have done this without her assistance.
Wanda Grisak
Canning Culture