Some of my most favorite childhood memories start in the kitchen. As a girl I remember laying my face on the cold counter-top staring at my mom in awe while she worked in the kitchen. She seemed to be effortlessly dancing around the kitchen with different sized Ball Canning jars. Canning day was one of my favorite days. We always had a stockpile of peaches, pears, applesauce, and jam. As I got older my mom started to teach me the art of canning and preserving. I loved washing all the Ball jars, lids and, rings getting them ready to be filled with deliciousness. Now that I am a mom I wanted to start teaching my own little future preservers.
Ball Home Canning is hosting its sixth annual Can-It-Forward Day on Friday, July 22nd. Ball’s Can-It-Forward Day celebrates the joys of fresh preserving, and it encourages both new and veteran canners to preserve more. This year Can-It-Forward Day will be online via Facebook Live from 10:00AM – 3:30PM ET, and each hour viewers will have the chance to win a giveaway prize! Celebrating through Facebook Live will make it so easy for me to tune in, and see what exciting things are going on. Ball will be teaching a new variety of canning recipes demoed by Ball brand experts!
On the Ball Canning Twitter page from 10AM-5PM ET on July 22nd you can ask Jarden Home Vrands canning experts any preserving or home canning questions. Just use the hashtag #canitforward. Then share their own #canitforward creations with the brand on Pinterest and Instagram. You can also go to the Freshly Preserved Ideas Tumblr page, where you can take a “digital pledge” and pledge to Can-It-Forward this year.
Ball is really celebrating with the true spirit of “canning it forward.” For every engagement received on the videos, whether it be a comment, like or share, the brand donate $1 to a local charity. Ball is the brand my family has used for years and years. It is the brand I grew up with, and the one I trust now to be high quality and have delicious recipes.
With Can-It-Forward Day quickly approaching the perfect way to celebrate was to finally teach my kids about canning. I have been flipping through “The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving” for quite a few days. I have several sticky notes of recipes I can’t wait to make. This book is such a great comprehensive canning guide to help you learn how to can at home. It also has a huge variety of more than 200 brand new recipes from jams and jellies, salsas, sauces, pickles and more. There are so many great recipes to also use the things you have canned and preserved. The Meatloaf recipe using the tomato-herb jam is at the top on my list to make for my meatloaf loving husband.
Strawberry-Blueberry Freezer Jam was the first recipe I used to teach my kids about preserving. My kids love a good peanut butter and jam sandwich so I knew this would be a hit, and they were beyond excited to help me. I had serious flashbacks watching my 7 year old son Hayden get all the jars ready.
My 3 year old daughter Halli loved helping me wash and dry all the berries. She thought it was hilarious to sneak her favorite blueberries to snack on. Then Hayden helped me get all the stems out of the strawberries.
After all our berries were chopped and mixed together Halli poured in the sugar while Hayden stirred. Next came the Ball RealFruit Instant Pectin to stir in, and then we let it our jam rest for a few minutes.
I poured our jam into our Ball jars, and my kids put all the lids and rings on. Our new favorite jars are the Ball Elite Wide Mouth Pint Jars. They are an absolutely gorgeous blue.
It was so much fun making jam with my kids! Making jam and canning will be something that we do regularly together. It is so great to do something that I also loved as a kid, get a little messy, teach my kids something new, and is so yummy.
Halli was especially beyond thrilled with the fruits of her labors. She kept hugging and kissing the jars. She has told everyone from grandma, to random people we run into at the store about her jam.
We put our jam in the freezer and waited. Waiting is always the hardest part. After the jam was frozen I took it out to thaw and we enjoyed it on toast for breakfast. It is some of the best jam I have ever had! Our Strawberry-Blueberry Freezer Jam is deliciously sweet, but not too sweet. It is so yummy on toast, and in a good old PB&J.
I decided to try the Ball’s recipes “Perfect Pairing” suggestion, and add our jam to some whipped cream. A church meeting at my house was the perfect opportunity to make the whipped cream and have it with angel food cake. Adding the jam to whipped cream was heavenly and so perfect! I may never make whipped cream without it. It was so yummy on the angel food cake and next time I want to try it on a lemon cake.
I absolutely love “The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving,” and it was so fun trying a new recipe with my kids. Making jam and canning will be one of our new traditions. I hope that it will be one of the memories that they cherish just like I do.
Make sure to celebrate Ball Home Canning’s Can-If-Forward Day on July 22nd! Watch for the Ball Facebook Live celebration, take the can-if-forward pledge, and make some new memories with your family. To help you start canning and preserving to make those memories right now one (1) Mom Spotted reader has the opportunity to win a Ball Home Canning Can-It-Forward Prize Pack.
The prize pack includes:
- The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving book
- A Case of Collection Elite Wide Mouth Pint Jars
- One $5 off coupon to be used on FreshPreservingsStore.com
To enter use the Rafflecopter form below. Good Luck!
Contest ends 7.25.16 at 11:59 pm. For Official Giveaway Rules click here. U.S. Residents only.
About Megan
I enjoy making fresh pickles in jars!! My son loves it because he gets to watch them go from cucumbers to pickles!
Canning season is coming up! I don’t have a canner, maybe someday. I love your photos of your kids. They are adorable!
I like to can strawberry preserves
THAT WOULD BE STRAWBERRY PRESERVES
I always enjoy making jams and jellies. The last I made was Pepper jelly and it was delicious on pork!
I just started learning the safe way to can last year.. so I am still a newbie and haven’t ventured out too much but I love canning jam, pickles and green beans! I have been wanting to get that new book though, I’ve heard awesome things about it.
I would love to preserve strawberries and blueberries.
Apple butter!
I’m learning how to do it, but so far, my strawberry preserves have turned out great!
My favorite thing to can are pickles.
My favorite thing to can is sweet pickles! I do a lot of canning and love seeing the finished duct in the jars!
I like to can strawberry jam.
I love pickles and I like to try making pickles from all different sorts of vegetables.
even though its hard work I like doing green beans. they come from my dads garden And I get the kids together and we snap them and me and my husband stay up late and can them..its a whole family event 🙂
I make a jam that is Blackberries (say 6 pints)/Lemon Juice & Zests/Turbinado Sugar/One entire Vanilla Bean Pod + Pectin; that is fantastic actually. I scrape out the vanilla seeds but also put the pods in with the fruit while I cook it (then fish them back out!). People freak over this.
I want to learn how to can pickles and preserves.
We often can tomatoes and green beans
I love canning bread and butter pickles.
My dad and I make an antipasto vegetable condiment every year that is delicious. I also like to make fruit jams.
Love To Make Freezer Jam, Love Blackberrys&Blueberrys
I want to try pickling cabbage
I would love to preserve spicy pickled green beans. I like them as a snack!
we have a veggie garden-I can carrots, green beans, tomatoes and beets
My favorite thing to preserve is fruit!
My favorite things I can are zucchini salsa and pizza sauce, but I can green beans, tomatoes and spaghetti sauce as well as various other things including jams. 🙂
Strawberry jam for sure!
I’d use it for apricot jam. Thanks for the giveaway!
I like to can raspberry jam.
I love to preserve strawberry jam! My family eats this on everything!
I have never canned anything before but my Godmother makes a mean raspberry jam!!
I like making strawberry jam every summer 🙂
I like to can zucchini spears and strawberry jam. Thanks.
partymix25(at)hotmail(dot)com
My family has been canning for several years and have canned a multitude of different things but I think my favorite has to be our chicken or venison. It’s ready to eat or prepare right out of the container and keeps for a long time!
Thank you for this great giveaway opportunity.
We love to can salsa. My kids can’t wait to open it all winter long.
I love making and canning jellys! Blackberry is my favorite!
I started canning with apples, and apples are still my favorite thing to can. Applesauce, apple butter, apple jelly, spiced apples–I love it all!
I would love to learn to can chicken!
I love canning many foods especially fruits mostly tomatoes, plums, peaches & apples!
I love canned strawberry perserves. Nothing better than homemade spreads.
I like to can pickles and tomatoes.
I like to can applesauce.
I’ve never canned but would like to learn to make bread & butter pickles.
My favorite thing to make, can and eat are bread and butter pickles. YUMMY!
to can strawberry jam.
I would preserve some pickled lemons, and green beans
Thank You for the chance
My little one absolutely loves all things pickled. I have yet to can anything myself but would love to start. one of my favorites is pickled green beans.
I like to can strawberry preserves.
I like the strawberry jam like my mom used to make.
I Would love to win and start canning!!! I have heard of it a lots but never try…
I like to can tomato sauce. Last year I did 30 quarts! We had tomato sauce in every cabinet in the kitchen. I also like making pear and strawberry jam.
Tomato sauce
I love to can dill pickles, salsa, tomatoes and strawberry preserves!
I like to can strawberry jam.
I like to help my mom can tomato relish, stewed tomatoes and freezer strawberry jelly.
I do a spagetti sauce base. I grow my own tomatoes, onions, garlic peppers and basil and have a nice supply for the winter months.
We enjoy making our own salsa. It’s SO much tastier than store bought and we know exactly what’s in it.
We had great success canning our corn last year, so much better tasting than store bought
I love making and canning applesauce, jams, pickles and salsa!
I want to try my hand at making salsa
I premake my overnight oats in mason jars with Oats, chia, hemp, flax. The niggt before i grab one & add yogurt, honey, frozen fruit & milk. These jars are pefect for this recipe. Great for on the go in the car.
My favorite thing to can is fruit preserves. It takes a lot of fruit but well worth it to me.
We have 2 favorite things in our house: garlic dill pickles & watermelon jam. Neither one lasts that long.
I used to can homemade salsa from our garden, but it has been years since we did it. I want to get back into it and do fruit jams and preserves.
Any kind of fruit preserve, this year I did sweet cherry rhubarb and sour cherry almond.
I make spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes and herbs I grow in my garden.
mom always canned green beans and tomatoes
I love to can apple butter!!
We love making freezer jam. My daughter loves it!
i like to can tomatoes. they are my favorite thing to preserve.
I have a great recipe for vegetable juice that we use for drinks, and for cooking as well.
I love canning blueberry jam.
My favorite things are Apricot Jam and Roasted Red Pepper Jelly.
I’ve never done any canning, but a friend used to make the most delicious fresh blackberry jam, and I’d love to try that.
I like canning green beans and tomatoes.
It would have to be strawberries… Would be nice to make the jam!
we love refrigerator pickles. I’d like to try making jam in the future
I do not have much canning experience yet, but I do like canning pickles. I’d like to try canning some preserves and some tomatoes/sauce.
I love to can figs,pears,cherries….basically almost anything that can be preserved!
I love to can all sorts of stuff. I’m best at pickles, salsa, and spaghetti sauce. I discovered oven canning a couple of years ago to can dry goods. I really love doing this since it’s so easy and allows me to safely buy in bulk.
I love making peach jam!
I like to make jams and jellies.
I like to can vegetables from our garden. I also make plum and apricot preserves from the fruits on our trees.
i have only made one thing, plum jam, but it is delicious 🙂
We make applesauce and can it every August. So yummy!!
I have never canned but have always wanted to make blackberry jelly!
Sadly I’ve never had the honor of canning food. I believe it would be a lot of fun. I think it is time to teach my self and pass my knowledge to my own children. What a great bonding opportunity.
I love to can Apple Butter!
I like to make pickles.
I love to can pickles.
I love canning my own peaches, they are incredible and nothing like the canned peaches you buy in the grocery store.
When I was little my aunt and I would pick wild dewberries. And can it 🙂
I love dewberry jelly
I love preserving blueberry jam and no bake pies/cheesecakes. yum
Jalapeno Jelly! Yum, love it for a sweet kick.
We enjoy making all kinds of jellies and jams
I love canning strawberry jam.
Our favorite is zesty salsa.
I like to can pickles.
I would love to can fresh salsa to enjoy year round with garden fresh tomatoes.
We make pickles and tomato sauces a lot
We like to can our summer harvest of hot peppers !!!
I like to can green beans.
I like to make apple butter!
I love to can my Jalapeno Jelly, it is delicious!
I haven’t had much experience with canning but when the garden gives us an over abundance of tomatoes I like to can the excess.
I love canning Pie Filling