Even us hillbillies celebrate holidays that call for gifts; you know the kind of celebrations where we all get out our shoes to wear! Home canning opens up many possibilities for gift making. The projects are affordable while yielding high quality unique foods. With a little extra planning during the harvest season, you can stock up on a supply of charming, yummy, and downright unique gifts to pass out for holidays and birthdays.

When deciding what to can for gifts, first consider the tastes of your recipients. Let the likes and dislikes of your friends and family guide your selections.

Buy some fancy canning jars. In the small half pint and pint sizes, you can usually find crystal cut jars that are prettier than the plain glass jars. Also some jars have decorative lids. Purchasing pretty jars will enhance the appeal of your home canned gifts.

Gift giving also gives you a chance to experiment. A staggering variety of home canning recipes exist. Some are strange but might actually be good. If a recipe that you would like to try catches your eye, but you’re not sure if you want to end up with eight jars of it, then use the recipe for gifts. This way you can try it and give the rest away. Even if you don’t like something, someone else might. You can try several recipes and create sampler gift baskets with sauces, relishes, jams, chutneys, marmalades, salsas, etc.

I’ve included a canning recipe for jalapeno jelly. I’ve been told this is quite tasty, and I think I’m going to try it this year when the jalapenos are ready to pick. Because jalapeno jelly is not something you particularly need a lot of, it is a good home canning project for gift giving. Keep a jar or two for yourself and give the rest away. Also jalapenos are easy to grow and do not cost much if you need to buy them.

Jalapeno jelly home canning recipe

Yields about 5 half pint jars

12 ounces jalapeno peppers, stemmed and seeded
2 cups cider vinegar, divided
6 cups sugar
2 3-ounce pouches liquid pectin
Green food coloring (optional)

Prepare and sterilize your canning jars and lids.

Puree the jalapeno peppers in a blender or food processor with 1 cup of cider vinegar. Blend until smooth. In a large saucepan combine the jalapeno puree with the remaining cup of vinegar. Add the sugar and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 10 minutes. Then stir in the liquid pectin. Return to a hard boil for 1 more minute. Stop the heat and stir in the food coloring if you want to use it. Skim off foam.

While the jelly is still very hot, pour it into the jars and leave 1/4 inch headspace. Clean the rims and put on the lids and bands. Process the jelly jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Then remove the canner lid and wait 5 minutes before removing jars.
As usual let the jars cool undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours. Jalapeno jelly is good for sauces and adding to cheese and crackers. And whenever you think something would benefit from the addition of something sweet and spicy, give it a try.

For detailed instructions about how to can food, visit my website Canning Local. It has canning recipes and links to other resources.

by Tracy Falbe

Preserving your own food with home canning techniques is no longer the dying art of grandmothers and church ladies. Younger people and families are reviving home canning, but you need fresh food in bulk in order to preserve it.

So, how do you get the produce without spending too much?

Growing the food yourself is the obvious, but not only answer. Home gardeners have been canning their fruits and vegetables for generations. Planting a garden and putting in some fruit trees are definitely rewarding. You will get the freshest and most convenient produce this way, but you probably can’t grow everything you want. Time and space limitations often restrict your ability to produce in quantity as well, but you do have options.

Farmers’ markets are expanding all over the country and they offer you a great way to buy fruits, vegetables and other produce. Check your local daily or weekly newspapers for ads and articles about farmers’ markets in your area. The markets are often located in downtowns, so check with your chamber of commerce or downtown business associations for information about farmers’ markets. The website www.localharvest.org has a searchable database of farmers throughout the United States that may be helpful as a starting point too.

You will likely find that you have more than one market in your area through the summer. While you’re at the market, you will be able to meet growers of the types of food in which you’re most interested. Growers often open their farms to the public, and you can find out if you can connect with them directly outside the market venue. They often have bulk deals at the farms. At the market, expect to pay retail prices. Sometimes the prices are better than the supermarket, but you will still be at the retail level.

You-pick or U-pick farms are also widespread. These operations are popular for berries and fruits. You can find them through ads in local publications and signs on the side of the road. Sometimes your vendors at the farmers’ market have u-pick operations too, so be sure to ask. You can get a great price on produce at the u-pick farms because you are supplying the labor and transportation.

I just paid $1.50 a quart for strawberries by picking them myself. The work was a little dirty but otherwise a fairly pleasant activity. It actually felt nice to be out there with other people harvesting food.

People have been doing this since we were wearing fig leaves, and the experience had a natural and serene quality. If I had to do it all day, the work would have been backbreaking, but it’s a nice outing for an hour to get food for your family at a great price. You will certainly gain a deep empathy with the underpaid people who have to put in long days harvesting the food sold at the supermarket.

Another emerging way to find produce is www.craigslist.org. If your community has an active Craigslist be sure to frequently scan the ads in the farm and garden category. This will alert you to deals on local produce, markets, and u-pick farms.

Road side stands usually have decent prices as well. The produce tends to be very fresh because the stands are often right next to the fields.

You can reasonably expect to find good prices on fresh produce during peak seasons. With a little effort you can find the best growers and obtain quality food for home canning.

When I picked strawberries the other day, I paid $12 for 8 quarts. This would have easily cost $24 at the market, so I gained a 50 percent discount with under 1 hour of labor. With that 8 quarts of super fresh strawberries, I put up 18 half pints of jam, made a strawberry crisp dessert, and froze about a quart of whole strawberries to use in a pie later. I put in a big day of work, but all that jam will last my family for months and taste better than anything I can buy.

This is the basic recipe for Canning Strawberry Jam:

• 5 cups strawberries
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 package fruit pectin powder
• 7 cups sugar

Fill and heat a water bath canning kettle. Bring the water almost to boiling, at least 180 degrees F and sterilize 8 to 10 half pint canning jars and new lids in the hot water. Set them aside on a clean cloth.

Then in a big sauce pan, add the strawberries and lemon juice. Crush the strawberries with a potato masher while heating to a boil. Once you have a nice berry mash, thoroughly stir in the pectin. Bring this to a hard boil that cannot be stirred down. Then stir in the appalling amount of sugar. Keep stirring until you reach that hard rolling boil again. Maintain the boiling for 1 full minute and then shut off the heat.

I usually let the jam cool for 5 to 10 minutes and stir it a couple times. Turn the heat back on for your water bath and start filling your jars to within 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe clean the jar edges and put on the lids and bands. Once the water bath is boiling, lower the jars into the water bath and process them for 10 minutes. (If you’re at elevations about 1,000 feet, you may need to process longer. Look for directions specific to your area.)

Remove the jars from the water bath and set them on a counter to cool for 12 to 24 hours. Do not disturb them. You will likely hear the lids pop shut within minutes of taking them out of the water.

You can get many jam and jelly recipes like this one out of the box of fruit pectin. For complete information about home canning and more recipes, please visit and bookmark my website Canning Local http://canning.falbepublishing.com

You might ask why do you need a griddle for cooking food. There are a lot of uses for a griddle and cooking is one of the primary ones. Griddle cooking is preferred recently because you are going to be able to make healthier foods. What exactly can you cook with a griddle? We use the griddle to cook foods like hamburgers, hotdogs, vegetables, seafood and many more.

In regards to home cooking, there are generally two kinds of griddles. You might use a griddle that you place on your stove-top, or you can use an electric griddle that you plug in and place on the counter-top. If you possess a food business, there are a good deal of commericial griddles on the marketplace these days.

You now need to make a decision which griddle is best for your needs. Both of these types have their benefits and disadvantages. It all will depend on on your certain circumstances and what you prefer. One particular person might love the electric griddle while another person just can’t get any use out of it. The stove top type griddle  is a good choice for a person that has already have a stove top. If your stove top uses gas, then it will save you some money than a separate griddle that uses electricity. The stove top type also saves you space in your kitchen. Stove top griddles may also be referred to as gas griddle.

If you need to take up even lesser space but still have the cooking quality and efficiency of a griddle, you could possibly choose a round griddle skillet for the stove. It looks like a skillet but has no lip so that you can use it as a griddle. This is good for smaller space room and for persons that just lives alone.

Electric griddle on the other hand is a good choice for bigger families. It uses your counter space so that your range top has more space and your burners can be used to cook other food items. An individual can plug it away from the stove.

There’s no right or wrong griddle to use. If you still are not sure, go to your kitchen and look around. Check to see if you have enough space for the electric type or if you don’t have enough then go with the stove top type. Pick the one that you prefer, then you can start cook your favorite dishes.