Ball Jar is Making Canning Cool Again

This post is sponsored by Newell Brands, makers of Ball Jar ® Fresh Preserving Products; however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Summertime means late nights, even later starts to the morning, fireflies, pool days, popsicles for dinner, and fresh fruits and vegetables that are easy to grow or in abundance at a great price. It also means we have lots of time to fill in the day.  I actually saw an article the other day pointing out that moms only have 18 summers with their kids. Cue the tears! While I am a proponent for not over-scheduling or entertaining my children all day, we do love to do activities together. So we are using this time to learn and try new things. One of our summer bucket list activities is to try canning! It also helps that as you can see, we typically have a ton of Ball Jars laying around since we love to use them for EVERYTHING.

I always assumed this was an activity passed down from generation to generation. Well, apparently it skipped all the generations in my family.  But I am all about creating new traditions, so here we go!  

What is Canning?

What started out as a necessity families depended on to keep fruits and vegetables from their gardens on their tables year round, has grown into a hobby to preserve the best flavors of the season.  Canning is, put simply, using high heat for extended periods of time gets rid of the things that cause food to spoil.  Foods will last longer and be conveniently stored for future meals and gifts.   Not only is this a time-saver but also a huge money-saver. 

Since we are new at this, we started out using recipes that are simple and easy for the whole family to do. But you can get pretty crazy with recipes for home-canned pickles, preserves, jams, pickled vegetables etc. 

Mixed Berry Jam– an approved recipe by Ball Jar ® Canning

 

Our first attempt at making jam was a success. What I loved most about this was that my daughter learned what goes into the jam that she eats on her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She now knows that it doesn’t magically just appear on the shelves at the store. But that the farmer grows the berries, then ships them to a plant to produce the jam. She noticed the sugar that went into it and said “when I make my sandwiches, I should only add a little bit to not eat as much sugar” (as she literally licked the cooled off spoon and bowl clean) but at least she was more aware of what is in her food, which I absolutely love and is so important to me. 

List of Tools to Make Your Own Mixed Berry Jam

• • Utensils
  • Half Pint Ball Jar
  • Ball(R) Waterbath Canner
  • Labels

Need Recipe Ideas

Canning is addictive! Once you get started you’ll discover all types of fun recipes to try! Check out this book found at Walmart, Target, and Amazon or visit HERE for more Ball Jar ® Brand recipes and canning ideas!

Time to check off “become a master canner” off that bucket list for the summer. We also updated our bucket list at the same time. We are now going to try our hand at growing our own berries to be able to make it from scratch.