My name is Marisa McClellan and it’s my goal to get people canning, preserving and generally learning how to preserve the abundance of the seasons. To this end, I write this blog, I teach classes in and around Philadelphia (as well as other locales, when I get the chance) and I bend the ears of anyone within listening range.

I picked up my first jar during my sophomore year of college. It was a pint-sized Ball jar, with the bailing wire clamp-style closure. I got it to hold the sugar I kept in my dorm room for tea and coffee. At about the same time, my mother started replacing her plastic food storage containers with canning jars, liking how they never retained the flavor of the food and that you could see everything you had with just a glance.

Over the years, I’ve amassed an impressive collection of canning jars (my husband mocks them, but I adore my jars). I use them to store just about every item in my pantry (they do an impressively good job of keeping those nasty bugs out of grains and pastas). I stash leftovers in them (my favorite jar for this task is the discontinued wide-mouth 20 ounce Ball) and on occasion, I’ll use one in place of a water bottle or iced coffee cup.

Several years ago, I finally started using all those Ball and Mason jars for their intended purpose and canning quickly became a full-blown passion. In the summer of 2008, I canned batches of sour cherry preserves, apple and pear butter, blackberry, blueberry and plum jam and lemon curd. In 2009, I set a series of canning goals for myself, including 40 quarts of tomatoes, more jams and preserves, dilly beans, pickles and sauerkraut. All told, I processed more than 200 jars of tomatoes, pickles, jams and preserves over that summer and fall, all the while planning for my wedding. It was a crazy, albeit delicious, time.

In May 2009, I got my hands on a pressure canner, which allows me to can chicken stock and soups, as well as other items that are lower in acidity and aren’t safe to can using just the water bath method. Living in an apartment in the middle of Center City Philadelphia, I don’t have the space for an additional freezer, and so having the ability to preserve homemade stocks is a huge boon to my daily cooking.

I teach canning classes around the Philadelphia region, if you’re interested in taking one, click here to see the classes page.

The goal of this blog is to document this canning journey and get as many people excited about canning as is possible. In between canning projects, I also write about some of my favorite cookbooks, participate annually in the Dark Days Challenge (cooking locally during the winter months) and occasionally offering up a recipe that makes use of all those canned goods I make.

If you’re interested in learning even more about me, here are some links:

Apartment 2024
Flickr
Twitter
Facebook
Fork You

And, the Food in Jars Facebook fanpage: www.facebook.com/FoodinJars

If you have a burning question, feel free to get in touch. You can reach me at foodinjarsATgmail.com.