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Acknowledgments

Many people and many organizations offered their generous assistance in writing this book. It’s impossible to envision writing it without paying homage to the icons that have made home food preservation accessible, enjoyable, and safe. The folks at Ball Corporation and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have instructed generations of canners in the safe preparation of delicious home-preserved foods. Dog-eared copies of their guides are fixtures in my kitchen library; copies of their most recent editions with all current safe-processing guidelines served as a constant reference when writing this volume.

I would like to especially acknowledge Stephanie Shih from Jarden Home Brands, the folks who market Ball and Kerr fresh-preserving supplies. Jarden Home Brands generously granted me permission to use any of their delicious recipes. Many of the ones in this volume are recipes that have been in my kitchen for years (but most likely have their origins in my first Ball recipe book!). When necessary for validation and to ensure food safely, I relied on the authority of the Ball guides and the USDA instructions.

The staffs at various Cooperative Extension Services, especially at the University of Connecticut, were—as always—helpful, supportive, and informative in all things related to food safety and gardening. (I encourage you to use this valuable resource in your community!)

Garrison Keillor and his staff at Prairie Home Productions, LLC generously granted rights to the opening quote from Mother Father Uncle Aunt, a quote that was both inspirational in my writing and reminiscent to me of times past. Special thanks also go to Steve Lehman, Acquisitions Manager at HighBridge Audio, who helped me navigate the permissions maze and graciously tolerated my incessant badgering.

This book would not have been possible without the vision of the folks at I-5 Press. Andrew DePrisco and Karen Julian helped me develop the concept and encouraged me throughout the writing. With a balanced and friendly combination of coaching and cajoling, editor Jennifer Calvert helped me to transform a somewhat unwieldy manuscript into a book that’s accessible, useful, and fun.

Loving appreciation and admiration goes to my sister, Suzy Bosl, who has been my mentor in canning and freezing for years. She scoured the recipe books of family and friends to unearth many of the gems shared here.

And lastly, gratitude beyond measure to my children and husband, Bob, who have encouraged me both during the writing of this book and throughout my professional and preserving careers. I’ll repay you in the only way I know: red raspberry jam, sweet relish, and canned applesauce.

“When I was a boy, the way that you combated the winter blues was very simple. You went down the basement. You went to the shelves that were behind the washtub and reached up there and there were all your mother’s canned vegetables, and jams, and peaches, and there was corn, there was applesauce, and apple butter. And you reached down to the end and you got a jar of stewed tomatoes. You took that up and you took off the lid and you put some of it in a pan, and you heated it up, and you put butter on it. And in those stewed tomatoes that you yourself picked and helped your mother can last August, you found in those tomatoes the courage or sunshine or whatever it was that you needed to buck yourself up and get on with winter and not complain about it, and of course, those were Ball canning jars!”

—Garrison Keillor, Mother Father Uncle Aunt