Did you know?  You can easily make your own gift hang tags for your mason jar gifts by cutting your own from a business card? It is so easy to do and the card stock makes the perfect tag.  All you have to do is trim off the two top corners of the tag and using a small hole punch, make a hole in the top center to accommodate your twine. You can use blank cards and write your own details on, or I make it super easy for you in my shop with some pre-designed cards that can be customized to fit your needs, whether you are just a hobby home canning enthusiast or you run a cottage food kitchen for profit. I have a small but growing selection of designs that you can purchase in my shop and if you have any ideas for a custom design that you would like me to create please leave a comment or contact me via email. I will be happy to publish one for you!  Below is one example of a business card designed specially for this purpose.  They come in packs of 100 cards and all the text fields

Well March and St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner and before long the green shenanigans will begin!  So I thought you might need a nice green jelly to serve with your crackers as a party snack. Trust me, it will be much more appealing than green cheese!  This green lime mint recipe caught my eye and sounds very tasty and easy to make. They even say it tastes great with meats, so get creative with your appetizers this year and spread some of this on as a base to cream cheese and bacon or cheddar cheese with ham on a wheat thin. Just a few ideas ;)  Saint Patrick's Day Green Lime Mint Jelly Ingredients    4 cups of sugar 1-3/4 cups water 3/4 cup lime juice 3 to 4 drops green food coloring, optional 1 pouch (3 ounces) liquid fruit pectin 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves 1/4 cup grated lime zest Directions    In a large saucepan, combine sugar, water and lime juice; add food coloring if desired.  Bring to a rolling boil over high hea

Down through the years the recommendation has been that you sterilize your canning jars in boiling water for ten minutes before filling with hot pack foods. But the National Center for Home Food Preservation has recently stated that if your food will be processed for 10 minutes or more at 1000 ft altitudes and below, there is no need for pre-sterilizing the jars as they will be sterilized in the heating process. Most jelly and jam recipes call for 10 minute processing so that means that a good rinse with very hot water should be enough to preheat the jars and prevent cracking when you add the hot food. This advice was a big surprise to me and of course if you are iffy about the saftey and just want to be extra cautious then what is an extra few minutes to make sure your food is at optimum safety for your family?  This can be especially true if you are planning to gift canned food at the holidays. However if you are pressed for time it is nice to know that you can save some time

February is a great time to break out the winter canning recipes and one of the great things to can in winter is root vegetables.  In a previous post I shared a cool recipe for beet jam. Today I want to share another unusual recipe that I will be trying soon... Carrot Marmalade.  I personally am not much of a carrot fan so anything that makes them sound tasty captures my imagination, especially since we are always hearing about how healthy they are for us.  So when we can get healthy and yummy together in a recipe, I say, let's try it! It turns out that this strange new thing to me, namely carrot jam or marmalade, is not new at all. It has been a favorite among the English for over a century and has an even longer history in the middle eastern culture. After looking at many recipes this one that has carrots, onion and dill really caught my interest.  It sounds like it would be delicious with cream cheese on a crusty croissant. So lets get to the fun part and get canning! S

Starting today and lasting until midnight February 7th save 40% on all sticker canning labels at The Jelly Jar when you use this code at the checkout STICKOUTZAZZ. Below is a sneak preview of some of the cool labels available in my store for 40% off.  Shop the Jelly Jar Canning Labels HERE  

Water bath canning is the method of putting your jars in a large pot of boiling water with a wire rack on the bottom to keep the jars from touching the pot. If your canning is limited to jellies, jams or other high acid foods, you do not need to invest in a pressure canner.  A water bath canner is all you need. There are many other types of foods you can preserve with this method. Water bath canning processes foods at a lower temperature than pressure canning and is ideal for high acid foods. Time and temperature combine to destroy mold yeast and enzymes that cause spoilage while at the same time creating a vacuum seal by forcing air out of the jars. Following is a list of some of the food types that this canning method is recommended for with the proper high acid recipes.  Chutneys, sauces, pie fillings Condiments Fruits and fruit juices Jams and jellies Salsa Tomatoes Pickles and relishes Flavored Vinegars Bonus Tip: Make sure the water level is at least an inch abo