November 2009 | Chickens in the Road

Archive for November 2009

Nov
30

I can’t stand to give away just one Ball Blue Book. Since the first day of the contest, I have been dreading the drawing because I want to give one to EVERYONE. I’ve never held a contest for anything before that has generated so much enthusiasm.

I love canning. It’s self-sustaining, wholesome, practical, and just plain fun. I learned to can at the feet of Georgia a few years ago when I lived in the slanted little house after I moved to the country. As this site grew into Chickens in the Road, I’ve enjoyed sharing my newfound love of canning with readers. I especially love to see new canners. To can is more than just to put away a jar of food. It’s a connection to the past and a hope for the future. It bring families and friends together, creates new memories and brings out old ones, and is one of the easiest ways anyone, living anywhere, can practice self-sustainable, green, and simple living. Canning changes perspectives and changes lives.

As I thought about this drawing over the past few days, and how much I didn’t want to give away just one book, I was struck by an idea that quickly turned into the Ball Blue Book Project. (I set up a page here with much the same information as in this post, as a permanent resource for information on the project, with a link in my sidebar.)

The idea behind the Ball Blue Book Project is to get more canning guides into more hands to promote healthy, safe canning–and the good food and fun that goes with it. I want to give away a Ball Blue Book every week. I can’t do this alone, though. In an “if you build it, they will come” moment, before I could even go live with this project, I had the first three weeks’ worth of sponsors lined up. I will be giving away a Ball Blue Book once a week, in one-day-only-entry posts (to spare you entering three days in a row!). These will be random giveaways, every week. I will continue to post my regular daily posts–look for the Ball Blue Book Project giveaway as an addendum at the bottom of one of my regular posts on randomly chosen days each week.

If you are interested in sponsorship: For $10, sponsor a 100th anniversary edition of the Ball Blue Book, the classic American guide to preserving food. Click here to email me for information on sponsorship and to give me your information and links. Promote a website, blog, book, product, or service! Your information and links will be posted in the Ball Blue Book post you sponsor. Sponsors (and their links) will also be listed permanently on the honor roll here. Ordering and shipping books to winners will be handled by me, no work for you! The $10 sponsorship fee covers the cost of the book and shipping. No profit will be collected by me for the Ball Blue Book Project giveaways.

*If you don’t have anything to promote but just want to encourage safe, healthy canning, you can still sponsor a Ball Blue Book. (You can even sponsor anonymously if you choose.)

Any week in which there is no sponsor, I will provide the book myself.

Instructions available on this site:
How to Can: Hot Water Bath Method
How to Can: Pressure Method

Pictured: Apples, raisins, and dried cherries in syrup.

Also read: The Joy of Canning.

And see: All my home-canning recipes and ideas.

You can also talk about canning with other canning enthusiasts and ask your canning questions in the canning section of the Chickens in the Road forums.

And now for the winner (of only the FIRST!) 100th anniversary edition of the Ball Blue Book of Preserving! “Jackie in FL” who is comment #79 on the Winter Comes Calling post. (This was scientifically calculated by asking Morgan to choose a number out of the total number of comments for each of the three posts then calling my cousin Aaron and asking him to choose one from the three numbers. Neither Aaron nor Morgan looked at the comments. They just chose numbers.) Email me to send me your full name and address for shipping!

There will be more Ball Blue Books. Watch for the random one-day-only Ball Blue Book Project giveaway sometime this week! And the week after that, and the week after that, and the week after that….

I want you ALL to have a Ball Blue Book!

P.S. I want to also note here the amazing results of giving. This all started with the wonderfully sweet reader who offered ten Chickens in the Road 2010 calendars. Her gift inspired me–and inspired other readers–in a domino effect, a chain of giving that will go on and on, not only in the Ball Blue Book itself but in all the food and sharing and love that comes along with canning. Many of you someday somewhere will give someone a lovely jar of something you put up from your garden from a recipe in the Ball Blue Book, or make memories as you teach your child to can, or share memories and strengthen bonds with a grandmother who used to can, and it will all go back to that first lovely reader who thought to give and offered me the opportunity to be the conduit for her gift. I’m thrilled to be part of something so generous during this holiday season, and beyond. Thank you all! The best readers anywhere are right here.