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A Kosher dill pickle relish recipe with a genuine east-coast deli flavor is a tall order. In today’s episode I tell you how to do it! I give some background on why I made it and share my excitement at how well it turned out. I also give a number of tips & tricks along the way.

As usual, we also spend some time doing garden, canning, & kitchen talk. I then share a story of celebrating and sharing the abundance, respond to some listener feedback and messages.

Those new to home canning will get a lot from this episode as there are a number of helpful canning resources I introduce you to – and they’re all free!

Below is the full transcript of today’s show for those who prefer to read instead of listen to the Canning Season podcast. Links and resources referenced in the podcast itself appear below.

This is the Canning Season podcast with John Gavin, episode #5. Get out your jars, your commemorative jars.

Welcome to the Canning Season podcast. This is the show that’s dedicated to helping you get the most out of the home canning and food preservation lifestyle. In this community, it’s all about celebrating and sharing the abundance. To lead the way, here’s your host, an avid home canner himself, John Gavin.

Hey, everybody. I’m John Gavin and I am so happy to be here with you. Again, I’m fired up this week. I had an awesome outcome last weekend with an experiment I did with kosher dill relish, and, oh, it turned out awesome. I’ll talk about that today.

The weather, of course, here, rocks. It rocks still here in the Northern Woods part of the United States of America from which I broadcast in a suburb of Minneapolis Minnesota. You know what, I am being picked up in many parts of the world. We now have listeners in the United Kingdom. We have listeners, I believe, in Singapore, Russia, India. A number of you are showing up. Apparently, this concept of home canning and food preservation is, in fact, global.

I’m excited. I helped a person this week get a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm in their life. I’ll share that with you in today’s episode. I saw a record number of downloads of the Canning Season podcast. It blew me away. I think we’re on to something here and I’m excited about that. With that, I also received some awesome iTunes ratings and comments for which I’m very grateful, along with some wonderful email messages from a number of you.

So that goal I had when you heard me in episode 1, when I was this “kid with a dream”, you know, setting out where I had the idea of creating this sense of community, so far it’s happening and I’m feeling it. Now, it’s early. I still owe you a forum which I’m working on but remember we’re also in the midst of the growing season so, of course, we’re in our kitchens, right?

I’m also doing some really cool stuff. In fact, it has to tie-in with a big event on August 17. You know what that is? August 17 is National Can It Forward Day, and to help join in the celebration I’ve come up with a great contest involving my partner, the Fresh Preserving Store and Ball Brand canning jars.

You have a chance now to win, for free, a case of those limited edition blue jars – those blue Ball jars that they came out with this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of making canning jars – you are going to love it. I also have some great deals to tell you about involving my affiliates. With that, let’s head out to the garden.

Garden Talk, Canning Talk, Kitchen Talk

All right, it’s time for some garden talk, canning talk, kitchen talk. I had a rougher week canning this past week because I ended up under the weather on Sunday. I just was not feeling good at all, all day long and that was the day I planned to can last week, but Marge, my neighbor, was canning pickles last weekend and Marge and Ellard, my next-door neighbors, offered to pick me up some cucumbers from their supplier. They have a secret supplier, and because Marge has been canning longer than I could ever hope to, I trust when she says she has a good supplier, so Ellard and Marge got me some cucumbers and of course I said yes. That saved me a trip to the Farmer’s Market.

However, here comes the weekend. I have a bunch of cucumbers sitting around on a day I was feeling lousy. But you know what I had noticed through the canning seasons, and now I have been home canning myself since 2006, I’ve noticed that sometimes there’s the mystique to canning and the romance and that wonderful feeling – Grandma in the kitchen and all that kind of stuff – sometimes though you just don’t feel so good, or sometimes it really is hot, and it’s humid and it’s miserable.

However, there is that reward that comes when you get it done, and I did get it done. I have 17 jars now of the most amazing kosher dill relish I’ve ever made. I’m going to walk you through later on in the show how I did it, along with what made it so special. Let’s just say I’m loving my kosher dill relish so much I’m thinking of entering it into the Minnesota State Fair this year. How cool is that?

Now, we’re out in the garden. Let’s do that next. That’s canning talk. Now, we’re going to do garden talk.

Well, my tomatoes, they’re still green, “Yawn,” right? To all you lucky people who’ve been enjoying and canning your tomatoes this season, I have to admit, I’m going to admit, I’m envious, right? What else have you got in the can this summer? In fact, I’d love to hear.

A number of you are writing me with your stories and I’m really happy to hear more of them. That’s how I know, by the way, I have a listener over in the UK, because I got a message from Jackie who sent me an email saying she lives in a little village in Detling in Kent, United Kingdom. She’s telling me she subscribed to the podcast and was sharing her experience of making raspberry, gooseberry, and a mixed fruit jam this year; so that’s pretty cool. Jackie, I’m glad you let me know your canning story and that’s really fun, and I’m glad that someone in the UK is listening to the Canning Season podcast.

So, ah, the other thing, my raspberry patch, because my garden’s kind of boring this year. It’s just tomatoes. I told you the beets already got eaten by the bunnies because my dog Philly’s a little slow catching them. She has caught them in the past though.

The raspberry patch keeps cranking out berries, though, yum, that’s great, but there’s still oregano everywhere so Big-Fat-Sigh to go with that. I guess what I can say is, anyone want pizza?

A Story of Celebrating and Sharing the Abundance.

This is not really canning-related but I’m really feeling good about this story so I’d like to share it with you. My computer broke about nine months ago. It got this horrible virus, plus we loaded new software and moved it, took it off a network.

Anyway, the drive just got messed up and it’s been not acting normal for months now, so a technician came in and took care of it for me this week. His name is Jake. He’s 31. Jake works hard. He’s doing the best he can. He’s getting married this fall.

Now, I have to tell you, in my professional career, I’ve hired a lot of people and I can tell someone who’s good versus a slug and Jake is a decent, hard-working and honest guy.

So the software’s loading and it took all day long. It actually took 12 hours for us to get this done. That’s how involved it was, and I’m so grateful for his time. Anyway, in between times we get to talk and as I often hear, people don’t know what to do with their 401K plans.

Now, this isn’t an investment show. I’m just telling you a story of celebrating and sharing the abundance, but for me 401K plans are See-Spot-Run. I’ve been an investment professional my whole life and what I did was I quickly had him pull up his plan options, and in what for me was just minutes I was able to quickly scan and tell him what to do.

By the way, a general tip – because this is not a show about investment advice – but generally, your best choice in a 401K plan is those target retirement funds.

Anyway, as I got to know Jake better during the day I also realized he’s kind of drifting in his career. Again, this highly talented decent guy, so I pushed and I learned he’s got great upside if only he gets some direction and something was missing, and that was hope.

Hope.

We talked it through and I came up with a strategy, because remember, I’m 51. I’ve hired people. I’ve had good professional success. I came up with a strategy to help him what I call ‘master his craft.’

We overcame that he was working too much so we gave him time to slow down and chart a new course by year end professionally, and we did the same with his investment plan because when you tell someone to start saving a whole lot of money it’s hard for their personal budget so we figured out a long-term plan to do that too.

I guess my story of celebrating and sharing the abundance is, I have been blessed. I started out as a dirt-poor kid, really – inner city, roaches, food stamps – I mean, really poor, terrible.

I’ve been blessed with an abundance of investment talent that I’ve developed now in my life through working hard and studying, and I like sharing that. To me, I think that’s worth celebrating, and Jake and his fiancé sure thinks so, and so I have a question for you:

What talent have you been blessed with that you like to share? Does it make a difference in the lives of others? Because I’ll bet if it does, it gives you a wonderful feeling, right? That’s for sure.

So whether it’s a story of celebrating and sharing the abundance that involves food – home canning, food preservation – or maybe your story of just celebrating that wonderful gift that you’ve been blessed with, tell me. Go to Contact John at canningseason.com and tell me your story. You can even call the phone number there. I’d love to tell others about your story of celebrating and sharing the abundance, just like I did today.

Listener Email, Comments and Feedback.

First, I have to give an apology to Jackie, who wrote in to me last week. I featured her on last week’s podcast where she said there’s not a lot of classes to take on home canning in Boston, and I was kind of glib about it, to be honest, because I told her, “Well, look on the internet. You’ll find them.”

You know what, I looked on the Internet and Jackie, I’m sorry. I couldn’t find a lot of classes on the Internet. When I did the same search in Minneapolis where I live I found a lot of classes, so for me being so glib about you, I’m sorry, but I have some great suggestions on some really good canning resources as we get into a question from Jen in Easter Virginia. Jen writes:

“Hi, John. I love your new podcast” Ysy! Thanks, Jen. I appreciate it. She’s a sales rep who spends a lot of time in the car so she’s always looking for interesting podcasts and mine is spot-on. Oh, that’s wonderful to hear.

She tells a story about being a little girl watching her grandmother and mother can tomatoes, green beans, pickles and more from their family garden. Now, she has decided to try her hand at canning and the timing of my podcast is perfect. Jen says, “I haven’t started yet but hope to in the next few weeks.”

She has a question. “My question for you is: ‘What books or cookbooks would you recommend? I know you’ve mentioned the Ball Canning book’” – that’s the Ball Blue Book of Preserving – which is THE book to get, and I’ll have a link to that in my show notes, but she asks is there anything else I’d recommend. She appreciates the advice and encourages me to keep up the good work. Again, that’s Jen in Eastern Virginia. Thank you so much for writing me.

Three Free Resources for You

As a matter of fact, I have three resources for you. If you are new to home canning, these are free. These are wonderful resources.  Here you go —

The first one is the United States Department of Agriculture’s Complete Guide to Home Canning, for free. I will post the link in the show notes at canningseason.com.

By the way, that term, if you don’t know what it is ‘show notes’ – if you’re just listening to this – that means what I do is I summarize what I talk about in the podcast, so if I say the link is in the show notes, you can go to canningseason.com, find the episode – and this is episode #5 – and you will see at CS-005 and you can see the links. Jen, you can get the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning for free.

The next link I want to give you, the next resource, comes from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They are your source for current research-based recommendations for most of the common methods of home food preservation.

The center was established with funding from the Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service, the USDA, and their goal is to address food safety concerns for those who practice and teach home food preservation and processing methods. I mean, real serious thinkers have gone into this so I will give you the link to the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

At the site, you will find great tip sheets, some videos, some really good stuff. By the way, just so it’s clear, if you use that link and you end up buying something while you’re on that website, that is an affiliate link for which I’ll earn a small commission for which I’m very grateful, of course, that’s how we support the show, but I don’t pick resources just because I earn a commission. I pick them because I think they’re good for you.

So for Jen in Eastern Virginia, these three resources, the reason they are so good if you’re starting out, is number one they’re free, and they’re on the internet, so that’s great. Number two, these are highly credible. One of the things I talk about is it is so essential as you start out – and even if you’re a veteran – that you adhere to the science behind home canning, that you never violate the science of home canning, because you could kill people. You could poison people who are near and dear to you. You wouldn’t mean it, of course, but you’d feel terrible if it happened.

Places like the USDA and the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and of course, the Fresh Preserving Store, the people who make the jars in the first place who definitely it’s in their interest to give you good reliable information, these are some great resources for you.

The recipe for making raspberry jam is taken directly from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving.

More Comments & Feedback

We also have a nice compliment – now moving on – a nice compliment up on iTunes that came from “harrodguy”. He gave me – I guess that’s a guy – he gave me a nice compliment and a five-star rating. Thank you for that. He said he hopes I’ll explore more of what he calls the hardcore canning topics like meats, more vegetables and savory condiments. Yes, I will. As time goes on, I promise you I’ll get into those things. Apparently, he’s also known for his peach preserves and peach chutneys and he says “that’s with a capital P.” That’s a man who’s proud. I love peach stuff too, so good for him.

Apparently, I am keeping “NL” company on some long commutes. I’m glad for that. I hope I’m with you now. I hope you drive safely and you’re careful, get home to your loved ones.

“JillyfoFilly”, that’s the username. She says she listens to the Canning Season when stringing rackets. You have to love that. She never canned, can’t wait to start and would even like to take a class with me. Guess what, there’s one coming up in September except it is at a local high school here in Minneapolis.

I love this username, “theBratForever43”, who’s loving the podcast, has been canning for a few years and says – the brat says – here she has also learned a few things from me, even though they are a veteran.

Lastly, I want to thank “MsWoodchucks”. Well, she’s been canning for years and appreciates I’m doing this podcast. She notes, which is true, there’s no other podcast dedicated to home canning and food preservation on iTunes and she points out rightly so that it is an art form that has died to some degree due to how easy it is to just buy stuff at the supermarket.

Well, my friends, of course, they want you to buy stuff. They’ve programmed you that way. Remember in my first episode, I said my entry into home canning got started because I wanted to make pancakes one Saturday morning after going to the gym, and what I did was I got to the supermarket, picked up the pancake box. I looked at the ingredient list. It was a paragraph of chemicals and I said to myself, “This can’t be that complicated. They’ve been making pancakes forever.”

I went home, got the recipe out of The Joy of Cooking Cookbook. It was super simple and I decided to try other things. That led me to home canning. So I really like MsWoodchucks’ perspective on this because the food industry really has conditioned us to go microwave it, go get the pre-mixed stuff, and that’s not what we’re about here.

One thing that MsWoodchucks said that I truly appreciate, she said she’d buy her supplies from my advertisers. We’ll come back to that because I have some cool things to share about my advertisers this week that you’re really going to like. With that, let’s get on to the dill pickle relish recipe.

Deli-Style Kosher Dill Pickle Relish

The dill pickle relish recipe that I’m going to refer to today comes from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Again, they are your source, one of the trusted sources that I feel very confident sending you to for current research-based recommendations for most methods of home food preservation.

Like I tell you, follow the recipes. Now, I’m going to give you the six easy steps for this one. I’m going to tell you by the book and then I’m going to tell you John’s special touch, because I always have my touch.

Wait a minute. Before I tell you how to make it, let me tell you why I made this.

Why I Wanted to Make Kosher Dill Pickle Relish.

I love kosher dill pickles. I really do. I’m an east coast native, east coast of the United States, so I grew up going into a deli where you smell that briny smell in the air, that nice deli smell. I mean, you can imagine it. A lot of delis in New York City have that. Delis in Philadelphia have that.

Again, Philadelphia, so that’s what I grew up with. You would get a pickle out of the barrel and just crunch it in your mouth and I have that briny, garlicky type of taste. It was just wonderful.

What I’ve done, and I actually will tell you, I haven’t succeeded at it so well. I’ve tried to make kosher dill pickles myself and they get kind of mushy. Now, I’ve been learning some little subtleties about why they get mushy. For example, I heard that if you use iodized salt instead of canning salt, which I specifically recommended in episode #3, and I explained why so if you don’t know that go back to that, but I learned that if you use iodized salt, that can make your pickles mushy.

Still, I don’t want to add chemicals because I know there are chemicals that will make them firm up. I’ve been having trouble on my own, making my kosher dill pickles firm but I still love that flavor.

So one of the ways I did it, in the years past, and I’ll do it again this year, is I learned how to make a refrigerator dill pickle. Now, that’s a recipe that has no vinegar in it. That recipe you have to go find on your own. I’m just talking about it generally now. But what you do is you end up putting the cucumbers in a bucket with some dill and a lot of brine, a lot of salt, and you let them ferment. I usually let them ferment in the garage for about two to three weeks. The garage smells like that east coast deli. It’s wonderful.

Then I take them out. I slice them up. I give them to all my friends and they love them but they’re all gone within a month because they’re not preserved with vinegar and they’re not heat-treated or anything else. It’s delightful. It’s a wonderful seasonal treat and I’ll be doing that in a couple of weeks with one of my godchildren. I think it’s going to be Becky who’s going to do that with me this year, and we’re both pretty excited about it.

So, I have not done a good job with making kosher dill pickles. I can’t seem to keep the crunch. They get mushy. Also, I’ve just not loved that dilly, heavy dilly – like dill – type of overtone. I like the garlicky, salty type of bite to a good, you know, again, I’m thinking what I grew up with, that good bite.

So I sought out a recipe and the closest thing I came to was this recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Now, I picked a relish recipe for a specific reason. Over this past year, because I ran out of all my other good kosher dill stuff, I started to have to buy pickles at the grocery store. I was shocked at how much they cost! You know those refrigerated kinds? I won’t name the brand but it’s over $4 for a jar of those things, and I could eat one of them a week. I go through them pretty fast because I put them on sandwiches and stuff.

I thought it over and I thought, “You know, I am putting it on sandwiches and I’m really just looking to capture the flavor. Why don’t I try to make it as a relish? If I make it as a relish, I can put it all over my hotdogs and my sandwiches.”

Actually, I experimented with it today and put it into a tuna salad with just some salt, pepper, mayo, and I put in some of the kosher dill relish that I made and it made a really nice flavor there.

Anyway, my goal was to experiment this year. That’s the beauty, by the way. As you learn more about home canning, if you’re new I really – I can’t say it enough – stick to the basics, follow the recipes to the letter. If you’re a veteran, over time you’ll find you’re experimenting just like I did this year.

So the goal was find a wonderful flavor profile in a relish that would replicate that snap garlicky, briny, east coast picklely flavor that I grew up with because I love that on a sandwich, and I think I did it.

Deli-Style Kosher Dill Pickle Relish – Six Easy Steps

Here are the six easy steps to make your version of dill pickle relish. By the way, it kept its snap. It kept its crunch. It has that garlicky, briny flavor. I love it. It turned out awesome. So here are the steps. These are the basics now and the link to the full recipe is actually going to be in the show notes (right here!).

Step #1 – you get your jars ready, and the recipe calls for pint-sized jars. I use the eight-ounce jars myself and I do that because I don’t want a pint-sized jar for relish. I don’t eat it that fast. But I will admit, though, I’ve been eating spoonfuls of this pickle relish because it’s just that good, so maybe I should have done pint-sized. I’ll do that next year.

Anyway, follow the normal routine. Keep them hot until it’s ready to use. Prepare the lids and bands according to the manufacturer’s directions. If you’re a veteran you know that routine.

Step #2 – prepare your cucumbers and peppers. You have to wash them first – wash them really good – and then when you wash off the cucumbers, what I want you to do, what you need to do, is you need to cut off pretty much both ends, just a little bit. Get rid of the blossom end, get rid of the stem end and get rid of it, don’t use it, because that carries extra dirt and stuff and sometimes that’s just harder to get, you know, we’re looking for keeping this safe and everything, so get rid of that extra dirt and stuff that’s on the stem and the blossom ends of the cucumber.

On the peppers that you use, you want to get rid of the stem, the seeds and the white membranes on the inside. Now, you want to chop this all in a food processor, if you have one. Now, the first year I did this was five years ago, and here I am with the cutting board trying to mince it up. I didn’t know better. It worked – you can do that, you can mince it up with a cutting board – it’s just going to take you a while especially if you’re going to try to produce 17 jars like I did. I didn’t really set out to produce 17 jars. That’s just how many cucumbers Marge and Ellard gave me so that’s what I did.

My Secret For Using the Food Processor

Anyway, let me tell you my secret on using the food processor because I have made some mistakes in the past with this.

By the way, I’m telling you, kosher dill relish, there’s another version of relish I make, a sweet relish, and I added a little kick to it. I put in some hot peppers. Oh, just a wonderful flavor profile. Anyway, let’s stay on the kosher dill ones.

Step #3 – You chop it on the food processor and what I learned is; there is the slightest difference between well chopped and over-chopped. In over-chopped, it becomes all liquidy and it’s kind of mushy and all that, so if you have a food processor you want to be doing it in pulses, quick pulses. It’s okay if there’s some big chunks in there as long as you have it mostly minced up because – of course you’re being careful not to touch the blades or anything – but you can take the big chunks out and then run them to the next batch or just manually chop them when you’re ready.

Just be careful you don’t overdo it because you’ll just get this heavy, liquidy relish-like product that you really won’t like.

Step #4 – in a large stockpot, I want you to mix the vinegar, dill seed, minced garlic – that’s interesting, they said minced garlic in the stockpot. I put the garlic in the food processor myself – anyway, and the pickling salt that the recipe calls for.

You add all the vegetables in, you bring it all to a boil, you reduce the heat and simmer for ten minutes.

Step #5 – Next, fill your jars. The jars are cleaned, they’re hot. Leave a half-inch of headspace. Remove the air bubbles. You know what works really well for removing air bubbles? Of course, a butter knife does, but you know what else does I learned? A chopstick. Just use a chopstick, especially a plastic one, because that’s cleaner, or a clean new wooden one. That will remove the bubbles and you want the bubbles out of there.

Step #6 – When you’re filling up the jars, make sure the liquid – the vinegary stuff – make sure it covers the top of the food pieces. You wipe the rims of the jars to get it all ready and then you process in a boiling water canner for about 15 minutes but we’ll check the recipe just to be sure.

John’s Special Touch For Making Kosher Dill Pickle Relish Heavenly

Now, what’s John’s special touch on making kosher dill pickle relish heavenly?

Well, I added hot peppers, number one. I have a little bit of a bite in there. I added mustard seeds and celery seeds. I’m going to tell you one other thing that I added but – actually, two other things I added that are not on the recipe – but I’m going to caution that this is only for people highly experienced with home canning, because those people can experiment, as I did, because they know what they’re doing. They know the food safety concepts. They know the principles.

I’d rather you not experiment if you’re new but, if you’re more seasoned and you’re more experienced, you can experiment with adding onion or celery. I added a lot of onion and a lot of celery to this mash, this mash of of ground up vegetables and it’s really awesome.

But again, people still new to canning, absolutely follow the recipe, get that down, learn the principles, learn the safety concepts and in time you can experiment. All right, let’s move ahead.

Affiliate Promotions and a Chance to Win a Prize

I want to talk about having you sign up for my newsletter, but before you just turn off the podcast now, I really want you to stick around for a minute because there’s a lot of special stuff here in this section, okay?

In the past, you’ve heard me talk about my newsletter and how I plan to offer the latest and exclusive discount codes that I get from my advertisers from time to time.

Well, this week I’m going to give you a taste of what those discount codes look like and why you want to sign up for my newsletter. Remember, of course, I don’t spam you, I don’t share your information with anybody.

But I also want to tell you about a promotion offered by the makers of Ball Brand canning jars as part of the celebration for the National Can It Forward Day on Saturday, August 17, and it too has to do with signing up for my newsletter.

So I’ll come back to the Ball jars promotion in a minute but first let me give you two quick examples of deals you can get through my affiliate partners right now.

The first one is you can save 20% off what are called “Truly Original Plants” at 1800flowers.com. Click on the link at my website at canningseason.com in the show notes and it tells you the promo code to use and then there you go.

That offer ends August 4th. See what I mean by these deals are short-lived?

The next thing comes from my partner, Starbucks, and this is a really good deal.

Starbucks is offering, if you buy two pounds of whole bean Starbucks coffee you get one pound for free, with a limit of five per customer. Again, two pounds of whole bean Starbucks coffee and you get one pound for free, limit five per customer.

Buy 2 pounds of whole bean Starbucks® coffee & get one free!  (Limite 5 per customer).. Valid 8/1 through 8/4 only! No promo code necessary.

This deal is only valid August 1st through August 4th. Again, you click on the link at my website at canningseason.com. No promotional code is necessary for that one but you do have to click through the link.

Now, as you click on these links, again, at canningseason.com, I want to remind you that anytime you buy something through clicking on one of my links of my sponsors, I do earn a small commission, for which I am most grateful. I really am, because it helps support the cost of producing this show.

Now, what’s important for you to know that you’d still pay the same amount, whether you went to the advertisers’ site directly, and I want to just be fully transparent of letting you know that when you do use my ad even though you’re paying the same price, I am earning that small commission for which, again, I am most grateful.

National Can It Forward Day – August 17 – Win Collectors’ Jars!

This week, there’s even more. Again, thanks for the fine people who make Ball canning jars.

Again, August 17 is National Can It Forward Day. That means the makers of Ball jars are having their 3rd Annual National Can It Forward Day on Saturday, August 17. In addition to their own canning experts, this year’s event will feature Ted Allen from the Food Network’s TV show Chopped. He’s the host. This year, they’ll be broadcasting from the Union Square Green Market in New York City from 10 AM to 2 PM Eastern time.

The National Can It Forward Day, let’s face it, it’s a marketing program, right? Okay. But what’s good about it is it lets everyone share the joy of fresh preserving, right? That’s what we want to do. It’s all about celebrating and sharing the abundance.

Whether you’re new to canning, a Master Canner, or curious to even see what you can make with Ball jars, they’ll have recipes and tips and tricks to help make your fresh preserving fun, easy and creative. That’s the whole deal. That’s what they’re doing. So I did put a link in the show notes so you can learn more and if you’re in New York City on August 17 stop by in person at the Union Square Market. They’re going to have four hours of live canning, cooking, crafting demonstrations, giveaways, and samplings. That’s pretty cool.

To join in the celebration specifically, the Fresh Preserving Store, my affiliate partner, and I, have come up with a very special promotion that you can only get here on the Canning Season podcast. Here it goes. It has to do with my newsletter.

Sign-up Now For My Newsletter and You Get a Chance to Win Ball Heritage Jars!

Right now, anyone who signs up to get the Canning Season newsletter by August 17 – that’s the day of the National Can It Forward Day – will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a case of Ball Heritage Collection jars.

You may have seen them. These are those blue jars that they issued just this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Ball Brothers’ perfect mason jar. This limited edition Ball Heritage Collection pint jar features vintage-inspired blue tint – I love the look of it – and embossed logos on the front and back. They’re just great. People just love them. Now, those jars have been donated compliments of the Fresh Preserving Store and the makers of Ball jars to help the canning season help you join in the celebration of Can It Forward Day on August 17.

If you sign up for my newsletter, you can win one of those cases. I have 15 of them to give away, and those of you who already signed up for my newsletter are automatically entered but there’s a catch. The catch is simple. It’s technical. When you sign up for my newsletter, the system automatically sends you a confirmation because it’s making sure you’re you and you’re not somebody using your email, and you have to confirm that you signed up.

Now, I told you I have 15 cases to give out so you have a really good chance of winning. I mean, it’s not like there’s one case and there’s a thousand people. But I have more than that.

I also have three additional cases of some very special sets of these same jars. You see, what they did was, to celebrate the anniversary, they ran a special batch – a Super Limited Edition – of the first 100 cases of these jars that they produced this year. They come with a certificate of authenticity that validates, verifies for you, that, in fact, they were part of the very first hundred cases run of this limited edition.

So not only do you have a chance to win one of the 15 cases of the commemorative jars, by entering and signing up for my newsletter, you actually could win one of those super collector items of the commemorative ones that actually come with a certificate of authenticity.

I’ve told you before that if you sign up for my newsletter, I’m still putting it all together on the discount codes and everything else so you’re still not going to get a lot from me but I’m working on it. I promise and again, I told you no spam or anything else.

You did get a taste today of the type of discount codes, the 1800flowers deal and the Starbucks deal, and of course you can be automatically entered to win those jars.

Again, you have to sign up at canningseason.com at the homepage and you must reply when that automatic email gets sent to you. The other thing is, you have to stay on the mailing list until at least August 31 to qualify. You can’t just sign up and then opt out. To keep it fair for everyone, I ask that only one email address per household.

I think that this is going to be hugely successful. These jars are just beautiful and especially, there is nowhere else that you are going to be able to get those very limited jars from that first run. Think about it. This company sells millions of jars every year and you have a chance to win one of those very first hundred cases that were produced to celebrate this commemoration, and they come with a certificate of authenticity.

It’s time to bring it on home here. I have to say it was really nice to get more of those emails and I welcome you all, I invite you all, to send me your stories, your tips, your ideas, and I still need help accumulating ratings in iTunes. It helps a lot for helping us grow this community.

Let’s see. As we visited today, we spent time of course on some garden and canning talk and kitchen talk with some recipe tips, which I love, and just seen what’s going on there.

I shared with you the story of celebrating and sharing the abundance with my computer tech guy, Jake. I hope that was okay for you. I hope my straying a little bit was okay for you. Part of the reason I did that is, I was sick part of the week, so I didn’t have a food-related story and I’d also like to share some of your stories going forward. Also, I just love that I could help this man. It’s a gift that I worked hard for but it is a gift I have and to take just a few seconds to help this man and then give him some of my career advice because I’ve run a successful company and I hired 50 people in the past, that was just wonderful and I hope that was okay.

I answered some of your questions and gave special thanks to some of you for your nice compliments and comments. I introduced you to some new resources for canning especially if you’re new, and I walked you through my kosher dill relish recipe and I gave you some background on why, and of course, I introduced you to why it’s so valuable to sign up for my newsletter because I gave you those sample deals.

They’re for a limited time so if you’re listening to this podcast after August 4, that 1800flowers deal and that Starbucks deal no longer works. If it’s before August 17, sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t yet, because you could win those jars.

Hey, don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter at Canning Season. That is it. I wonder what I’m going to be canning this weekend? I don’t know. I’ll tell you next time. Thanks for all the wonderful support. I’ll see you next time.

Thanks for listening to the Canning Season Podcast at www.canningseason.com.

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