Zoom Craft Classes

The info page for my Intro to (Small Batch) Canning class has been posted!

Please note that I’ve scaled back the class slightly, to making 1 recipe instead of 2. I made a batch of each of the recipes this week, and even with prepping all the ingredients ahead, it would take too long to do both recipes on camera. There would just be too much time spent waiting for things to boil, and then needing to clean pots to start the next recipe. So we’ll be making the strawberry jam, but I’ll still be including step-by-step directions (with pictures) for making Jalapeno Pepper Jelly in the class PDF.

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I’ve a question, can you do canning with a regular saucepan, or do you need equipment that is more specialised?

You need a pot that is deep enough to cover your jars with at least an inch of water.

If you check the class page, there’s a detailed list of what you need. Since we’re doing small batch, you don’t need a traditional water bath canner. The class is designed to use a stock pot, 3” taller than your jars, when they are in a rack inside the pan.

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Cool. I have that. We don’t have canning supplies here as canning isn’t a thing. I’m guessing I could use regular recycled jam jars and metal life. Or these kilner jars with rubber seals.

https://www.kilnerjar.co.uk/

Ooh, safety is paramount in preventing illness. You have to be careful to use jars that actually seal to make something shelf-stable. If not, your results may be ok to live in the fridge for a limited time. Do a bit of research and see what folks near you may have figured out.
I can’t believe canning isn’t a thing somewhere, however was food preserved historically?

Magpie is right. Using jars and lids specifically designed for food presentation is vital. I cannot in good conscience tell you to experiment with alternate materials, and you should never reuse commercial food jars when canning at home.

My class will be sticking with materials and techniques deemed safe by the USDA. I really don’t want to be responsible for a recycled jar of boiling hot jam exploding in a friend’s face.

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Lol, that actually reminded me that I need to add the free USDA guide to canning to the resources list on the class page! Thanks Friends!

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You need something like this or this.

Yes! & if you can reuse that sort of jar & ring from purchased products if the size is standard, you just need new lids that fit correctly. If those can’t be found, friends can send them to you :kissing_heart:

It looks like Kilner has a few types of jars. If you go with them, you’ll want the ones with the 2 part lid, a flat metal disk, and a separate metal band, because that’s what I’ll be demonstrating. They show the same basic steps for jam making that I’ll be going over, on their site with both the 2 part lids, as well as directions for using their their clip lids. I know the kilner clip lids are popular with some home canners here in the US, usually folks who have extra fancy blogs. Since I’m not a fancy blogger, and the 2 piece Ball lids are ubiquitous here, available everywhere, I just use those.

Here’s their basic jam making instructions with their 2 part lids and their clip lids.

https://www.kilnerjar.co.uk/making-your-first-preserve

I’ll have to do some more research about jar sizes for you. All the standard Ball jars here come in 1 quart, 1 pint (16 oz), half-pint (8 oz), and quarter-pint (4 oz) size. I’m not sure if those are exact equivelant to their sizes, or if they are off between Metric & Imperial.

Don’t worry about doing the research. I’ll join the class to watch and eventually I’ll get to doing the actual canning

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It looks like if you were going to make the same strawberry jam recipe I’m making, you’d fill 3 of the .25 liter jars, with about 3/4 of a jar worth of jam leftover. You’d maybe get 4 full jars out of the recipe. (I sometimes get a little more leftover, that I usually just eat right away, but that might be just enough to fill that 4th jar for you.)

Since the jars do seem to be different standard measurements, you might want to just watch me make my jam, and then follow a recipe formulated for your standard size jars. Like this one. (Giant pet peeve though: that recipe doesn’t say how many jars it makes/or how many ml of jam it produces, meaning it’s hard to know how many jars to prep when canning.)

LOL. I also just realized, we’re having this whole conversation on the general Zoom classes thread, when really we should be chatting about it in the Canning class thread. That’s the point of the class having a thread so early. So folks can ask and answer questions there.

Folks, if you have future questions about the canning class, please go ask them in that thread! :purple_heart:

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Reminder to those interested: The Small Batch Canning class will be next Saturday, November 13th and signups are still open! So far we only have 3 people registered.

This is a class that is easy to take, even if you can’t take it at the time it’s offered, because it will be recorded and you can play it back at anytime. I’ll be going over tools, terms, and ingredients for the first part, then making a batch of jam. You totally do not have to be following along, making jam as I do. You can watch the entire class through, then go back and rewatch while making your own jam.

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Any plans to do more Zoom classes?

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Yep! The lovely @jemimah has a Watercolor Class coming up this month, and I believe @steiconi has a class in March she’s planning on teaching about making paper flowers.

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Has there been any thought to more classes?

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I believe we are on hold temporarily while the lovely @MistressJennie adjusts to motherhood. She’s doing amazing, though, so I don’t think our hiatus will be too, too long!

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I was supposed to do an “Introduction to Needle Felting” …
eventually I would still like to do it, but I’m in the middle of 3 different projects with a 4th approaching. Maybe this fall if I have more things in hand. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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