How great of you to say. Sadly Carol hasn't been here much lately and is sorely missed. Several other experienced and well trained regulars also seemed to disappear when GW was sold to Houzz and i wish we could get them back, even periodically.

As for myself, I have taken several classes over the years and completed the Master Food Preserver series of classes several years back. Wife and I have worked part time at our local AG extension office for the past 10 years or so teaching canning classes and answering phone and walk in questions. Home food preservation is quite active in our neck of the woods and both of us were farm-raised and helping with the canning from an early age. But we had to UN-learn many of the oldtime practices once we started taking classes. ;-)

Canadian resources, by their own admission, are minimal. Basically it is Bernardin's books and website and Canadian Living publications. Otherwise they seem to just refer residents to NCHFP and Ball in the US. Jarden, who owns both Bernardin and Ball, are trying to expand the resources with their new publication The All New Book of Canning and Preserving.

Otherwise check out this site for more links and info:

http://www.healthycanning.com/home-canning-in-canada/

And of course NCHFP who is in the process of trying to get their online canning course back online.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/

Dave

Also gone is a wonderful woman, Grainlady. If anyone knows where she hangs out now, I'd like to know, I miss her.

You know what? I suspect the good advice given in this forum has saved lives. No kidding. I really appreciate the time, patience and expertise shared here. It's just plain interesting, too.

Hear, hear! Dave, Carol, Linda Lou, and Annie (and I'm sure I'm forgetting someone) are the people who I trust to give me the straight dope. I aspire to their level of knowledge.

I just got into a tangle about food safety on a different blog about using large amounts of oil in tomato sauce for canning and the fact that acidification wasn't going to erase that danger. The discourse was civil but decidedly frosty. I will admit my feelings were a little bruised by the end of it. Thank you all for your patience in dealing with all the negativity and misinformation that must have flowed past your screens over the years. This forum has truly made me a confident, and safe, canner and it's thanks to the dedicated experts here.

Well said, Eddie. :-)

Thank you, Eddie, for including me in that. I miss Carol, too, she was the source of a couple of my favorite recipes, I just made her Old Fashioned Pear Preserves, they're still my favorite. I ought to send her an email and check on her....

Annie

Annie: could you please repost Carol's recipe for Old Fashioned Pear Preserves?

Thanks! ( I miss her too.)

It is in several of the past threads here. Check out this thread

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1959035/question-about-pear-preserves?n=11

Dave

Annie - I did not mean to leave you out by any means. Or Linda Lou. I take special note of things you both mention - I've learned a lot. Are you self-taught?

And btw, I had to stop making your Salsa for one reason only. I cannot stop eating it. The salsa is fine... it's the chips that kill me and I have the butt to prove it.

iice, I've been canning since I was old enough to stand on a chair at the sink to help Grandma peel tomatoes. That's actually a problem, because like Dave, I had to unlearn a bunch of old techniques and bad habits. I did take the classes as offered by my local extension service, plus my ex and I owned a bar and grille, so I took the safety classes that were required by the health department for licensing. I've periodically done some on-line course work for "refresher" and Michigan State University has an on-line course for $10, 7 sections and it must be finished within a year. I just signed up for that, I like to stay on top of the changes. And I've given some canning classes.

Anyway, I tend to rebel sometimes, and do things that are not "recommended" by the USDA, such as can rutabaga. Just because it's "not recommended" doesn't mean it isn't safe, sometimes it's a quality issue. They've decided rutabaga gets too "strong" and people won't like it, so they've recommended it not be canned and they removed the instructions. I can it anyway, and apparently other people do too, because the instructions then came back! They also suggested that only regular canning jars should be used, not the recycled spaghetti sauce jars/etc. I ignored that always, I've canned tomatoes in Miracle Whip jars for decades, and I don't get any more breakage with those than with Ball/Kerr, but I only waterbath them, I don't use them in the pressure canner where they DO break more often.

So, anyway, I've managed to break most of my "bad" habits, but once in a while I just do it my way when there's not much risk involved. The guidelines are just that, guidelines, but I want all the information available so I can determine the amount of risk I'm willing to take and I want everyone else to make an informed decision too.

Annie

Annie: My mother didn't like having us in the kitchen much so most of what I learned, I picked up passing through. So that makes me lucky I guess as I didn't have to unlearn a bunch of things. I do recall canned chickens and no such thing as a pressure canner to be seen - makes me wonder how we all survived. Once I was at my aunt's house when a jar of canned beef exploded in the pantry. Quite the smell. Probably would have killed us all.

I got into jam making big time about 8 years ago after she passed away as she used to supply us with everything we wanted - it was her thing, to do that. I made so much jam from Christine Ferber's books I had to start selling it. So now I have a small jam business which I call "my hobby that makes a bit of money".

I am a nurse so the geeky scientist in me loves knowing the chemistry of why we do things the way we do them. Thank you for the heads up on the Michigan Course - I am going to sign up and take it despite it's exorbitant cost in Canadian dollars ($13.23).

I am very appreciative of the knowledge from some of the veterans here, including Digdirt, Annie, Readinglady and Linda Lou, and many others. I learned a lot over the last few years and am grateful I found this site early in my learning process. Because I quickly came to trust the information here, I looked at other sites with a careful eye to be sure the recipes followed guidelines. I didn't have to unlearn unsafe habits as I had never canned before, but I needed guidance in interpreting some of the information from the Ball Books, NCHFP, etc. I still have questions or need interpretation sometimes, but I have a lot of confidence in my procedures and know my food is safe for my family. I also miss the comments and advice from many of the folks who aren't around any more, and I miss the level of activity from when it was GardenWeb.

Jill

I was in the same boat as many here. I started canning on my own with mentors in the rural community I lived in who did it their way. A lot of the folks there participate in gardening, hunting and fishing for a large part of their subsistence. I had no idea there was such a thing as tested recipes. A few old timers I know canned all kinds of things, including fish and deer in BWB. I figured enough on my own that I needed to get a pressure canner for meats and other things. Now I am equipped with the Ball Blue Book, and also would rely on the others here for tested recipes.

Thanks, Dave.