Home Canning is Top Food Trend for Consumers Motivated to Eat Healthy, Fresh & Local

DALEVILLE, Ind., May 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The resurgence of home canning continues to gain momentum with many food insiders identifying canning as a top food trend for 2011. Fueled by consumers' desire to live more healthfully and eat fresh, local foods year-round, more Americans than ever are turning to home canning. Leading the trend is the iconic Ball® home canning brand with its 127-year history of producing high-quality glass jars in America's heartland. The brand will celebrate home canning by hosting the first annual National Can-It-Forward Day on August 13.

"Summer's bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables is upon us and there's never been a better time to learn how easy and rewarding canning can be," said Brenda Schmidt, Brand Manager for Fresh Preserving at Jarden Home Brands. "With our complete line of home canning products, hundreds of recipes and online resources, the Ball® brand helps you every step of the way."

Home canning enables consumers to enjoy their fresh, locally grown foods all year long. In addition, fresh preserving lets consumers limit the amount of sugar or salt in foods they prepare and cook with no preservatives.

According to industry data*, home canning product sales have risen nearly 35 percent over the past three years as popularity for fresh preserving grows. Jarden Home Brands, makers of Ball® brand fresh preserving products, has also seen sales of the Ball Blue Book® Guide to Preserving double in the last year.

Preserving Made Easier

To make canning even easier, Ball® RealFruit™ Pectins and Ball® food mixes are now available in Small Batch and Flex Batch sizes, allowing consumers to tailor their recipes to the amount of fresh produce they have on hand. Ball® RealFruit™ Classic Pectin has also been reformulated, giving traditional jams even better flavor as consumers capture the freshness of the season.

The Ball® brand has introduced a complete line of home canning products to help consumers get started, including the Ball® Canning Discovery™ Kit. It has all the basic tools needed to start canning and an illustrated step-by-step guide with recipes; the kit is an easy and affordable way for newcomers to learn how to can.  

National Can-It-Forward Day

On August 13, millions of food lovers curious about canning can learn the ease and benefits of preserving fresh food. Jarden Home Brands has teamed up with Canning Across America, a nationwide collective of cooks, gardeners and food lovers committed to the revival of the lost art of "putting up" food, to create the first annual National Can-It-Forward Day. 

A free, live webcast hosted at FreshPreserving.com will feature a day of instructional canning videos as well as cooking demos.  Viewers will be able to ask questions and post comments in real time as they participate along at home. The event will film at Seattle's Pike Place Market and those in the area are encouraged to participate in person.

Since canning is always more fun when shared with friends, Jarden Home Brands is also providing instructions for consumers to host their own Home Canning Parties as part of National Can-It-Forward Day. Online resources will provide simple instructions for getting started, including a checklist of necessary items, sample recipes and valuable coupons.

For more information about National Can-It-Forward Day, visit FreshPreserving.com.

About Jarden Corporation

Jarden Corporation is a leading provider of niche consumer products.  Jarden operates in three primary business segments through a number of well recognized brands, including: Outdoor Solutions: Abu Garcia®, Aero®,  Berkley®, Campingaz® and Coleman®, Fenwick®, Gulp!®, K2®, Marker®, Marmot®, Mitchell®, Penn®, Rawlings®, Shakespeare®, Stearns®, Stren®, Trilene®, Volkl® and Zoot®; Consumer Solutions: Bionaire®, Crock-Pot®, FoodSaver®, Health o meter®, Holmes®, Mr. Coffee®, Oster®, Patton®, Rival®, Seal-a-Meal®, Sunbeam®, VillaWare® and White Mountain®; and Branded Consumables: Ball®, Bee®, Bicycle®, Billy Boy®, Crawford®, Diamond®, Dicon®, Fiona®, First Alert®, First Essentials®, Forster®, Hoyle®, Kerr®, Lehigh®, Leslie-Locke®, Lillo®, Loew Cornell®, Mapa®, NUK®, Pine Mountain®, Quickie®, Spontex® and Tigex®.  Headquartered in Rye, N.Y., Jarden has over 25,000 employees worldwide. For more information, please visit www.jarden.com.

*SymphonyIRI Group

©2011 Hearthmark, LLC dba Jarden Home Brands. All Rights Reserved.
Distributed by Hearthmark, LLC dba Jarden Home Brands, Daleville, IN 47334.
Hearthmark, LLC is a subsidiary of Jarden Corporation (NYSE: JAH).

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SOURCE Jarden Corporation