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Canning Without Sugar {And a Giveaway!}

Canning without Sugar

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
See my full disclosure here.

Canning is like exercising.  In the moment, it’s all sweaty and intense and even a bit stressful, but the results are soooo worth it.

There is nothing quite like the sight of those colorful rows of jars sparkling on the shelves.  It’s a wonderful feeling to know all that food is safely put away, just waiting to be popped open and enjoyed until next year’s harvest is ready and it’s time to do it all over again.

I love what Barbara Kingsolver says, in her real food memoir Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, that she thinks of her canning as fast food, paid for in time up front.

I couldn’t agree more.

Canning without sugar

I fell in love with canning over seven years ago.  It didn’t take long to realize that many canning recipes call for gobs of sugar.

I generally take great pains to avoid refined sugars.  Therefore, I wasn’t keen on the idea of mixing it into my lovely, local fruits or homegrown garden goodies.

The trouble is, there just aren’t a whole lot of recipes out there for canning without sugar.  And the ones that do exist are hard to track down.

Believe me, I’ve been looking for these recipes for YEARS.

Here are a few of my favorite recipes for canning without sugar:

Canning without Sugar | Yankee Homestead
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Naturally Sweet Food in Jars

After my long quest for sugar-free canning recipes, you can imagine my delight to discover Marisa McClellan and her fantastic canning cookbook called Naturally Sweet Food in Jars.

This is an entire book of recipes for canning without sugar!

Marisa is the creator of Food In Jars, a blog with a treasure trove of wonderful canning recipes.  She really knows her stuff.

Not all of Marisa’s recipes are sans sugar.  However, I’ve found many favorite canning recipes on her website and in the pages of her beautiful canning cookbooks.

Naturally Sweet is my favorite of her books, with separate sections for six different non-sugar sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, and more.  It is the exact sugar-free resource I’d been looking for!

More from Food in Jars

I’ve also found favorite canning recipes in her original book, Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round.

And I’m super excited about her newest book, The Food in Jars Kitchen: 140 Ways to Cook, Bake, Plate, and Share Your Homemade Pantry.  Because second only to my quest for canning without  sugar is my desire to know what to do with it all after I’ve canned it.

Some things are obvious, like canned green beans and tomato sauce.  But jams, chutneys, and pickles, while fun and easy to prepare, can sometimes pile up on the shelves without a true purpose.

Or sometimes a canning session produces way more finished product than you anticipated, and you need ideas for using up all that food in jars.

So now that I’ve found a solid resource for canning without sugar, I’m on a mission to identify simple, delicious, and family-friendly recipes for putting my canned foods to use.  I’m thrilled to add Marisa’s new title, The Food in Jars Kitchen, to the collection of trusty cookbooks lining my kitchen shelf.

Canning without Sugar | Yankee Homestead
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Let’s do a giveaway

How would you like to win a set of Food in Jars canning cookbooks?

Marisa will generously award The Food in Jars Kitchen and Naturally Sweet Food in Jars to one lucky Yankee Homestead follower.

You can enter the giveaway here, over on Instagram.  Deadline to enter is Friday, August 9th.

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Kathleen | Roots & Boots

Let's get real! I’m Kathleen Henderson, your Natural Living Mentor. I’m on a mission to help families see the joy in real food, while finding natural remedies and creating a nontoxic home. Learn more about my story >>

1 Comment

  1. Colleen Pariani on 08/07/2019 at 7:13 pm

    My favorite Author of canning and pickling..Love her blog

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