My Story
I grew up in inner city Detroit, 6 Mile and Gratiot to be exact. I loved our neighborhood and the fact extended family was fairly near-by making holidays and birthdays a fun-filled occasion full of blonde-haired cousins flitting about! Both of my parents and grandparents grew up in Detroit giving our linage many decades of Motown flair.
When I was 13 we moved to northern Michigan in a small town called Branch. It was a place near and dear to my heart – an annual summer get-away to Grandma Newton’s house. Branch had a bar, general store, motel and a Pepsi station. With its one flashing yellow light, I often told people, “if you blink, you’ll miss it”. What this little town was known for however was its acres of forestry, beautiful trails, miles and miles of farmland and the most pristine river, the Pere Marquette.
We lived and worked on a hog farm while our home was being renovated. Here I learned more than a city girl from Detroit ever thought was capable! Thankfully I learned what hard work and reward was truly about. Gardening, tending animals, driving tractor, splitting wood and home canning and preserving. I didn’t realize it at the time but Ernie, who I often refer to as my stepdad, taught me valuable life lessons and survival techniques. My mother and he built within me a strong work ethic, integrity, morals and values.
When I finally had a home of my own the first thing I did was start a garden. If brought me back to when I was 13 and had started a garden of my very own. Because of the soil content I chose container gardening so I could maintain proper nutrients within the soil. Upon my first harvest I was experimenting with canning recipes and often stepped out-of-the-box from traditional tomatoes, jams and pickles.
Today, I am proudly referred to as a valid resource for all things canning and preserving and have donned myself, The Canning Diva®. I have taught over 100 classes throughout West Michigan, created YouTube canning tips, had two radio shows growing listeners to over 2 million annually and kept working towards my first published cookbook. I am beyond blessed. I am connecting with people on so many levels sharing what I love most and bringing back this lost art in an era when it’s needed most!
Why I Became The Canning Diva®
There is something wholesome and good about home canning and preserving. You know where your food comes from, you take pride and pleasure “putting up” delicious foods for yourself and your family to enjoy during later months – you may even partake in gift-giving and creative mason jar crafts all in the name of canning. But there is nothing worse than spending all of the time, money and effort of growing, shopping, cutting, chopping, preparing, cooking and processing home canned goods, only to have them go to waste on your pantry shelf.
When I was a new canner, I sought after many recipes that looked cool and exciting. I wasn’t afraid to use ingredients I hadn’t heard of before. If a friend raved about a new recipe, you better believe I was making a triple batch that weekend. Like many of us, I was just excited to do something good for my family however I struggled to find recipes showing me what to make with the home canned goods I had spent hours preserving.
In 2010, I started The Canning Diva® because I wanted to use the knowledge I had about canning, preserving and safe practices to help educate people on this time-honored craft and bridge the generational gap of those who never were taught the art of home canning. In doing so, I revamped family recipes and created new ones I knew my family and friends would love. My focus was to also create recipes demonstrating how to use home-canned good in practical meal creation.
Teaching people the fun art of water bath canning, demystifying and removing the fear associated with pressure canning and creating fun recipes has been my focus for the last eight years now. I am blessed to say that I chose to become The Canning Diva® at the most opportune time giving the state of our nation’s health, our loose food labeling laws and in an era where growing your own garden or joining a CSA is at its highest since the Great Depression.
I am proud to say I have joined together the best of both worlds – the traditional canning recipe with a meal creation focus. Knowing many of you struggled as I did with traditional canning cookbooks, Canning Full Circle: Garden to Jar to Table was born to encourage growing, preserving and eating.
What is Canning Full Circle: Garden to Jar to Table?
Canning Full Circle: Garden to Jar to Table breaks the mold of traditional canning cookbooks. Others fall short giving only the canning process, failing to demonstrate what to do with the food once it is in a jar. The Canning Diva® teaches readers how to incorporate home canned goods into their everyday lives. Better yet, readers are given practical and delicious recipes so they may use their home canned goods in meal creation.
This revolutionary cookbook will teach you how to have a well-rounded kitchen pantry throughout the entire year, not just during canning season! Not a home canner? No problem. Canning Full Circle includes recipes, tips and techniques every home cook will find valuable.
Chock full of tantalizing photos and over 100 different recipes, readers are inspired to share in this time-honored craft – creating and preserving meals your friends and family will love!
