Canning for competition and fun!

8:27:00 PM

Canning Homemade

Many of you already know that I previously got the bug of entering the competitions at our local fairs. There was one in April and this last weekend was the Santa Barbara County Fair in Santa Maria Ca. The idea of putting my jars on display always makes me a bit nervous and then anxious about the results.

This is the first time that both my husband and myself had been to this fair. We live about an hour away, but we thought that we both have passion for our crafts and a new venue would be fun. My husband's division was wood craft and he had an enormous amount of competition but managed to bring home a 3rd place for his Zebra Wood Bread knife. I was so proud of him! This was his first ever entry and I pushed him a bit since I think his work is fantastic.

I did well but the "best in show" still eluded me. I worked hard on presentation and quality of product. The winner of best in show was a Jalapeno Jelly in the adult division. I was more surprised when I went to pick up the jars that I was told that two of my tasting jars were empty and missing since they were so good. It gave me a boost and personally there was no doubt that the Lavender Chardonnay Jelly, one of the missing jars, is one of the best I have done.

Here are the pictures of the jars and the ribbons they achieved. I love the evaluation of my work since in this case it is more objective than someone standing in front of me telling me how they "honestly" like it! Hopefully I will inspire every canner to make the leap to enter your jars. I am just like you, practice make perfect.