Preserving with Friends: A Review by The Kitchen Witch
I will start my review out by saying that yes I won this DVD in a giveaway, so that you may judge my review accordingly. I will also start out by saying how much I loved it. I watched the whole thing through twice before I even picked up strawberries so that I could actually try canning something. The DVD is just really pleasant to look at, I would go so far to say that the cinematography is just plain pleasing to the eye. It starts you off in such a way that you feel comfortable. More like a one on one class than an impersonal DVD watching experience. The instructions were easy to follow and boy I cannot tell you how much I found the over-head shots of the cooking required for canning jellies and jams useful. It gives you a look at how things should look rather than just telling you. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the whole experience. I could actually see the jam setting as it cooked and was able to then go to my stove and reproduce the results by following the instructions. I was really nervous going into the canning field without any one on one experience but this DVD has eased my fears and allowed me to enjoy the ability to preserve my own food. I have only done the jam but there are parts on fermenting and pickling as well. I plan on trying these in the future. I liked that they had on "experts" to show you these things. It kept my interest that it wasn't just one person telling you everything. I really learned a lot.
I will start my review out by saying that yes I won this DVD in a giveaway, so that you may judge my review accordingly. I will also start out by saying how much I loved it. I watched the whole thing through twice before I even picked up strawberries so that I could actually try canning something. The DVD is just really pleasant to look at, I would go so far to say that the cinematography is just plain pleasing to the eye. It starts you off in such a way that you feel comfortable. More like a one on one class than an impersonal DVD watching experience. The instructions were easy to follow and boy I cannot tell you how much I found the over-head shots of the cooking required for canning jellies and jams useful. It gives you a look at how things should look rather than just telling you. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the whole experience. I could actually see the jam setting as it cooked and was able to then go to my stove and reproduce the results by following the instructions. I was really nervous going into the canning field without any one on one experience but this DVD has eased my fears and allowed me to enjoy the ability to preserve my own food. I have only done the jam but there are parts on fermenting and pickling as well. I plan on trying these in the future. I liked that they had on "experts" to show you these things. It kept my interest that it wasn't just one person telling you everything. I really learned a lot.
Did I mention that the DVD also came with the ability to print out nice little cheat sheets? I didn't? Well it does, and I printed them out and added them to my home management binder for future reference. Well it is titled Preserving with Friends. I had a few friends helping me with my jam and they agreed that it was a really interesting way to learn canning. I tried to make the review well rounded by finding something to criticize but I really couldn't. I would highly recommend this video to anyone who would like to learn canning but is to afraid to try, this makes it look so easy! (And it is!) So if that describes you then go to Chelsea Green Publishing and buy it, it's worth the money!
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