Is there BPA in YOUR canned goods

I started canning last year not only to save money on my groceries, but to preserve the bounty of my own organic garden. You know, trying to keep as many chemicals out of our food as I can. And while I would love to eat more of our food raw, the 5-6 month non-growing season doesn’t make that possible – so I must can.

A couple years ago I also found out about BPA (bispenol-A), which is an industrial chemical that has estrogenic properties. This means that it can mimic the estrogen hormone in your body causing reproductive and hormonal problems in both you and baby. And speaking of baby, it can also cause issues with development. I decided to stay away from BPA whenever possible! I stopped reheating food in plastic containers, stopped storing hot or fatty foods in plastic, and started drinking out of glass or BPA free containers. I’ve also been careful with the food products I buy, because store bought canned food also has BPA in the liner, to keep the aluminum from leaching into your food. Mmmm….. chemicals to prevent chemicals.

So I was very disheartened when I recieved this months Organic Gardening. It seems that the underside of those Ball and Kerr lids I’ve been buying actually have BPA in them! In the Q&A area of Ball’s website someone asked about this. Here is their response:

Jarden Home Brands manufacturer of home canning lids: Ball, Kerr, Golden Harvest, and Bernardin brands follow the same rigorous FDA standards used by the commercial food packaging industry. Like the majority of commercial food packagers using glass jars with metal closures and metal sanitary cans, the coating on our home canning lids is designed to protect the metal from reacting with the food it contains. A small amount of Bisphenol A is present in the coating. The FDA does not limit Bisphenol A in commercially packaged foods, and is aligned with the international scientific community’s position that a small amount of Bisphenol A in contact with “canned foods” is not a health concern for the general public.

Now, granted, the food would need to come into contact with the underside of the lid to contaminate it. So we may not have a huge cause for concern. But…..can we be so sure our food remains toxin free? Personally I’m trying not to freak out about this. I know my food is still safer than what I could purchase at the stores. And I also know that I keep a deeper headspace when canning (cause I’m to lazy to actually figure out 1/4in…..) so not to much should be up there touching the lid, even at a boil. I also know that I keep my jars vertical all the time, so the food does’t have an opportunity to sit on the lid either. (a good reason not to use the inversion method while canning!)

Still…..this bothers me.

There is at least one BPA free canning product on the market made by Weck. They use glass lids as well as jars and you use a rubber seal between them along with metal clasps during sealing. As an added plus, the jars are really pretty. I wonder though if they’d fit our normal mason jars or if I’d have to start all over again with jars. Because they are pretty pricy. Although, you never have to keep buying lids so long term it might be worth it.

So what you think of this information and do you know of any other options for canning lids?

Also…..Hey Jarden! let’s get the BPA out of our food!!

***and if you haven’t yet heard, I’ll be hosting the first ever Real Food Twitter Party next Thursday (11/5) from 9-11pm EST. Use the hash tag #realfood . One lucky party go-er will also win a copy of Nourishing Traditions!!!

This post is linked to

Fight Back Friday

Garden Update

Especially after seeing Food Inc. this week, I’m more determined than ever to expand my garden next year and grow and preserve more of our own food! So earlier this morning I went out to check on it and was pleasantly surprised at how well things were looking.

Minus the weeds of course.

But all in all, this year has gone so much better than last year and I’m ever so grateful for God’s blessing on my little garden. I continue to pray that it keeps flourishing so that I can feed my family the healthiest food possible. And of course, so that it saves us a bit of money over the winter.

Grateful for my Handy Man

My husband is one of those guys that’s just plain handy to have around. He fixes what breaks, and builds what we need.

And two weeks ago I needed a fence.

See, I have this garden. And this year I’m really hoping to get a good harvest out of it!

But the deer? Well, they seem to have other plans. They ate all of my cucumbers, half my peppers and even started munching on my strawberries! And while I had some great comments on my other blog about it (human hair seems to keep them away) we figured it was time to “go big or go home”.

See what he built me?
My garden right now is about 24′ x24′ and is now guarded like fort knox! He spent his whole Saturday morning and early afternoon putting this up all by himself. And don’t worry – we know deer can jump. That’s why we haven’t yet cut down the posts yet. If they come back we’ll put a bit more fencing up.

And that’s what I’m so grateful for today – my awesome husband!

A slacker? No.

A bad blogger? Yes.

I hate when I just up and leave like this. Two posts in two weeks? Who am I anymore? Well last week was uber crazy and then this week I HAD to get my garden planted. Cause I love me some super fresh, organic produce. So I’ve spent the week up to my elbows in dirt and having a blast getting dirty.

This morning I was all set to go out and take pictures of said garden, you know, to show you how beautiful it was, (weedy, but beautiful!) when I saw this.
No. Please no.

And then this:
At least it can be replanted.

But then this:No.

No,no,no!

That’s supposed to look like this:
The culprit?A deer. Which will now be referred to as “Dinner”.

Now to build a fence this weekend! “Oh, Honey!!!)