Progressive Canning Products

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Why It's Cool: The funnel covers the jar rim to keep it clean and a space to show headroom, the lid lifter and jar lifter both work great to retrieve jars and lids

When gardens and farmers’ markets start going into overdrive, we start thinking about capturing all of this bounty and preserving it for later consumption--in other words: canning. Whether it’s making jams or marmalades, tomato sauce or ketchup, chutneys or pickles, or any other overwhelming quantities of summer’s bounty, canning is an easy way to enjoy the produce of summer throughout the year.

I used to think canning was mysterious and difficult, but it isn’t. There are lots of good books out there about how to do it, and there is very little more satisfying than sharing and enjoying your treasures from the summer when the weather is dismal.

To get started in canning, you need a really big pot and canning jars and lids, but there are also a few essential tools that make canning a lot easier: a good funnel for putting things in your jars, a jar lifter to take jars in and out of the water bath without burning your fingers, and a lid lifter to lift the jar lids out of the sterilizing water bath (again, without burning your fingers).

Progressive has thoughtfully packaged a set of well-designed tools to make your canning exercise easier; each of the tools in this set is a model of efficiency and functionality. Cool Tools, each and every one!

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Details

The funnel is our new favorite. After years of using different jar funnels that do an OK job, this is the first one we’ve found that really has been thought through thoroughly - and provides some great new features:

It sits both inside and outside the rim of the jar, so it keeps the rim clean (which means you don’t have to take extra time to wipe off the rim with a paper towel).
It’s marked with measurements on the outside, so that you can know exactly how much space you’re leaving in the jar (most recipes call for ¼” or ½” of space).
It’s got a nice slick inside, so that whatever you’re putting in the jar goes through the funnel very smoothly.

The Jar Lifter is also an upgrade to the ones we used previously. The soft material around the jar grabber end, really holds on to the jars securely so that it is much easier to lower them into and take them back out of the water bath. And the handle is spring-loaded in the open position, so all you need is one hand to grab and hold the jar. In short, a high touch, highly efficient performer.

The Lid Lifter is a magnetized wand that retrieves the lids and rings from hot water. We used to try to do that with tongs and were always frustrated and almost always dropped more than we captured.

And the Canning Essentials has all three items in one compact package.

So even the humble tools used for canning can be Cool Tools when they are well-designed and really perform!

Funnel Facts: