The Wiley Canning Company Cookbook: Recipes To Preserve the Seasons

O’Leary’s work on modern canning perfectly fits the aesthetic pantry/refrigerator moment. She speaks to the desire for preserving to be beautiful, meditative, and nourishing, to body and soul. Fittingly, then, her debut is lovely to look at, confessional, and memoiristic in tone. She begins with her Midwest family-farm history, before briefly considering the history of the land and Indigenous communities as well as the history of gardening and canning. She ends with a reflection on her life as a new mother and business owner and the need to focus energy in the right ways at the right time. From her story grow recipes for canning a range of fruits and pickling a peck of vegetables. O’Leary, who teaches canning through personal sessions and online, offers a concise, detailed, and clear guide to the science and process. Her instructions are straightforward and reassuring, and she addresses worries about safety in a manner that will make even the most cautious willing to give canning a try.