Can I Avoid BPA While Canning?

Photo from Treehugger
[Charles] I've never canned anything before. Heck, I am just now getting good at growing things in the garden. We recently got one of those free mags that the big box stores ship out to inspire you to come in and buy some stuff and "change your life". This one had an "article" (read - wordy advertisement) about canning your own vegetables and fruit from the garden. Well actually this is something that was on my mind lately because the discussion around the garden often centers on what is available each season. Canning allows you to take things like those awesome tomatoes from summer and bring them out in winter for tomato soup. So anyway, basically all of the traditionally canned stuff in the store has BPA lining the can, yep even the green beans that we eat almost every week!

So canning avoids that with the glass jar right? But wait... what's on that metal lid ? You guessed it! Friggin BPA again! Until our government and all of its corporate arms get rid of this stuff, we are going to have to be dilligent to avoid it. So here you go. I found some lids that don't have them so you can avoid the nasty stuff when you finally get around to storing those awesome strawberries that will make the most amazing pie for Thanksgiving.

One place is called Lehmann's which doesn't come out and say it's BPA free but according some they might be - I'm not convinced yet. The option that most people seem to agree on is called Tattler which is very vocal about its lack of BPA. There are also some jars called Weck that are apparently more expensive but might be found at yard sales. So good luck folks on all that canning (here's the how-to), it sounds like a lot of work but just like gardening the rewards are well worth it.