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Canning supply vendors
Overall, Canadians are as well-supplied as Americans are for canning supplies, and at similar costs. For the past several decades, the leading vendor by sales volume in Canada of basic supplies, such as jars and lids, has been Canadian Tire.
The following list is in alphabetical order and does not constitute an endorsement of any of these, though we will remove links for suppliers reported to consistently have problematic customer service.
- Amazon.ca
- The Cannery
- Canadian Tire
- Gourmet Warehouse
- Greenmuch
- Healthy Kitchens
- Home Hardware
- Lee Valley
- Michael’s (Ball Jars in Canada plus associated craft items for mason jars)
- Raw Nutrition
- Templetons (for canning in tin cans)
- Uline.ca (Ball Jars in Canada)
- Walmart
- Well Scan
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We are unable to recommend purchasing canning supplies from Golda’s Kitchen.
Clearjel in Canada
Finding Clearjel in Canada, and at a fair price, is as much a challenge in Canada as it is in the States. If you hear of additional places, please let us know.
Sharyn’s Pantry in Cornwall, Ontario. They sell both instant and regular, inexpensively, under the generic names of “Modified Corn Starch”
Barb’s (Bosch) Kitchen Centre. Edmonton, Alberta. See site for hours and directions. Site says “mail and bus orders are welcome.”
Gourmet Warehouse. 1340 East Hastings, Vancouver. Open 7 days a week 10-6. 4.99 for a 350 g bag. Labelled “Cooking Clear Jel”
Clearjel from Sharon’s Pantry in Cornwall, Ontario. $7.68 / kg (2016 prices)
Pomona’s Pectin in Canada
Gourmet Warehouse (Vancouver)
You can order Pomona in large quantities for even greater savings per jar of jam.
Pressure Canners
If you are buying a pressure canner from Amazon, you can almost always find one with free shipping if you catch it at the right time as the offers do change. Typically for the free shipping and best price, you want one sold directly by amazon.ca. The prices vary wildly on Amazon, so don’t over-pay.
We’ve provided detailed information about Presto Canners to help you research any purchase.
Home Hardware also sells Presto Pressure Canners and replacement parts including:
- Presto 23 quart canner
- Replacement gasket ring for Presto 16 and 23 quart
- Replacement pressure gauges
Home Hardware does NOT appear to stock the 3-part weight, or extra stacking trays
Canadian Tire stores often stock the Mirro 16 quart in store, even if it does not appear on the web site. The Mirro sadly is not certified for smooth top stoves, while the Presto is — if that’s a concern for you.
Canadian Recipe Sources
Hipster canning sites and books, no matter how “hip”, “organic”, “connected to the soil”, or feted by the Canadian publication marketing machine, are not considered validated, reputable sources of safe, tested home canning recipes.
The provincial Ministry of Health in Ontario, Canada says to follow either the National Centre for Home Food Preservation or Ball:
The National Centre for Home Food Preservation and Ball are examples of sources of validated home canning recipes.” 1
The British Columbia Dairy Board recommends the National Center, So Easy to Preserve, the USDA Complete Guide, and Bernardin.
Bernardin (meets or exceeds USDA standards)
Canadian Living (recipes are lab-tested for safety to Bernardin / USDA standards)
Canadian Resources
Click through for a dedicated page on safe Canadian learning resources for canning.
See also: Home canning resources in French.
Parto, Naghmeh. Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (Public Health Ontario). Home canning: literature review. Toronto, ON: Queen’s Printer for Ontario; 2014. ISBN 978-1-4606-4166-8 [PDF] page 9. ↩
Just ordered an All American. Is there a pressure canning class in the Camrose/Leduc/Edmonton area? Happy to pay someone to teach me.
I need a contact phone number for Ball Canning, please and thank you!!
Phone number is here: https://www.freshpreserving.com/contact-us or if you wish to contact them via their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/BallCanning/
looking for Mirror Pressure canner parts for a 12 Qt and a 22 Qt – gaskets
22 Qt M – 0522 – 11
12 Qt M – 0512
I used to pressure can years ago, and would like to get back into it. The problem …. the apartment I now live in has a glass cooktop which I am reluctant to put a pressure canner on … can you recommend a separate burner which can be purchased in Canada that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Several people (US of course) have mentioned one from Broil King which is less than $100 there but on Amazon.ca is over $200 for the same model. I had looked a Kuradori portable burner and wonder about it.
Hi Gail, the Kuradori from Home Hardware would be hot enough, it hits 1800 W. There are two things: one is that it is induction I believe. So you’d need an adapter to put on top of it. The second is the weight question. It is certified for a max 50lbs weight. You’d have to weigh yourself, then put 3 quarts of water in your canner and fill jars with water, put then in the canner, then stand on the canner holding it all (if you can), to see what the added weight of your filled canner was. If you don’t want to have to worry about the weight, then you may want to see if there are any coil burners around that can get hot enough. I know many Master Food Preservers who use this model of butane burner for their classes. https://amzn.to/2sRli9S It is indoor approved and one MFP writes, “we regularly use these butane burners in classes, with pressure canners as big as All Americans and they perform beautifully.”
See this piece, discusses induction adapters, required heat ability of any burner, etc. https://www.healthycanning.com/canning-on-hot-plates-or-portable-burners/
Hope that helps, let us know what you figured out in the end.
Hi there,
I need to have the gauge for my pressure canner tested for accuracy. Every resource I’ve read says to contact my local county extension office to have this done, but I understand that this is an American resource. Do you have any idea where I could have this done in Nova Scotia?
Thanks,
Myra
Which model of pressure canner do you have, Myra?
If you can find any Mennonite or Amish stores, they all sell Clear Jel in bulk. It’s a staple for their canning needs. Prices are reasonable.
What I am having great difficulty finding is bottles for 1) Infused oils and/or 2) sauces (e.g, ketchup, hot sauce). I’ve been looking for #1 with corks or caps. I also just went through all of the links provided in the article.
I have searched all over the internet and found several sources in the U.S. but the shipping is outrageous – would much rather spend my money in Canada!
Any ideas?
Agreed. Paying a lot for shipping is disheartening, because it doesn’t actually increase the worth of what you are getting!
The one piece lids that those bottles typically take aren’t approved for home canning, so I didn’t include those in my list of resources at the time, restricting myself owing to time constraints only to actual canning supplies. That being said, I’ve now done a bit of looking for you. Home hardware and Canadian Tire sites show some clamp top bottles (bail-lid type closure system.)
Again, sadly the single piece metal lids aren’t approved for shelf-stable storage of home canned goods; the experts would advise to use them for refrigerator storage. I use the traditional two piece lid Ball or Bernardin straight-sided mason jars for my home canned ketchup and sauces that I store on pantry shelves; works great, easy to spoon out with the straight sides, and really does look home made coming out of the jars.
Hope that helps.
Hi,
I have seen the type of bottles you are looking for on Spadina in Chinatown, Toronto. They are cheap.
Hope this helps.