Your well into the vegetable gardening season and the bounty is starting to pile up. What should be done with all these awesome vegetables?

Of course, your excess vegetables can be given away to help feed the hungry, but what about those left after that? At this point it's a good time to start canning and preserving your vegetables in order to enjoy them well into the winter months.

What's better than having fresh tomatoes or squash that were grown in your vegetable garden the previous summer?

If you have never preserved vegetables before, trying to figure out what you need to get started can seem a little daunting. Here are five essential items you need to get you started canning and preserving your hard earned harvest.

Water-Bath Canner with Rack



A Water-Bath Canner with Rack is a great item to get you started canning your own fresh vegetables. It can be used to can salsas, jellies, jams and soups as well.

The Water-Bath Canner is ideal for someone just starting out and wanting to learn how to can and preserve.

Pressure Cooker/Canner



A Pressure Cooker/Canner is the only USDA-recommended way to preserve low-acid foods such as green beans or even meats.

A good pressure cooker/canner comes with a rack to hold the jars and instruction and recipe books.

Ball Home Canning Kit

Ball Home Canning Kit

The Ball Home Canning Kit is the complete package for the beginner preserver. It comes with everything you need to immediately get started on canning your harvest.

It comes with the water-bath canner, 6 jars, jar rack, canning funnel, bubble freer and many other items needed to get started.

It's the first canning kit I ever bought and still use it today.

Ball 1-Quart Canning Jars

Ball Canning Jars

Of course you will need some canning jars for preserving your fresh vegetables and there's none better than Ball. Ball is the world's leader in providing high-quality canning jars. The Ball Wide-Mouth 1 Qt. Canning Jar is the ideal canning jar for all types of canning.

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Ball Complete Home Preserving

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is hands-down the most complete book on the market no matter how much canning experience you have.

It provides over 400 canning recipes that will have you preserving like a pro in no time. The instructions provide reliable, safe methods for all your canning needs.

Get Started Preserving Today!

There's no better time than today to get started on preserving your harvest. You went through all that hard work growing a great garden and now you can enjoy it all year long.

You CAN do it!