Hello, and welcome to my my blog! I’m Caitlin – a.k.a. the babbling botanist!

I thought you might like to know a little bit more about me, and why I started this blog. I’m a botanist and ecologist living and working in the beautiful state of Oregon. I have a master’s degree in botany and plant pathology. I am from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where I did my bachelor’s in biology and environmental science. I love plants, getting dirty in the great outdoors and definitely food. A few years ago I started really getting into gardening and one day I had more beans than I could eat, so naturally I went out and bought a pressure canner. This started my passion for food preservation, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I started this blog to share this passion, some fun recipes, my experiences good and bad, and also hopefully some humour! I blog a lot about canning and I recently set a goal for myself to can every recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving! I also love food preservation so much, that I wanted to take it to the next level and become a Master Food Preserver. I recently completed the Master Food Preserver course through OSU extension service, and I am excited to share here the knowledge I gained from that experience. I also have a lot of other interests I’d like to share here as well. Basically, I want to babble about botany, hence the name.

One thing that’s very important to me in canning is safety, so any recipes you see here will be tested and safe recipes, or I’ll specify exactly where they are from and if I have any concerns with them. But of course things are always changing and you can always find the most up to date standards on the National Center for Home Food Preservation website: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html
And feel free to ask if you have any questions or concerns!

In addition to canning, I share here my gardening experiences, brewing fun and other adventures in plants – both research and recreation. Plants have a million and one uses so pull up a seat and join me while we dive in and discover as many as we can!

Want to contact me? You are always welcome to send me an email by clicking here.

*Disclaimer*
To help support my blogging (which I spend more time doing than I care to admit) I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. I am also an affiliate with Mountain Rose Herbs. You may see links to amazon or Mountain Rose in my posts, and I receive a small amount of compensation if you click on these posts and purchase a product. However, this does not affect the price you will pay for the product and I promise that my opinions and recommendations are always for things I love and use!