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Ball Home Canning Products are the gold standard in home preserving supplies, the trademark jars on display in stores every summer from coast to coast. Now the experts at Ball have written a book destined to become the bible of home preserving.

As nutrition and food quality has become more important, home canning and preserving have increased in popularity for the benefits they offer:

• Cooks gain control of the ingredients, including organic fruits and vegetables
• Preserving foods at their freshest point locks in nutrition
• The final product is free of chemical additives and preservatives
• Store-bought brands cannot match the wonderful flavor of homemade
• Only a few hours are needed to put up a batch of jam or relish
• Home preserves make a great personal gift any time of year

These 400 innovative and enticing recipes include everything from salsas and savory sauces to pickling, chutneys, relishes and, of course, jams, jellies, and fruit spreads, such as:

• Mango-Raspberry Jam, Damson Plum Jam
• Crab Apple Jelly, Green Pepper Jelly
• Spiced Red Cabbage, Pickled Asparagus
• Roasted Red Pepper Spread, Tomatillo Salsa
• Brandied Apple Rings, Apricot-Date Chutney

The book includes comprehensive directions on safe canning and preserving methods plus lists of required equipment and utensils. Specific instructions for first-timers and handy tips for the experienced make the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving a valuable addition to any kitchen library.

About the authors: Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine have between them 20 years of experience in the preserving industry. They are both employed by Jarden Home Brands.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $25.99 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

From dandelions to crabgrass, stinging nettles to poison ivy, weeds are familiar, pervasive, widely despised and seemingly invincible. How did they come to be the villains of the natural world? And why can the same plant be considered beautiful in some places but be deemed a menace in others?

In Weeds, renowned nature writer Richard Mabey embarks on an engaging journey with the verve and historical breadth of Michael Pollan. Weaving together the insights of botanists, gardeners, artists and writers with his own travels and lifelong fascination, Mabey shows how these "botanical thugs" can destroy ecosystems but also can restore war zones and derelict cities; he reveals how weeds have been portrayed, from the "thorns and thistles" of Genesis to Shakespeare, Walden and Invasion of the Body Snatchers; and he explains how kudzu overtook the American South, how poppies sprang up in First World War I battlefields, and how "American weed" replaced the forests of Vietnam ravaged by Agent Orange.

Hailed as "a profound and sympathetic meditation on weeds in relation to human beings" (Sunday Times), Weeds shows how useful these unloved plants can be, from serving as the first crops and medicines, to burdock inspiring the invention of Velcro, to cow parsley becoming the latest fashionable wedding adornment. Mabey argues that we have caused plants to become weeds through our reckless treatment of the earth, and he delivers a provocative defense of the plants we love to hate.

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Transform your garden into a wildlife haven busting with life by learning how to provide supplementary nesting sites to a host of creatures. Bird, Bee and Bug Houses explains all you need to know about how to create the perfect nesting place for a wide variety of species including birds, bats, butterflies, lacewings, ladybugs and rare solitary bees.

Essential pollinators, predators and seed-spreaders, the habitats of many of these species are under threat from intensive farming and the spraying of harmful chemicals. But we can help them by building these safe havens in our gardens. Only a few basic woodworking skills are needed to create these unique and quirky houses. A range of materials (some recycled or scavenged) and finishes are used in order to make sure they are as attractive as they are practical. All the basic techniques, tools and materials needed to create your bird, bee or bug house are explained and each project has a detailed exploded diagram with cutting list. Each section of the book has detailed information on choosing locations, maintenance, species habits and nesting requirements.

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No yard? No problem. With more than 80 percent of the American population living in urban areas, Urban Pantry author Amy Pennington details how to start your own garden in the heart of the city. Whether you're a veteran gardener or a novice getting your hands dirty for the first time, this book provides hands-on advice to start using urban space in a sustainable, efficient and inexpensive manner. Learn how to creatively grow squash on windowsills, flowers in planter boxes and cucumbers on trellises: Every inch of your home offers an opportunity for something planted, pickled or preserved. Be a part of the rapidly growing do-it-yourself movement! Pennington's friendly voice paired with Kate Bingham-Burt's illustrations make greener living an accessible reality.

About the author:

Amy Pennington is a gardener, writer and girl about town. She runs her own gardening business called Go Go Green Garden and is the author of Urban Pantry. Pennington lives in Seattle.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $12.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Part of the NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) Guides. Includes information on:

• Basic concepts of pest control (host susceptibility, soil health, genetic resistance, ecosystem factors)
• Practical approaches (crop cultural practices, rescue treatments, special section on mammals and birds, food safety)
• Farm design for pest reduction (diversity, crop rotation)
• Unorthodox approaches (farmers out of the box)
• Identifying pests
• Crop-by-crop pests and practices

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Part of the NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) guides. Includes information on:

• Strengths and limitations of hybrid varieties
• Before you grow the seed (selecting varieties, saving seed and improving crops, intellectual property rights)
• Growing seed (pollination biology, harvesting, cleaning, storage, germination testing)
• Details on individual crops (amaranth, crucifers, beets and chard, lettuce, cucurbits, corn and small grains, nightshades, root veggies)

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Soil is a living organism that loves to cooperate with farmers and gardeners. A green thumb will appear on those who align themselves with its health and requirements. This book discusses:

• Soil habitat
• Sustaining soil fertility
• The soil food-web
• Nutrient availability and deficiency

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $39.95 AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

A series of 4 guides originally published by NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association), on organic principles and practices for both the beginner farmer as well as established farmers looking to convert to organic, or deepen their practices. Each book is approximately 100 pages, but the information is weighty; the guides use a strong whole-systems farming theory behind their practical advice, as well as offer historical information, further resources, detailed appendices, and profiles of various organic farms across the Northeast. Titles include:

Growing Healthy Vegetable Crops written by Brian Caldwell.

Includes information on:

• Basic concepts of pest control (host susceptibility, soil health, genetic resistance, ecosystem factors)
• Practical approaches (crop cultural practices, rescue treatments, special section on mammals and birds, food safety))
• Farm design for pest reduction (diversity, crop rotation))
• Unorthodox approaches (farmers out of the box))
• Identifying pests)
• Crop-by-crop pests and practices)

• Soil habitat)
• Sustaining soil fertility)
• The soil food-web)
• Nutrient availability and deficiency)

• Strengths and limitations of hybrid varieties)
• Before you grow the seed (selecting varieties, saving seed and improving crops, intellectual property rights))
• Growing seed (pollination biology, harvesting, cleaning, storage, germination testing))
• Details on individual crops (amaranth, crucifers, beets and chard, lettuce, cucurbits, corn and small grains, nightshades, root veggies))

• Soils, the foundation of health (manure managament))
• Crop production and grazing management (forage species, pasture management, setting up a grazing system))
• Livestock (selection, nutrition, winter and summer feed considerations, seasonal milking, habitat, herd health, milk quality))
• Marketing (selling fluid milk, regulations, facility and equipment, selling raw milk))
• Recordkeeping)
• The transition to organic)

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Supermarket produce sections bulging with a year-round supply of perfectly round, bright red-orange tomatoes have become all but a national birthright. But in Tomatoland, which is based on his James Beard Award-winning article, "The Price of Tomatoes," investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook reveals the huge human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry. Fields are sprayed with more than 100 different herbicides and pesticides. Tomatoes are picked hard and green and artificially gassed until their skins acquire a marketable hue. Modern plant breeding has tripled yields, but has also produced fruits with dramatically reduced amounts of calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C, and tomatoes that have 14 times more sodium than the tomatoes our parents enjoyed. The relentless drive for low costs has fostered a thriving modern-day slave trade in the United States. How have we come to this point?

Estabrook traces the supermarket tomato from its birthplace in the deserts of Peru to the impoverished town of Immokalee, Fla., aka the tomato capital of the United States. He visits the laboratories of seedsmen trying to develop varieties that can withstand the rigors of agribusiness and still taste like a garden tomato, and then moves on to commercial growers who operate on tens of thousands of acres, and eventually to a hillside field in Pennsylvania, where he meets an obsessed farmer who produces delectable tomatoes for the nation's top restaurants.

Throughout Tomatoland, Estabrook presents a who's who cast of characters in the tomato industry: the avuncular octogenarian whose conglomerate grows one out of every eight tomatoes eaten in the United States; the ex-Marine who heads the group that dictates the size, color and shape of every tomato shipped out of Florida; the U.S. attorney who has doggedly prosecuted human traffickers for the past decade; and the Guatemalan peasant who came north to earn money for his parents' medical bills and found himself enslaved for two years.

Tomatoland reads like a suspenseful whodunit as well as an exposé of today's agribusiness systems and the price we pay as a society when we take taste and thought out of our food purchases.

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CLEARANCE ITEM. PREVIOUS RETAIL PRICE WAS $17.95. AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Chasing Chiles looks at both the future of place-based foods and the effects of climate change on agriculture through the lens of the chile pepper — from the farmers who cultivate this iconic crop to the cuisines and cultural traditions in which peppers play a huge role.

Why chile peppers? Both a spice and a vegetable, chile peppers have captivated imaginations and taste buds for thousands of years. Native to Mesoamerica and the New World, chiles are currently grown on every continent, since their relatively recent introduction to Europe (in the early 1500s via Christopher Columbus). Chiles are delicious, dynamic, and very diverse — they have been rapidly adopted, adapted and assimilated into numerous world cuisines, and while malleable to a degree, certain heirloom varieties are deeply tied to place and culture — but now accelerating climate change may be scrambling their terroir.

Over a year-long journey, three pepper-loving gastronauts — an agroecologist, a chef and an ethnobotanist — set out to find the real stories of America’s rarest heirloom chile varieties, and learn about the changing climate from farmers and other people who live by the pepper, and who, lately, have been adapting to shifting growing conditions and weather patterns. They put a face on an issue that has been made far too abstract for our own good.

Chasing Chiles is not your archetypal book about climate change, with facts and computer models delivered by a distant narrator. On the contrary, these three dedicated chileheads look and listen, sit down to eat, and get stories and recipes from on the ground — in farmers' fields, local cafes and the desert-scrub hillsides across North America. From the Sonoran Desert to Santa Fe and St. Augustine (the two oldest cities in the United States), from the marshes of Avery Island in Cajun Louisiana to the thin limestone soils of the Yucatan, this book looks at how and why climate change will continue to affect our palates and our producers, and how it already has.