This post is a sponsored post by Ball® Home Canning. All of my opinions and experiences are my own. Many thanks to the brands that support my work here on my journal. I truly appreciate you for your support in engaging with my sponsored content as a means of supporting my family.

Cultivating a slow folk way of living has been so rewarding for me, a slow everyday process + such a learning curve. Slow living really means turning every day rituals into sacred moments to honor the seasons and cultivate a deep connection with our home + the Earth. I’m thrilled to share a couple things in this journal entry, the first being this will be my second season as a Ball® Home Canning Ambassador I’ll be sharing even more canning goodness, how tos on food preservation, more recipes and ways to embrace seasonal living.

Ball® Home Canning Jars truly help our journey to slower, more sustainable living. I love that Ball® Canning Jars keep what we grow + make, safe + fresh and are timeless, reliable + can be woven in a countless ways throughout our home + in our lives.

Jars As Decor

When I’m not sipping out of a Ball® Home Canning Jar or canning summer harvests, I love them all around our home holding fresh cut, garden grown flowers.

Jars In The Garden

I wait all winter for this season to celebrate the earth everyday in the love, intention + work i put into our garden. I love experimenting with different techniques in garden, because I learn as much from my failures as I do my successes. I learn so much about growth, cycles + creativity. Season after season I become more and more comfortable trying new things. This year, I’ve been using our Ball® Wide mouth jars as propagators and mini cloches as we begin our garden + as we wait on our last frost date. Even though I’ve hardened off some of our seedlings in the greenhouse, I’ve been using Ball® Wide Mouth jars for those fickle spring nights where the temperatures take a dive to offer the seedlings a little more protection.

Petal Inspired Recipes

This spring season and every spring, lets be honest, I’m captivated by blossoming trees, especially Magnolia. I mean, I’ve even named my daughter Magnolia. This year it’s been a growing trend to eat magnolia petals, inspired by Alexis from @blackforager and Gather Victoria. I love infusing edible flowers into my life, flowers help me embrace the present moment and come to embody the knowledge that time can be so fleeting. In an effort to embrace the season, I thought I’d share the two Magnolia recipes I tried in my own kitchen for you to try to celebrate Earth day, which is every day to me.

Quick Pickled Magnolia Petals

Ingredients

3 ounces or 90 grams magnolia petals, freshly picked (be gentle as they can bruise easily + make sure they aren’t sprayed with chemicals)

1/2 cup vinegar (a light vinegar like rice, white wine or apple cider vinegar)

3 tablespoons honey

1/2 tsp salt

Directions

In a small saucepan heat the vinegar, honey and salt, until the honey is dissolved and the liquid is hot. Gentle stuff the magnolia petals into a Ball® HalfPint jar. Carefully pour the pickling liquid over the petals and let the sit. Cool + refrigerate for up to a week. Pickled magnolia petals have a floral + ginger flavor. It can be used like pickled ginger or sauerkraut.

Magnolia Simple Syrup

Ingredients

20 grams of magnolia petals

2/3 cups water

2/3 cups sugar

Directions

Carefully remove the petals from the flowers ovaries at the base. In a small saucepan over medium heat, add sugar + water. Stir until the mixture is heated and the sugar dissolves. Add magnolia petals and simmer on the lowest heat setting for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a Ball® Jar and refrigerate. Serves two tablespoons or more over ice + top with sparkling water. For an alcoholic beverage add a splash of gin.