For anyone looking to try their hand at canning or pickling, longtime Portage la Prairie resident Annie Thiessen has one piece of advice: start small.

“Don’t take the whole gamut or you’ll get too exhausted. Make a small batch at a time until you get the hang of it,” Thiessen says.

It’s advice backed by more than 50 years of experience. For decades, Thiessen filled her basement shelves with jars of jams, beans, peaches, grape juice, and, of course, pickles. What began as a necessity grew into a lifelong practice that blended hard work, resourcefulness, and care.

“When I first married, canning wasn’t really optional. It was more economical than going to the grocery store and buying things. You had a cupboard to keep them cool in the winter, and it had to last until the next harvest," she recalls.

Tips for New Picklers

For beginners, the best approach is to take it one step at a time and never to overlook the details.

“Even the tiniest speck of dirt on the rim of a jar can stop it from sealing properly. If that happens, it won’t keep, so you’ll need to pop it in the fridge and enjoy it right away,” she explains.

She also encourages newcomers to trust the process.

“Stick to tried-and-true recipes when you’re starting. Once you’ve built up some confidence, then you can start experimenting and making it your own.”

A Family Tradition

Thiessen canned everything from peaches, pears, and cherries for desserts to jams made with Serto packets and pie fillings tucked away for winter treats. At her peak, she made as many as 100 jars of pickles in a single year, using a recipe of her own creation that became a family favourite.

The work could stretch into a two-day affair, but it brought satisfaction, and plenty of food for her family of five children. Over the years, she passed down her knowledge to relatives and friends. She even compiled her recipes into a family cookbook, printed and bound as a keepsake.

“The book is my recipes that I passed down to the family. I didn’t get the chance to proofread it before it was bound, so there are a few errors, but that makes it even more special,” she says.

Looking Back

Now enjoying what she calls her “pickling retirement,” Thiessen admits she doesn’t miss the long hours in the kitchen. Still, she finds herself reminiscing about the produce and the joy of seeing full shelves each fall.

“When it was necessary, you did the amount you knew you’d use. Now people can do it as a hobby, just a little at a time. But homemade will always taste better than store-bought,” she says.

Thiessen hopes that new picklers won’t be intimidated by the process, and that they’ll discover the same pride she found in filling her shelves, one jar at a time.

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