My First Day of Canning

When Soph and E-Man were still babies, Photoguy's mom helped me bottle apricot jam at her house. Unfortunately, I don't remember much about that day except 1) It's really hard to focus on anything for an entire day with two babies demanding your attention 2) Jam is mostly sugar . . . I mean a LOT of sugar, and, 3) I then discovered that my husband only eats raspberry jam (and, as it turns out, I prefer it too).

My only other past experience with canning was thinking of it as extremely difficult and grueling (not because of the jam day, but, because I guess I grew up thinking that).

This year, I felt inspired by a slew of blogging friends raving about the delights of bottling up the harvest to lay aside for the winter. On Tuesday, I decided to try it.

I first procured a half-bushel of the most flavorful and amazing tomatoes ever from Photoguy's parents' garden (Thanks!!!). Then, added a half-bushel of sweet peaches from Perry to my growing mountain of produce. A friend who posted about bottling peaches a few weeks ago was kind enough to loan me her canning supplies. Oh, and I had to go to three stores to find jars (apparently, it's a little late in the canning season).

Finally, I called my dear friend CK, a prolific canner, to ask for tips and, guess what? She dropped everything, came to my house, and spent the next four hours showing me the ropes (including all the shortcuts) of canning!

In the end, I have 17 beautiful jars of peaches and 13 crimson jars of tomatoes. It took about 8 hours to finish it all up. And, CK taught me to save the peach pits for Peach Stone Jelly, a super easy, mildly peach flavored topping for toast, made from the pits one would usually just toss aside, and, you guessed it, LOTS of sugar!

I think the time in my life just happened to be right to awaken the inner canning woman in me. Because, I loved it. I loved hearing CK talk about how she learned it all from her grandma. I loved how excited she was to share it with me. It made me feel very connected to the earth and prior generations and my dear friend and my kids. Speaking of kids, my friend has three boys who are 4, 2 and 10 months. By the time the school crowd came home, we had nine kids eight and under (my three plus my other three, read: babysitting). Every snack in sight was consumed, way too much T.V. was watched, and my house looked like it had been hit by a small tornado when the canning was over, but, I was surprised how much we were able to accomplish with nine kids that small!

It would have been the perfect canning experience, except for one slight mishap. CK was letting me use her brand new steamer, and on the last batch, I boiled the water dry!!! Trust me, you don't want to do that. I was reading to the kids, getting them ready for bed, when the house suddenly filled with white smoke and a bad smell. Upon investigating, I found a quarter-inch of blackness permanently baked on the bottom of the steamer. I ran to the store to buy a new steamer, but, they were all out. So, I bought S.O.S. and steel wool instead. I spent an entire hour scrubbing that pot. And, the next day, Photoguy also spent an additional hour (plus used a sharp knife to remove the blackness). In the end, the steamer looked almost like new again. Whew! My wrist is still aching. Lesson learned.

Remember how I swore off gardening? Well, now that I've had so much fun canning, I'm already planning for next year's gardening success (or, maybe I should be more like baba capra and start planning for next year's failure -- less disappointment that way).

Perhaps I'm ready to awaken the inner seamstress in me? I've never been crafty, at all. And, grew up thinking sewing machines were manufactured by the devil. But, I think I just might give sewing a try . . .