On the way back from the mondo-bizarro tattoo parlor yesterday, Bill and I stopped at a U-Pick orchard and brought home a bag of peaches. The daily blackberry picking is filling up the freezer, the cucumbers are starting to take over the garden and I found the jars and the Ball Blue Book (Canning Bible) yesterday.
Plus, it's eleventy-billion degrees out there, so I guess it's canning season. The day the produce turns ripe and demands processing is always the hottest day of the year, in my experience. But a big Ha-ha! I have air-conditioning now! What a boon!
I was a canning fool in New York in the early years. After filling a basement cupboard to bursting, we made a rule that I couldn't put up more than what we could eat in a year. Now that there's just the two of us, that imperative becomes even more restrictive and necessary.
But with the price of food spiralling upward, it makes sense to me to preserve whatever "free" food we have access to. And it's things we will eat on a regular basis: Pickle Relish, Bread & Butter Pickles, Blackberry Jam, Cherries for Pie, Applesauce, Peaches and Pears. All it costs is sugar and my time.
There is something so vicerally satisfying to me about making pickles, making jam, and putting it in all those sparkly little jars. I'm ready for whatever comes in the future. Whatever happens, we will have something delicious to eat.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment