Very recently, and at my husband's encouragement, I've taken to canning. At first it was just a way to make the basket of pears we picked at our friends house keep instead of rotting on the kitchen floor, but it quickly turned into a way for me to take everything in the refrigerator and store it for a later date. Which, in turn, just led to more trips to walmart for food and more canning jars. I always need more jars.
Pears in syrup turned into pear butter, pear jam, spiced Christmas pears, blueberry jam, [which looks more like blueberry syrup] raspberry jam, pickles, picked eggs, pickled asparagus, pickled green peppers, and as of today, pickled green beans.
My research in canning wasn't very extensive before I took myself off to the local walmart for a water bath, strainer, cans, pickling salt, pickling spices and more cans. Unfortunately, I'm learning the hard way that without a proper pressure cooker, everything I put into cans [that isn't fruit] needs to be pickled.
So now, as I'm preparing 3 quarts of pickled green beans, I find myself wondering, um, what are we going to do with all of this canned food? Other than display it proudly on our entryway table, where it is currently living.
Other than the feeling I have that we're going to be dining on pears and green beans all winter long, learning to can vegetables has been a great experience for me. There's something so satisfying about growing your own food and then preserving it for winter use, or, for weekend use [says my husband about the pickled eggs, his favorite junk food]
The main reason we purchased the house we did was for the extensive, fenced in backyard it offered us. As life-long renters, we were both thrilled at the prospect of gardening, keeping chickens, and a small fruit tree orchard to top it off. We have both come from a family of gardeners. Me, learning from my Grandmother who had a garden to die for, grape vines that produced an abundance of both black and green grapes every single summer, and a plethora of apple, pear and peach trees that were always sagged over with fruit each season. Some of my earliest memories are following her across the hot, black plastic paper to help tend to her cucumbers and rhubarb plants. I guess gardening is in my blood.
My sweet husbands family gardened as well, though not as much for pleasure purposes as mine did. As a result of backyard gardening, my husband is always hungry for vegetables and salads. I guess by gardening, his family did him a favor in the long run. If you have to eat what you grow, you end up liking a lot more vegetables than sugary, prepackaged junk food.
Pears In A Basket
Washed Pears Waiting For Processing To Begin!
Just A Few Jars Of Spiced Christmas Pears
Our Current Stock Pile Of Canned Goods
