Yesterday, we canned peaches. 11 quarts of peaches. Four hours of peeling and pitting. The preparation process was long and finger-stiffening but it's really nice to know that all those pretty, yummy peaches won't go to waste. The actually canning process itself was much easier than I'd expected it to be. We went to my husband's grandmother's house to do it. She's been canning for decades so who better to learn from. I have my mother's old canner but it's a far different kind of canner. Grandma has a pressure canner and man but it was easy! It's something I think I could do down the road. If I only have enough to do two quarts of something - I might even be able to do it in my own little pressure cooker - the one I thought was BIG is tiny compared to her canner! For a few years, until we really get the hang of it - I'll go to grandma's to do the canning but I'm fairly confident that, after I get some good practice in, it's something I should be able to do on my own too. I'm hoping to make some pasta sauce when our tomatoes come on - the vines are full of them right now and they look like they're all going to rippen at once. If they do - there's no way we're going to be able to eat them all so, why not go ahead and make a big vat of sauce and stick it in jars for this winter? Makes me wish we'd planted a bigger garden. Or that the stinky groundhog didn't decide to attack our cucumbers. Pickles and relish would have been nice. But - maybe next year. It's definately something we'll continue to do. For all the prep work - it was really easy to do. What I need to do is hit up the farmer's markets and stuff and maybe get a bushel of peas, or beans, or something... I'm in the mood toplay Ant. stock stock stock the shelves - prepping for the winter... All these years playing grasshopper and the change is refreshing :)
Posted by Shade53 at August 27, 2008 07:44 AM