Canning

Canning

Some memories are so vivid you don't even need to close your eyes to see them in your head. Such is the case with my Grandma's Kitchen and Canning Season.

I walk in her back door to find her back room full of produce: boxes and boxes of peaches, pears, tomatoes, beets, berries, etc. Each type of produce has it's own section of her backroom and within each section she's organized the produce based on doneness. She's got some that need processed right away, some that can wait a few days and paper bags full of produce that isn't quite ripe yet. (The paper bags help almost everything ripen.) As I step past her fridge on the left and the freezer on the right, I enter the kitchen. Her gigantic round wooden table is on my right, loaded with clean, sterilized jars on one side and already processed jars on the other. The stove is directly in front of me with lots of boiling pots going on it and a white plastic timer sitting to the side. There on my left, sitting on a stool, working at her big white farmhouse sink is my Grandma. The sink is full of water and whatever produce she's tackling at the moment. There's another stool and a paring knife sitting there just waiting for someone else to come along and help. To the right of the sink, her counter is cleaned off and the jars are staged for filling. It's an assembly line like nothing you've ever seen.

I don't know how old I was when I started helping her can. I don't have any memories of not helping (or at least my child-size attempt at helping). I couldn't even begin to tell you how many hours we spent sitting on those stools together peeling, slicing and talking. Some very tender conversations and special memories came during those times at that sink. The lessons I learned from her went far beyond anything that had to do with the kitchen.

I've spent almost 3 decades carrying on those traditions she taught me without her here and doing my best to teach those to my own children. There are times when I swear to you I can feel her behind me watching me when I'm sitting at my own sink with one of my own kids peeling, slicing and talking. Sometimes on those late, late nights when I'm exhausted and feel like I just can't do anymore I swear I hear her whispering to me "You can do this - you're closer to done than you think."

Canning has become, for a lot of people, a lost art. 100 years ago everyone canned - you had to in order to survive - but not so much anymore. Why do we do it now though? Other than tradition that is.

One of the biggest reasons to can is the financial aspect. If you are growing your own food and you have an abundant harvest, doesn't it just make financial sense to find a way to preserve what you have? We have two peach trees and I managed to put up about 60 quarts of peaches from one tree. At what cost? Other than buying new lids I didn't really have any cost. If I'd bought that many peaches at the store what would it have cost me? It just makes financial sense.

I think we all got a bit of shock trying to shop in 2020, didn't we? It wasn't just toilet paper that flew off the shelves. There were a lot of canned items that became increasingly difficult to find. A lot of the fresh produce couldn't be found either. When there is a shortage (and I personally don't think that's the last time we'll see that), if you can you will never have to worry about that for your own family.

I talk a lot about the lessons I learned from my Grandma (my Dad's Mom), but I would be remiss if I didn't mention my Grandpa (Mom's Dad) at this point. My Grandpa "Mug" always grew a massive garden and he canned and canned and canned. He had a basement full of canned goods. It was just him & Grandma so why did he work so hard at preserving the food he grew? So that his kids and grandkids would never go hungry - they'd always have food if they needed it. Caring for others is important in this life and if we have the means to share, we should.

Another reason is quality. Store bought canned items taste store bought. I can't even choke down salsa from the store anymore since I started canning my own. And those peaches? When we have 2 feet of snow in the dead of winter and you can eat a home canned peach that tastes like it just fell off the tree isn't that worth it? I know what goes into each of those jars - I know where it came from, that it was grown without added chemicals and that it's the best quality I can provide my family. Why wouldn't I want that?

And let's talk about shelf life. There are many experts that will tell you when home canned food should be used by, but guess what? Back before the "experts" were around our ancestors would keep canned goods as long as they needed to. Nothing went to waste. Trust your gut. If something is 10 years old and you open that jar and it smells, tastes and looks perfectly okay then use it. No way I'd trust a store-bought product that way!

Don't be mistaken - it's a LOT of work. There are some really, really long nights. There are aching backs, burns and sore hands. There are lids that won't seal, jars that break. But you know what? It's worth every bit of effort. I will be forever grateful Ganna taught me to do this and I'm able to teach her great-grandsons.

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