It's an almost lost art. My folks preserved garden foods the entire time we were growing up. Us kids always helped picking the veggies and washing them. Many years ago after buying some property, I decided to do the same and started with a garden. Let me tell you the gardening is the easy part. I forgot how timely the harvest happens. Produce seems to come in all at once and preparation for this is easily underestimated. The first year, I remember having to give away to the neighbors surpluses of cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, kohlrabi, and bell peppers. The worst of all was spinach and chard. You eat it right away or it goes bad. The second year I geared up and bought more Kerr jars and a larger pot for canning. Even then I underestimated the amount of harvest coming in all at once along with the amount of processing equipment I had. On top of this, I was doing it all by myself.
The point I'm making here is that harvesting veggies for canning and freezing is an all-hands-on-deck operation. It's a lot of work, but it's well worth learning this knowledge and reaping its rewards. To this day, I still don't know how my mom did all of this. She accomplished this incredible feat year after year. We ate 'organic' well before the word was ever associated with foods. We all underestimated the grit and energy she had. Jesus tell mom I wish I could tell her this now. RIP.
5th season now on our grapes and apples and peach trees. The grape jelly was the best ever. I am so proud of my wife on that one . The peach preserves were ok, and have been canning apples all week. we are learning when to pick the grapes- we are learning it is very important.
I was so busy this summer, I found myself throwing away more onions than I was using, so my husband and I canned 14 half-pints over the weekend. Two did not seal so I’m frying the one that’s left for pizza topping tonight…..I am a CRAPPY farmer. I have problems with rhubarb! But we have LOTS of home canned food. It’s a good thing to know how to do.
It's an almost lost art. My folks preserved garden foods the entire time we were growing up. Us kids always helped picking the veggies and washing them. Many years ago after buying some property, I decided to do the same and started with a garden. Let me tell you the gardening is the easy part. I forgot how timely the harvest happens. Produce seems to come in all at once and preparation for this is easily underestimated. The first year, I remember having to give away to the neighbors surpluses of cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, kohlrabi, and bell peppers. The worst of all was spinach and chard. You eat it right away or it goes bad. The second year I geared up and bought more Kerr jars and a larger pot for canning. Even then I underestimated the amount of harvest coming in all at once along with the amount of processing equipment I had. On top of this, I was doing it all by myself.
The point I'm making here is that harvesting veggies for canning and freezing is an all-hands-on-deck operation. It's a lot of work, but it's well worth learning this knowledge and reaping its rewards. To this day, I still don't know how my mom did all of this. She accomplished this incredible feat year after year. We ate 'organic' well before the word was ever associated with foods. We all underestimated the grit and energy she had. Jesus tell mom I wish I could tell her this now. RIP.
so true.
5th season now on our grapes and apples and peach trees. The grape jelly was the best ever. I am so proud of my wife on that one . The peach preserves were ok, and have been canning apples all week. we are learning when to pick the grapes- we are learning it is very important.
I was so busy this summer, I found myself throwing away more onions than I was using, so my husband and I canned 14 half-pints over the weekend. Two did not seal so I’m frying the one that’s left for pizza topping tonight…..I am a CRAPPY farmer. I have problems with rhubarb! But we have LOTS of home canned food. It’s a good thing to know how to do.