We're Eating: Canned goods???

Since we've been traveling there has been far less cooking than normal. But the farm share waits for no person and we have a backlog of farm share veggies. This week, we not only have our farm share but we also have my parents. We are buried by abundance! 

Like people of yore when faced with a ton of seasonal produce threatening to go bad, we're planning a canning party this weekend. Luckily, my grandmother had a huge garden and consequently was a big time canner. She was mostly out of the canning business by the time I was born so I never got to see her in action, but the volume of jars she had is pretty impressive. My people are not a people who live a simplified clutter free life of sparse belongings. We have generations worth of stuff crammed in attics and closets. Normally this annoys me, but in this case it paid off big time. My Mom saved all my Granmothers canning stuff for the last 10 years and I just pulled some of it out of the attic this afternoon.

Not only are there several more boxes of glass jars in the attic, but she also had a humongous pressure canner for low acid foods. My errand for the rest of the week is to take the pressure gauge down to the ag extension office and get them to test it for safety.

My Mom also saved the Ball Blue Book for canning. Right now, we're focused on the cucumber crisis in our midst and planning pickles. This book is loaded with lots of good recipes and I can see some peach butter in our future while the peaches are still in season. Onward!