I wimped out on using John’s grandmother’s canning equipment yet again yesterday. Sigh. I don’t know why I’m so intimidated by a big old pot, a bucketful of beets, and Mason jars.
Maybe it’s the instructions. I read my Ball Canning Cookbook over and over again. It’s as if the warnings against not boiling the jars long enough are highlighted in screaming neon letters. “BOIL AT LEAST 30 MINUTES TO PREVENT SPOILAGE.” And then lots of warnings about spoilage and signs thereof (but no first aid hints).
Spoilage? I picture the three of us dying from botulism. In the emergency room with food poisoning. That’s what keeps me from starting this darned project.
My sisters have made jelly, relish and lovely preserves. They’ve sent them to me for Christmas. I’ve seen Mary’s jars of relish in her basement. They didn’t harm anyone with food.
I’m willing to start my project and have it be a failure. Oh no, it’s not my sneaky perfectionism creeping into the task. It’s fear, pure and simple.
Maybe I was scarred by the time when I was small and my grandmother put green peas into the pressure cooker. That story was told and retold over and over again. My dad, up on a ladder, scraping peas off the ceiling. Repainting.
I’m scared of pressure cookers, too.
So the freezer is now my best friend. I’ve learned this season how to blanch vegetables. I’ve never done that before. This former city gal had maybe one bag of pepper slices left at the end of the summer back when I gardened on Long Island. Not like now!
So far, here’s what I’ve blanched and frozen from the garden. All of the weights and measures are approximate. Next year, John wants to put a small scale in the kitchen and take accurate records, which sounds like fun to me – I’d love to really understand the yield we are getting from the garden. All produce is organic, and the list below doesn’t include what we’ve eaten. It’s just what I’ve frozen.
- Spinach: 2 gallon bags
- Swiss Chard: 2 gallon bags
- Broccoli Rabe: 1 gallon bag
- Peppers: 2 gallon bags, 3 pint bags
- Beets: 3 quart containers
- Sweet corn: a dozen ears, frozen; 4 pints as corn kernals
- Green beans: 2 gallon bags, 5 pint bags
- Squash: 1 pint container (an experiment!)
And in the refrigerator:
- 6 spaghetti squash
- 2 watermelons
- 5 cantaloupes
- About 5-6 pounds of carrots
- Another 3 -5 pounds of beets
- About 2 pounds of small turnips
- Bag of peppers
- Bag of green beans
- Cucumbers
I’ve got more green beans to pick today, and two huge bowls of tomatoes. The tomatoes this year are fantastic. I grew Early Girl, Sweet 100’s, and an heirloom variety called Mortgage Lifter. Mortgage Lifter is a surprise. It starts pink and turns red. It’s got a meaty texture that’s great in tomato sandwiches. We’re eating tomatoes all day long – lovely salads of simple garden cucumbers, fresh tomatoes, dressed with sea salt, vinegar and oil.
I used to grab a Dunkin Donuts huge sweet coffee drink at 3pm and a package of cookies. Followed by Cheetos and Pepsi on the Long Island Rail Road heading home at 7pm.
Now I’m eating a freshly picked salad of cucumbers and tomatoes at 3pm and doing yoga. And my commute is down to a minute as I walk from my office downstairs each evening to unwind with a good book or head out for a bike ride on the winding rural roads.
No wonder I’m smiling and happy all the time!
* * *
Thank you for the notes of condolences. Professor Russo’s death hit me particularly hard. She died from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). That is the same disease that robbed me of my mother and made my childhood horrible. Three friends have that disease too, with one friend as sick as my mom was. It’s really hard to watch so many brilliant, bright and beautiful women (yes, they are all women) struck in their prime by a mystery disease. One of the reasons I began to study natural health was because of my frustration with traditional medicine – more ways than I can count, but one big reason was that no one could tell me why my mom got sick or what to do. Today’s advice for MS patients is the exact opposite of what they told us to do in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
So I was feeling way down low yesterday…hard to concentrate…feeling very sad. My phone rang. On the other end of the phone was Sister Claire from Amityville with some research I’d asked her for. I’ve started working on a book project about my great-aunt, the former prioress general of the Dominican Sisters in Amityville, Long Island. “I’ve found the research you asked for!” She is going to mail me the biographical information I requested a few weeks ago. I’ve started writing down the family stories, the myths and legends surrounding my grandmother’s sister, a formidable spiritual figure in our family, but as soon as I started writing them down I realized that some of the stories just couldn’t be true. It’s amazing how telling and retelling stories about our ancestors changes facts! So I am grateful to the Sisters of St. Dominic for helping me with a bit of factual research about where my great aunt was stationed, the years she served in different schools and her official titles – things like that.
Suddenly I’ve got something exciting to work on again, a writing project that will challenge me, and my mood lifts and I’m off and running. Give me a good writing project any day of the week and my spirits lift!
I’ve recently just started canning and broke down and purchased a pressure canner last year. After loosing our power for 8 days when Ike rolled through last year and i lost everything in the freezer. I want to try to can more than freeze. The freezer was unplugged for 10 months and I’ve just now plugged it in. I LOVE to can pickled beets. Very easy and the vinegar raises the acidity – less risk of bad things growing. I would buy a pack of new jars though. I am funny about making sure they have a good seal. If your jars are good (no chips on the rims) maybe you’d just need a new pack of bands/lids?
So sorry to hear about your loss. Wishing you luck on canning!!
Hey Beegirl! Thanks for the comments. I think what’s freaking me out is the boiling canner…and it’s old. I mean old! My neighbor has invited me to her house to make jelly with her this fall, so maybe watching her do it will help. Thanks so much for the tips. And thank you also for the condolences. Happy gardening!
My horses love peppermints too (although what horses don’t! 🙂 ). It’s their very favorite treat.
I have some tagalong Spearmint growing in one of the beds — I’m leaving it for now because the foliage looks and smells wonderful. Next year I am be chastising myself for doing that. lol
You are more ambitious than I am, taking on canning!