It is all figurative. There were no ugly ducklings or swans here.
I learned to can foods at the prompting of a tremendously talented woman. She is truly the quintessential woman that EVERYONE should have in their life! Her talents are in layers. Sort of like an onion, but she doesn't smell like an onion and she certainly does not make anyone cry! My friend Barb became a mentor to me. She took me under her proverbial wing and showed me the fine art of canning foods.
My memories of canning foods isn't too extensive. I remember my uncle and dad (of all people!!) canning peppers. Whoa DOG, were they ever good! I mean, burn your tongue, set fire to your senses, kind of good! Now that I think about it, I need to shoot my uncle a text and snag that recipe from him. He owes me anyway. He might be the one that "blessed" us with certain chickens some time ago...
Anyway, back to the original post theme. I would say it was about 10 years ago that Barb and I were talking and she informed me that I was lacking in a very fundamental skill. The ability to can foods for self preservation. As you know from my comments in the past, we are into stocking up a little ~ toilet paper, gummy worms, you know, the essentials. So I rose to her challenge of learning to can something. She decided that we would start with something really easy. Jam. Mind you, jam is one of the best things on earth to can! The colors are beautiful, and you can't really mess it up.
So we started with some version of a fruit jam. I think it was blueberry. I'm remembering this because the berry juice was flying everywhere and my fingers were blue. They were blue, then stain brown color. It was a cosmotologists nightmare!
Well, once we walked through the process of smashing berries, filling jars, wiping the rims with a clean rag/towel/paper towel, we immersed them into the water bath and let them process.
I can tell you that I felt like queen of the world. Empowerment was bursting forth from my soul! I could can a jar of jam! Imagine what our lives are like now. When we loose electricity, by George, we have toilet paper and JAM!! SWEET!
So fast forward to now. I have canned green beans, jams of all varieties, cherry pie filling, apple pie filling, peaches, chutney's, apple butter, tomato's, pear sauce, apple sauce. I'm noticing a serious issue here. Not sure if you have. Most of the things I've canned have had a certain amount of sweetness to them... I'm not sure what this says about me or us or our love relationship with sweet things.
A few years back my friend Brenda told me about this cherry pie filling and how easy it was to do. I'm usually game for trying something new, so I went down that dusty trail of cherry pie filling. We haven't looked back! This recipe has become a staple in our home. Only, last year we were going on vacation when the cherries were coming in so I didn't get to do any cherry pie filling. This caused a major issue. How will we survive? What about the cherry crisp? What about cherry pie? Pancake topping? Friends, it was rationing at its finest. I became the nazi rationer. It was so bad that even my darling husband would come and ask me if he could open up a jar... Shame.
I'm happy to say that we survived and on the day that I canned the cherries, we did a jar count of the existing cherries and we had a grand total of one jar left. One. Jar. Of. Cherry pie filling. So if you need some nazi food rationing tips, just jingle. I'll walk you through it.
Here are the pictures of the process.
Disaster Zone Ahead!
Mixing the cherries with the ingredients: almond extract, sugar, clear gel, and cherry juice/water.
After heating on the stove top, add to jars and put in canning bath.
Jars in the water, before being submerged for the 20 minute water bath.
Now for the finished product. These jars are so valuable because if you have ever canned foods you know the time that is requiered. This isn't something that is done in a half hour. It is a whole day process. Cleaning jars, washing lids and rings, getting the water boiling, processing (which can take all kinds of different times, depending on the item being canned.), cooling the jars, making sure that the jars sealed properly.
The best part? The best part is when the jars are taken out of the water bath and you place them tenderly on the counter to cool. Within seconds or minutes you start to hear this tiny popping sound! Oh man, do I love that sound! That means the jars sealed and they can cool and be placed in the larder (thanks Bilbo Baggins for resurrecting that word into my vocabulary!)
Frankly, my mouth is watering right now just looking at this picture. If you want to try some of these precious morsels you'll have to come to our home fellowship meeting the second week of August. We are having it at one of the family's farms that go to church with us and it will be a pot-luck. Guess what I'm bringing? Cherry Pie and Brownie Trifle. Probably a salad too. We have to keep our priorities straight.
So now, go out and purchase yourself a Ball Blue Book of canning and preserving. I only posted this link to show you the book. I actually purchased mine at Walmart or Meijer's for $10.00 or somewhere in that range.
Let me know if you want to learn how to can ~ if you're local! You can join me. Next up is Dilly Green Beans. Yum.
Blessings for a great week for you,
Tammy
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