Thursday, July 26, 2007

Canning Season

About this time of year, I start getting lots of emails about canning, so its time for a little trip down memory lane. When I was a girl, we canned about 200 quarts of peaches and pears and snap beans, corn and tomatoes during the late Indian summers.

As I sit in my kitchen today, listening to the summer breeze rustling through the leaves outside my window, I recall the memories of fifty years ago... I can almost smell the pungent aroma of vinegar and spices from the pickling crocks under the back stairs at grandma's old farm house. Memory stirs and I am reminded of far removed apple trees south of the hay barn, and the tangled blackberry brambles racing up the hillside.

We kids would sit on the old back porch with grandma and peel, and pare, and pit until our hands were stained with a rainbow of pinks, yellows, greens and reds from a bountiful harvest. All through those crisp fall days of long ago, the canners bubbled and hissed on the stove, churning out jar after jar of jar of garden produce.

It was a lot of work, but eating grandma's peach cobbler on a cold and blustery winter day made it all worth while. Well that's my blast from the past... do you all have similar stories from years gone by?

3 comments:

vintqage cook said...

Your website is excellent! I have
been researching 'vintage pressure
cookers' and your info is right on..

I have memories of mid-1940s mount-
ain living in our mining camp in
central California...I was about 6
years old and remember the smells and sounds of my grandmother's big, wood cook stove,as kettles of glass
jars bubbled and the large WARDS
pressure canner sputtered and
steamed, full of peaches, venison
or other goodies...
Today, I am the grandmother and am
teaching my grandchildren about the
benefits of pressure canning...and
food preservation...in my log home,
but,on the electric stove. My wood
cook stove is in storage but,will
br revived when it is safe to use.

Happy Canning! Vintage Cook

Anonymous said...

Hi Miss Vicki,
So glad I found your web site. My mother used a pressure cooker throughout my childhood. Yes! I saw the lid blow off once or twice but the roasts that she cooked in it were just out of this world. I just turned 60 this past week. When I got married in 1968 my parents asked me what I wanted for a wedding present and I told them that what I wanted most was a pressure cooker. They both laughed but sure enough, that was our favorite gift from them. Next summer my husband and I will celebrate 40 years of wedded bliss. We have 3 wonderful grown children and 4 darling grandchildren. When they come to dinner at our house, what do you think their favorite meal is? Of course, the wonderful pot roast and gravy prepared in my old Presto pressure cooker with all the trimmings. It tastes just like my mom's who, by the way, still prepares her roasts for us when we dine at her home.
You have inspired me to forge onward and try some new things in my old cooker, such as your fabulous desserts.
I can also tell you that the best ribs I ever cooked was by accident when my daughter needed a dinner to take and share with her dad at the Dad and Daughter Banquet for Campfire Girls. Out of an emergency (short of time) situation, I came up with the most scrumptious barbecue ribs ever (fell off the bone) and my daughter and husband were the envy of all who attended the banquet.
Pressure cooking is a well kept secret but one that needs to be shared with this new generation. Thank you for working to do that. Sincerely, Linda from Enid, Oklahoma

Anonymous said...

Linda from Enid, Oklahoma how can you brag about your ribs and not tell a "newbie" how to cook them? Recipe?!

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