I made a lot of mistakes this first time around, but overall, I’m pretty dang proud of myself.
Over four days I managed to can:
6 pints of strawberry lemonade concentrate
1 pint of limeade concentrate
2 pints of nectarineade concentrate
3 qts of dilled carrots
1 pint blueberry butter
2 1/2 pints blueberry syrup
2 1/2 pints nectarine chutney
12 pints nectarines
4 pints apple onion slaw
It hurts just to think about.
My first attempt was the strawberry lemonade concentrate, and it didn’t do too well. Only half of the jars sealed. But when I went back the next day and re-read all the instructions I immediately realized why. I just couldn’t help myself and watched over those cans like they were newborn babies, fussing with the lids, pushing in the center to check the seal, and in my enthusiasm I prevented it from doing its job.
So the next day when I took the jars out of the canner, I set them on the counter and forced myself to walk away. Sure enough, no more failures.
Most of what I canned was stuff we bought at the farmer’s market. There was a guy there selling nectarines for 50cents a pound. I asked to buy the box and he told me he’d give it to me for $20. I can only blame my newbie excitement on the fact that I totally took him up on it and didn’t do the math until we were in the car and I realized that there was not 40 pounds of nectarines in the trunk. Oh well, I would have paid more than that anywhere else anyway.
Since then I’ve discovered our community garden, currently busy growing tomatoes and corn, and my friend Amber has a line on an orchard that doesn’t harvest the fruit that will let us have whatever we can carry away. I think I’m going to be spending a whole lot more quality time with my canner this summer, and, fingers crossed, most of it might even be for free.
I’ve had some friends ask me why I would possibly take up canning in a day and age of 24 hr supermarkets, and there are a few good answers. One is that I really enjoy learning these traditional skills that create self-sufficiency. I just like to gain knowledge. Another is that this supports my efforts at local, seasonal eating without denying myself of nectarines 8 months out of the year. But the biggest reason is to enable my inconsistency. I love to cook, but I often have to be in the mood for it. By the end of the summer I’ll have enough marinara canned that I won’t have to make it again until next summer. I’ll have salsas and dressings and sauces that I love to eat, but am not always in the mood to make, just waiting for me to pop the lid. This is going to make it so much easier to eat at home on those nights when I just couldn’t be bothered. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of partial to big ridiculous projects.