Yes, I Can!

I grew up in a family that canned and froze the goodies from our garden all summer long. There were beets, peas, beans, sweet corn, tomatoes, carrots, and lots of jams and jellies lining the shelves of our basement by the end of summer each year. We would go picking peaches and cherries, apples and grapes from the orchards nearby…and can or freeze those too. During the hottest part of the summer we would don our long sleeved shirts and jeans to go fight our way through the blackberry bushes so we could can the fruit. Every fall our family would load up in the trailer hitched to the back of the tractor to go out picking wild apples from the woods to make cider…the best cider in the world. Yum! My parents are in their 70′s and they still can food for the winter. I think I had a pretty good education as a kid, even though I don’t remember much that I ‘learned’ in school. The best education I received was the lesson of doing for yourself and making the most of what you have, and I have my parents to thank for that!

A canner full of beans, ready to process.

For most of this summer I have been lamenting the fact that I didn’t have enough produce from my garden at any given time to fill up a canner. Yesterday I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and get busy I had just enough beans to fill my pressure canner. It will hold 7 quart jars. As the canner was doing its job, I started peeling, seeding and chopping tomatoes. I put them in a big stainless steel pot and got busy chopping summer squash. I mixed them together, added a little minced garlic and some fresh basil and cooked the whole mess just until the squash was slightly tender. I filled 7 more quart jars with this mix and filled my pressure canner up again! I used the time requirements for zucchini as my guide for canning this mix. When canning a mixture of vegetables, use the time recommended for the least acid food you used.

Not too bad for a day of canning from my own garden

I probably have a couple of days before there will be enough to harvest from my garden for another round of canning. So today will be used for catching up on laundry, cooking, and cleaning. Just another day in the life of a modern homesteader. What are you up to today?

Don’t you just love this vintage dish towel? It was my Grandmother’s and I brought it home after she passed away. It reminds me of helping do the dishes at her house when I was a kid

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