This year I have canned the most yet. I guess that it probably wasn't too hard to beat my other years, for I have only known how to can for four years. We Love homegrown food at our house. Having health conditions in our family is also a big encouragement to the food we "can" eat. My favorite canned fruit is peaches (love them) and my favorite veggie is green beans. Maybe the stew will crowd out the beans, who knows.
Paige has been a good helper. She usually helps me for about 20 minutes, then she will say, "I'm done canning now," wipes her hands and leaves the kitchen. Violet, well she kind of attempts to help. She is excited to help, but as soon as the first apricot, peach, or tomato gets in her little hand it goes straight to her mouth. Partly I think she gets a little frustrated in her attempt to prep, (pull the skin off or the seed out) then that leads her to forgetting her worries by enjoying the food now rather than later.
I'm not sure how many jars of everything I have canned, but this is what I do know:
-120 pounds of peaches (some regular and some as pie filling)
-14 quart & 12 pints of tomatoes
-90- 100'ish+ green beans (2/3 quarts, 1/3 pints)
-60-65'ish apple sauce (pints)
-11 pints of beats
-25 pounds of apricots
-20 pounds nectarines
-cubed, grated and froze A Lot of zucchini & crookneck squash
-picked spinach, but didn't get it frozen in time (bummer, it was time consuming to pick)
-two grocery bags worth of plums we picked, then dried
-picked Lots of cherries & dried them
-froze a few small bags of peas
Tomorrow if it's not too late I want to glean a field for some spuds to put in a root cellar. We have carrots & onions in our garden that I hope to also put in the cellar. Oh, and pick lots of apples to store too. (We love home grown apples.) I hope to also can a bunch of pears, a few more tomatoes, hopefully some stew, a little more applesauce, and apple pie filling. Wow, that sounds like a lot of canning. That makes me feel better, I have wondered often recently why my kitchen seems to consume me in upkeep lately. Yep, and that must definitely be why I am behind o
n a few other projects as well. :)
Helper #1
Helper # 2
Helper #3?
With that many green beans to snap, Paige made it creative. She used the uniquely shaped ones to make letters. For the i's and j's she used dried cherries for the dots. She is so smart and creative. I am proud of her.
P.S. A few thank you's are due. Cindy thanks for all of your help, Aaron too. Oh , and how can I forget, Jared and Jill thank you for your basement with it's limitless storage space. (:
8 comments:
Amazing! I am jealous, just about how much you have done - I hate the canning part. But there is a lot of satisfaction that comes when you see all those jars. Good job!!
Wow! I am amazed & very impressed. Good for you.
That is awesome!!
I got your message, tried to call you back this afternoon. Thanks for the heads up about your email address...I didn't know, LOL. I'm sure there are lots of emails in there from me :) he he
I'm still prego...erg. Hopefully she comes this weekend. Thanks for the phone call, hope you are doing well. talk to ya later, Love Elisa
Wow! I am so impressed, and a little bit jealous. I can't believe you got all that done WITH your kids at home. You need to teach me some of your tricks.
Sure Kathleen. Here are some of my tricks: keep as many dirty pots, pans, bowls and spoons in your kitchen as possible. Let your floor and walls have food splatters, the more the better. The greatest incentive I have found to use with my children is, "earn your keep, or you'll learn what a real sweat shop is!" Seems to work for me. Good Luck. (:
Wow Vinny, you're quite the Home maker! I'm proud of you.
So in answer to your previous post I did a little snooping on your blog to see if I could fix anything for you. There's a yes or no button that takes you off of search engine feed so I made sure that was on NO and then I made your back ground more Fallish while I was there. But really the only way to keep the weirdies away is to go private. Right now anyone can look at your blog which is a little scary, but I've found a lot of old friends from keeping mine public. The only thing is you have to type in all of your friends email addresses so they can get an invite so make sure and post about going private so everyone can send you their addresses. Good Luck, I've battled with this decision over and over.
Some day will you teach me all your real-life skills?
too bad I am not still living there...we could have grumbled together while canning the season away:) love the messes and joys it brings. sounds like your kids were as good of helpers as mine!!!! take care, and thanks for your last comment. sorry i kind of left and didn't feel you in on my "family emergency" i felt bad leaving you hanging, Jess
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