Peachy Keen

The farmer's granddaughter in me has always taken a real interest in learning lost arts of the land....like gardening, for instance. I'm not a great gardener by any means, but I like learning what it takes to make it work. I am fascinated by my grandma's stories of her childhood (she didn't have electricity until she was 12), or the fact that my mom went to school in a one-room schoolhouse from kindergarten through eighth grade. What did it take to survive in those days, before modern conveniences and I-phones??

On my grandparents' farm, there was always this great feeling as we sat down to a hearty dinner of hamburger (from my grandpa's cows), sweet corn (picked that afternoon from my grandpa's crops), and strawberries with sugar (picked from my grandma's garden).

So, when Christie mentioned that she'd like to learn to "can," my interest was piqued -- not because this is something I'd like to do longterm, but because I'd like to learn what it takes to stock your cellar full of preserves for the winter -- to, in essence, "live off the land."

We had some help from the Internet, a canning book, and two types of borrowed/bought equipment. And voila -- six hours and lots of elbow grease later -- 12 quarts of peaches and five pints of salsa appeared on Christie's countertop.

I don't know if I will want to do this every year. It's like gardening or anything that you like the idea of, more than the actual "doing" of it. I always start strong on my garden in the spring, but by fall, I am lucky to find anything salvageable among the weeds.

Even so, it was fun to learn, it's fun to understand, and for this year alone, I have peaches and salsa in my cabinet to show for it. :-)