Raised Bed Gardening Blog

Canning

Created on Friday, 07 February 2014 09:27

Canning. Its dead of Winter in Idaho, 1977. Outside its -40, and the snow is piled 6' high on the level. The snowfall last night measured about 2' of pure powder 'feathers'. The only way to get out, is to go out a window, slide down a bank, shovel out the door, and escape! There's no way the country road is going to be plowed today, tonight, or maybe even tomorrow. No chance to go for food at the local grocery. And THAT'S when you're SO glad you went to the extra effort to can fruits and veggies last Fall. So you go into your pantry, look at the fine array of goods, and pick out what you want for dinner that night. What a feast!

   Canning is too easy not to do it in the Fall. The remuneration is immense, and delicious. A bunch of quart and pint Ball jars, a canning pot, a container of salt, some sugar if you're doing fruits, and water. Meditation time while you're slipping skins off of peaches, tomatoes, or pears, or chopping up chunks of squash, beets, or onions, destemming beans, or making up a future ratatouille or creamed corn batch. All the effort will be rewarded later when you're yearning for the taste of fresh food, and the remembrances of picking, washing, preparing, and canning it, especially if it came from your Grow Y'own raised bed gardens!

   'Keeping the Harvest' is a wonderful compendium of canning how-to's. You CAN do it. Its un-CAN-ny how easy it is. So summon up that CAN-do energy, go get some supplies, choose your favorite fruits and veggies, and look forward to the compensation that surely will be yours when you truly want it.

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