Shocking My Parents

Rewind about ten years, about this time of year. The kitchen was sticky, bottles were every where, and somewhere in the middle of that hot, canning process, I said something like, "Eh! I HATE this! I'm NEVER canning when I grow up!"

And then I got married, and people in WYMOUNT were canning. In those tiny, tiny kitchens with no place to store it, they were canning apples and peaches, acquiring fruit from Buy Low and bottles from D.I. I sort of thought they were crazy, but at the same time, I kind of envied them. Last year, I was sort of envious of Lea and her canning frenzy. Her's wasn't as intense as my mom's, and I thought, "I could do that." And then, since we had a house, a few family members asked if I wanted canning stuff that they were getting rid of, and I found myself saying, "Yeah, I think I'll give that a try."

Back in June or May, I made my first attempt with Strawberry jam. It was super easy, and Chelsea and her kids love that Jam, so Chelsea and I ordered a flat each from my co-op and went to town:  

 Nine quarts of jam total. Feeling pretty good about ourselves, we decided to try our hand at peaches. Chelsea swung up to the fruitway on one of her recent Ogden trips and brought back two bushels of Elberta peaches. We bought jars, busted out the blancher I inherited from Em, bought more pectin, made a few rookie trips to the store for sugar (we're a little embarrassed to tell Mom about that one, because we should have known the large amount of sugar it takes to can peaches after all those times doing it growing up), and a trip for new lids (the ones that came with the bottles proved to be no-good), and after two days of stickiness, we ended with 24 quarts of bottle peaches for me, 24 pints of canned peaches for Chelsea, and 24 plus--emphasis on the plus--pints of peach freezer jam for Chelsea. 

The best part? We shocked our parents, who haven't forgotten my "I hate canning" comments. I still probably won't attempt some of the things my mom did, like tomato soup, but there's something about having my own house and family that makes me want to can my own food.

Thanks, Chelsea, I couldn't have done it without you! Let's do it again next year!