Today I am canning beans...it always make me miss my mom -- I used to stand at the sink and help her snap when I was growing up -- but in lieu of the enjoyable conversation and laughter of two women working, I am trying out a podcast my mom listens to regularly, CraftLit, where each episode includes the reading of a chapter or two of a book.
My mom and I had a chuckle this morning as she gave me a tip for the canning process and I pointed out to her that of course, that was how I did it already, because I can beans just like my mom did...and she pointed out that how did I think she canned? -- just the way her mom did! Abigail's not into helping with this task quite yet, but in a few years she will become part of the generations of women who have "put up" food for their families, and hopefully she will learn the joy and wonder of being a part of an age-old tradition!
Below are a few pictures of the process...
Cleaning, culling, and snapping the beans into pieces
Some of the tools of the trade
A load (seven quart jars) in the canner
Finished product (this was the first load I did, the day we left for Florida)
1 comment:
Marsel's basically my very own Martha Stewart, except that Marsel doesn't have a rap sheet. (I know I'll get some looks and comments for that one, but I just couldn't pass up the opportunity.:))
Seriously, though, my mom canned and froze produce as well, so it thrills me that my wife carries on the tradition from both sides of the family! Not much is better than eating a quart of garden beans or a bag of frozen garden corn in the middle of the winter, when everyone else gets the comparatively tasteless, store-bought mush that is passed off as veggies.
Hooray for that entrepreneurial cave woman who first thought "I wonder if I could preserve those berries by putting them into a Mason gourd, putting that over the fire in my cave, and having my troglodyte of a husband seal up the cave for a couple days."
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