Hmmm, I wonder if a frilly white apron is included in the set I bought?
No, thankfully I didn’t lose my job. But what I did do today was to buy a set of canning supplies and a book about preserving foods from Amazon. I’m pretty excited.
(That’s assuming, of course, that my plants survive long enough to produce anything else… If I can convince the damn deer that my garden is NOT, in fact, an all-you-can-nom buffet. I sprayed with another type of deterrent this weekend, and it seems to be working, despite the fact that my dog, at least, seems to thing “putrescent egg solids” are quite delicious. Of course, my dog thinks that her entire body is just one large furry mouth-delivery-system for everything around her. So we shall see.)
My parents were never into preserving foods, and as far as I know, neither were their parents – my father’s parents lived in a suburb of Philadelphia, and my mother’s lived in a small town called Danville, Pennsylvania, and neither had much in the way of a garden. So, like most of my forays into gardening and other back-to-basics adventures, I’m pretty much on my own to fumble along as best I can with the help of, well, the whole of the intarwebs.
So! Intarwebs! I pray thee grant me the benefit of your wisdom. Any advice about canning, freezing, or otherwise preserving garden produce? Awesome recipes? Tales of success or of horror? Tips-n-tricks? I suspect for the most part this year I’ll just have squash, melons, pumpkins, and maybe, if I’m extremely lucky, some tomatoes and corn. But I’ll be planting more next year, so hints on things to plant that preserve well would be appreciated, too!
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I used to help my mother and grandmother with the canning, and I remember they’d set aside a day or two to get it all done. It can be hot, sweaty work (Grandma didn’t have AC), but it is so worth it.
Home-canned tomatoes are the greatest thing ever. This is going to sound weird, but when I was a kid we’d eat them cold, with a little sugar, for dessert. I swear it’s good!
My grandma canned everything in sight, including old hens that were no longer laying. The canning process turned their tough old meat into the tenderest, most flavor-infused chicken I’ve ever had. More yum.
My mom made a lot of canned pickles, but preferred the freezer for corn, green beans, and so on.
Canned… chicken? O.o That’s odd. But I guess I can see how it could be good. We shall definitely see what I have when all is said and done! Likely not any chickens, though.
Yeah, it sounds really strange and fairly disgusting. But I swear it’s good!
Butchering chickens is even more disgusting, though. I do not blame you for not going that route.
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