Sweet Yet Sour

The Fruits of My Labors

Sunday, September 18th, 2011 | Cooking

I generally refer to these two as the fruits of my labors (trust me – I labored):

However, this summer, things like these have been the fruits of my labors in the kitchen:

Pictured above is some of what I have been laboring over this summer; in the center are peach turnovers, and then from the left is peach jam, peach butter, bread-and-butter pickles, dill pickles and pasta sauce. Besides what is shown above I have also made a batch of raspberry jam (all of it either eaten or given away by now), peach pie, strawberry rhubarb crisp, and I have a peck of pears that I plan on using for a batch of pear/applesauce for canning this week.

For the past few summers my sister and I divided between our families an organic fruit share provided by Grant Farms.  Each week, starting in July and going generally through to November, we get a ration of whatever fruit is ripe locally.  This year we signed up for the “double” fruit share and also a half preserving share.  The preserving share was 5 shares of whatever we chose – fruit or vegetable, in a large quantity (generally about 20+ lbs).  So far we have gotten 4 of our shares: rhubarb, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peaches.

One of the things that I remember most about summer when I was a child were the days that my mother would can peaches.  She would buy an entire bushel and spread them out on the floor of our basement on a white sheet and then when they ripened she would spend a day (or more) canning the peaches.  The entire house would smell deliciously of ripe peaches and then the kitchen would be unbearably hot while my mother blanched and canned them all.  I carry with me a vision of her deftly sliding peach halves into quart jars that would delight us all winter.

But until recently, canning and preserving have eluded me; partially because when my mother did it canning seemed like a real chore.  Last summer I made apricot jam and canned on my own for the first time.  This summer I have been a canning fiend and feel that I have finally gotten the hang of it.  One day a few weeks ago my mother, my sister and I had great fun making and canning huge batches of bread-and-butter pickles (with two very different recipes) in our kitchen.  This was on the same day that Mike brewed not one, but two, beers in the garage and his friend Chris came over and brewed a third!  The house was a beehive of activity and it was great fun!

I have had several friends ask if I could instruct them on how to can and so I decided to have a “Canning Party”.  It’s scheduled for this coming weekend and I’m planning on having everyone help make a batch of jam and sending them home with a clearer idea about how to perform the boiling water canning method.  I am crossing my fingers that the farm does not send out our last portion of the preserving share this week.  It’s 45 lbs of cabbage, per Mike’s request, which he plans on making into sauerkraut.  Sauerkraut, due to the fermentation it requires to make it “sauerkrauty” cannot be canned, and thus would only complicate matters in what I’m sure will be a very busy kitchen this weekend!  Anyone who wants to come over for Rueben sandwiches with a side of coleslaw when we do get the cabbage, please let me know – we may be having a “Cabbage Party” too!

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