Everything Old Is New Again
By: Ginger | July 31, 2009 | Category: Home and Family
When I was growing up in Iowa, my dad was really into gardening. We had a huge garden. Dad viewed gardening as a family adventure and expected everyone to help bring in the harvest. I had a pretty extreme phobia of bees. That is a
subject for another blog, but needless to say, I spent those summer gardening sessions in a constant state of fear looking around for bees.
Dad was the boss of the gardening process, but mom was queen of the canning/preserving process. She seemed especially fond of canning pickles. Every summer we would end up with countless jars of pickles prepared in every shape and variety.
Of course, I thought this whole canning thing was torture. Every summer my sisters and I washed, trimmed, and chopped whatever we were canning that day. The acidic tomato juice ran down our arms, stinging when it ran into cuts. When we did beets we would look like we were wearing purple gloves for days. We would do multiple batches of whatever veggie or fruit for that day. The pressure cooker would be boiling on the stove, clacking away. With all of that intense cooking, it was a million degrees in the house with no air conditioning.
Ironically, I look back on those memories with fondness now. I can appreciate that canning/preserving food was actually a bonding experience and something special that we did together as a family. Growing and preserving food has given me a deeper appreciation of a process that has been with us throughout the history of mankind. These life sustaining techniques have allowed humanity to advance from preparing food on the frontier to finding ways to preserve food for space exploration. Call me a nerd, but I think that is rather cool.
With our troubled economy, there has been a renewed interest in gardening and preserving food to save money. For those of you interested in learning more about preserving your own food, here are some helpful links:
- USA.gov canning results page includes links on canning vegetables, canning safety, and even some recipes for salsa and pickles.
- Freezing and Food Safety
- The Do's and Don'ts of Freezing Food
- Cost of Preserving and Storing Food
My final word on all of this? Several years ago, my parents sold their house to my sister and her family. What do you think my sister found when she was cleaning out the basement? Behind a stack of board games she found jars and jars of pickles, 32 of them, all dated from the 1970s!
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i'm currently in negotiations for a Mini-farm in Kentucky, my fiancé and I, having 5 kids between us, are looking forward to growing our own produce, and of course, canning is part of the process too. i didn't know USA.gov had a page devoted to canning, that is so cool!
so, did you eat the pickles?
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As for the the 1970's pickles... my sister said they had definitely seen better days! Apparently 30 years is a little too much to expect from a preservation process, but the board games really held up. She made her sons play Mystery Date with her. LOL!
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Aaron - East Texas
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