"Some moment of every summer finds me all out of canning jars. So I go to town and stand in line at the hardware store carrying one or two boxes of canning jars and lids, renewing my membership in a secret society. Elderly women, and some men, too, will smile their approval or ask outright, "What are you canning?" These folks must see me as an anomaly of my generation, an earnest holdout, while the younger clientele see me as a primordial nerdhead, if they even notice."
This is an excerpt from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which I just finished reading. Actually, I highly recommend it and would loan you my copy, but it's already promised to about 6 people!
I love canning. It's a guaranteed sense of accomplishment that you can eat for months afterward. Obviously, this surprises no one who knows me.
My recent adventure was strawberry preserves and rastrablaberry jam. Dad and I washed and stemmed the fruit, hovered over the pot as Preston and I stirred and skimmed the foam (cackling like MacBeth's hags just for kicks), boiled the jars and ladled our finished product into their new homes before re-boiling the filled jars to double-sanitize. I cut fabric for the tops and printed labels and voila! We are now selling them in the shop!
I plan to make more with blueberries and peaches and other summer fruits as they reach the zenith of their respective seasons.
Right now, available in the shop, are strawberry preserves and also rastrablaberry jam (raspeberry, strawberry, and blackberry). There's a limited amount, so don't miss it!
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