My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to ten
acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits, pigs,
and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.

No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a
freezer locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of
whatever you wanted to put in it.

I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and deer.
Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then. In addition we had a
huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath use. We canned
a lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes and in stock of the
same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder and other southern peas
were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were made into jellies and jams
and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly just covered with paraffin was
and left to sit. As you can imagine a lot of it went moldy. We just
scraped the mold off and ate it anyway. (Hardy bond servant stock from
Blighty doncha know). A practice I find dangerous nowadays with our
impaired immune systems.

As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated during
the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the coolth of
winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the food we had put
up earlier.

As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December
1960 and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever
since. We bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in
1964. An old Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever
did. New gasket every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle
(there are two) once because I dropped it and it landed on the handle.
I've got three steam gauges that are taken annually to a local shop that
has the equipment to test them. If they're off I mark the gauge glass in
Sharpie black to designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on keeping on.

We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer than
the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another pressure
canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I haven't used
it as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam gauge. I
operated high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb it's really
oil) industry and like to be able to track the pressure at all times. I
never leave the stove unattended when the canner is going.

We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
(even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food
storage)and are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift
stores. I've got more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste
not, want not is our motto.

Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes, pecans,
etc because they know we will put it up properly and share with them.
One friend just announced that we're in line for one-third of a young
steer he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal like that. We
are blessed with many good friends.

As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the end
result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our canning
friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons. I won't
repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!

All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are
not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore nor
have they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has some
good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some." Heck,
the local high schools around here no longer even have Home Economics
classes, everything is geared toward other forms of science and even
then half the kids are not fully literate. I fear my great grandchildren
will never know the joy of putting by their own food or even the growing
of that food. I do rejoice in having so many friends, even those I've
never met in person, who do enjoy putting it by. May we all live long
enough to impart our knowledge to a new generation of canners and
preservers.

George

George Shirley wrote:
> My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to
> ten acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits,
> pigs, and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>
> No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a
> freezer locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of
> whatever you wanted to put in it.
>
> I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and
> deer. Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then.

Oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was a skill to have learned so young!


In addition
> we had a huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath
> use. We canned a lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes
> and in stock of the same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder
> and other southern peas were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were
> made into jellies and jams and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly
> just covered with paraffin was and left to sit. As you can imagine a
> lot of it went moldy. We just scraped the mold off and ate it anyway.
> (Hardy bond servant stock from Blighty doncha know). A practice I
> find dangerous nowadays with our impaired immune systems.

Don't you think though that the danger thing is a bit over the top these
days George?

In UK we make jam and just cover the pot with no canning? Nor do I can
pickled onions etc.



> As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated
> during the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the
> coolth of winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the
> food we had put up earlier.

That is the way we will all need to be if the world continues as it is
going

> As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
> Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December
> 1960 and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever
> since.

Eh! You were a lucky lad)

We bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in
> 1964. An old Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever
> did. New gasket every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle
> (there are two) once because I dropped it and it landed on the handle.
> I've got three steam gauges that are taken annually to a local shop
> that has the equipment to test them. If they're off I mark the gauge
> glass in Sharpie black to designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on
> keeping on.
> We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
> aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer
> than the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another
> pressure canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I
> haven't used it as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam
> gauge. I operated high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb
> it's really oil) industry and like to be able to track the pressure
> at all times. I never leave the stove unattended when the canner is
> going.
> We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
> (even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food
> storage)and are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift
> stores. I've got more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste
> not, want not is our motto.

Perfect

>
> Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes,
> pecans, etc because they know we will put it up properly and share
> with them. One friend just announced that we're in line for one-third
> of a young steer he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal
> like that. We are blessed with many good friends.
>
> As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the
> end result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our
> canning friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons.
> I won't repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!

hahah best not


>
> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are
> not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore
> nor have they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has
> some good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some."
> Heck, the local high schools around here no longer even have Home
> Economics classes, everything is geared toward other forms of science
> and even then half the kids are not fully literate.

It is no different here George

I fear my great
> grandchildren will never know the joy of putting by their own food or
> even the growing of that food. I do rejoice in having so many
> friends, even those I've never met in person, who do enjoy putting it
> by. May we all live long enough to impart our knowledge to a new
> generation of canners and preservers.

I hope so, because they surely will need it! Our children are going just
the way you describe

Let us hope they are smart enough to learn before it is too late..

Thank you very much for sharing

O

Ophelia wrote:
> George Shirley wrote:
>> My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to
>> ten acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits,
>> pigs, and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>>
>> No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a
>> freezer locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of
>> whatever you wanted to put in it.
>>
>> I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and
>> deer. Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then.
>
> Oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was a skill to have learned so young!
>
>
> In addition
>> we had a huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath
>> use. We canned a lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes
>> and in stock of the same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder
>> and other southern peas were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were
>> made into jellies and jams and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly
>> just covered with paraffin was and left to sit. As you can imagine a
>> lot of it went moldy. We just scraped the mold off and ate it anyway.
>> (Hardy bond servant stock from Blighty doncha know). A practice I
>> find dangerous nowadays with our impaired immune systems.
>
> Don't you think though that the danger thing is a bit over the top these
> days George?
>
> In UK we make jam and just cover the pot with no canning? Nor do I can
> pickled onions etc.
>
>
>
>> As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated
>> during the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the
>> coolth of winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the
>> food we had put up earlier.
>
> That is the way we will all need to be if the world continues as it is
> going
>
>> As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
>> Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December
>> 1960 and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever
>> since.
>
> Eh! You were a lucky lad)
>
> We bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in
>> 1964. An old Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever
>> did. New gasket every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle
>> (there are two) once because I dropped it and it landed on the handle.
>> I've got three steam gauges that are taken annually to a local shop
>> that has the equipment to test them. If they're off I mark the gauge
>> glass in Sharpie black to designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on
>> keeping on.
>> We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
>> aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer
>> than the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another
>> pressure canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I
>> haven't used it as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam
>> gauge. I operated high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb
>> it's really oil) industry and like to be able to track the pressure
>> at all times. I never leave the stove unattended when the canner is
>> going.
>> We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
>> (even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food
>> storage)and are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift
>> stores. I've got more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste
>> not, want not is our motto.
>
> Perfect
>
>> Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes,
>> pecans, etc because they know we will put it up properly and share
>> with them. One friend just announced that we're in line for one-third
>> of a young steer he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal
>> like that. We are blessed with many good friends.
>>
>> As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the
>> end result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our
>> canning friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons.
>> I won't repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!
>
> hahah best not
>
>
>> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are
>> not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore
>> nor have they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has
>> some good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some."
>> Heck, the local high schools around here no longer even have Home
>> Economics classes, everything is geared toward other forms of science
>> and even then half the kids are not fully literate.
>
> It is no different here George
>
> I fear my great
>> grandchildren will never know the joy of putting by their own food or
>> even the growing of that food. I do rejoice in having so many
>> friends, even those I've never met in person, who do enjoy putting it
>> by. May we all live long enough to impart our knowledge to a new
>> generation of canners and preservers.
>
> I hope so, because they surely will need it! Our children are going just
> the way you describe
>
> Let us hope they are smart enough to learn before it is too late..
>
> Thank you very much for sharing
>
> O
>
>
UK climate is a lot different than the US, plus a lot smaller. Plus,
plus, your population hasn't been on antibiotics as much as ours has.
Many differences between the two nations, we don't even share the same
version of English anymore. If you don't believe that get two Texans
talking next to two Geordies, no one can understand either pair unless
they're from the same area. <VBG>

Today is a cool, damp November day and the temperatures are about 75F.
I've seen temps in the high seventies in the middle of February
hereabouts. I've never been in the UK when it was really hot or even
very warm, even in August. Nearly froze to death in Paris in late April
one year. Came out of the Middle East desert with only a short-sleeved
shirt and tropical slacks on.

George

On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:10:18 -0600, George Shirley
> wrote:

>My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to ten
>acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits, pigs,
>and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>
>No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a
>freezer locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of
>whatever you wanted to put in it.
>
>I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and deer.
>Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then. In addition we had a
>huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath use. We canned
>a lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes and in stock of the
>same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder and other southern peas
>were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were made into jellies and jams
>and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly just covered with paraffin was
>and left to sit. As you can imagine a lot of it went moldy. We just
>scraped the mold off and ate it anyway. (Hardy bond servant stock from
>Blighty doncha know). A practice I find dangerous nowadays with our
>impaired immune systems.
>
>As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated during
>the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the coolth of
>winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the food we had put
>up earlier.
>
>As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
>Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December
>1960 and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever
>since. We bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in
>1964. An old Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever
>did. New gasket every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle
>(there are two) once because I dropped it and it landed on the handle.
>I've got three steam gauges that are taken annually to a local shop that
>has the equipment to test them. If they're off I mark the gauge glass in
>Sharpie black to designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on keeping on.
>
>We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
>aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer than
>the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another pressure
>canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I haven't used
>it as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam gauge. I
>operated high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb it's really
>oil) industry and like to be able to track the pressure at all times. I
>never leave the stove unattended when the canner is going.
>
>We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
>(even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food
>storage)and are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift
>stores. I've got more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste
>not, want not is our motto.
>
>Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes, pecans,
>etc because they know we will put it up properly and share with them.
>One friend just announced that we're in line for one-third of a young
>steer he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal like that. We
>are blessed with many good friends.
>
>As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the end
>result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our canning
>friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons. I won't
>repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!
>
>All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are
>not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore nor
>have they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has some
>good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some." Heck,
>the local high schools around here no longer even have Home Economics
>classes, everything is geared toward other forms of science and even
>then half the kids are not fully literate. I fear my great grandchildren
>will never know the joy of putting by their own food or even the growing
>of that food. I do rejoice in having so many friends, even those I've
>never met in person, who do enjoy putting it by. May we all live long
>enough to impart our knowledge to a new generation of canners and
>preservers.
>
>George

Fond memories. I am about your age and grew up in a small town in
rural North Carolina. My parents were divorced so Mother worked and
had little time for canning. But I had lots of aunts and uncles who
either farmed or at least gardened so we had jars of food given to us.
I remember that every time you went to Uncle Oscar's you came home
with food. In the early 1950's he bought a humongous freezer. Now
that I think about it, it must have been about the size of our new
one, 25 cubic feet. He is also the one who mailed me a cigar box of
scuppernongs from NC to Florida where we had moved. They were
heavenly.

My husband & I started gardening in about 1967 in Denver. I remember
a back fence and corn planted all along it. I have no memory of
whether or not we actually got any corn. We moved to San Antonio, TX
in 1968 (can you tell we were military?) In 1969 we had a garden. We
had cucumbers since I started making pickles. And I have a picture
somewhere of me standing beside a squash plant that was about as tall
as I am, 5' 4".

After we moved to Hampton, VA in 1974 we started gardening in earnest.
We noted that a neighbor had beautiful tomato plants growing on the
east side of his house, so we did the same. We added plants each year
and then stopped for a few years while we had a store. We also added
raised beds and grew other thing in the back yard.

We have now retired and moved back to my home town in NC in 2004. We
are in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am about 20 miles
from the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am having to adapt to a slightly
shorter growing season, but we have plenty of land for gardening. Last
year we had over 100 tomato plants in addition to beans, okra, corn
and other goodies. I could not keep up the preserving. This year we
had 65 tomatoes, 7 40' rows of beans. Okra, peppers and other
things. We also have strawberry, rhubarb and asparagus plants. There
are about a dozen fruit trees out there too. I almost kept up with
the preserving since we had a late freeze which cut the early fruits
and vegetables very short. The last of the peppers are in the
dehydrator and there a couple of plastic boxes of green tomatoes in
the dining room. I just reduced 28 quarts of raw cubed pumpkin to 6
quarts of pureed. Tomorrow it goes into the freezer, after some
pumpkin custard.

Next year is going to be much smaller, unless the freezers and shelves
are much closer to empty. We actually sorted the canned goods
according to year. Get rid of the oldest first to make room for
something next year.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
.. .
> My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to ten
> acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits, pigs,
> and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>
> No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a freezer
> locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of whatever you
> wanted to put in it.
>
> I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and deer.
> Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then. In addition we had a
> huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath use. We canned a
> lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes and in stock of the
> same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder and other southern peas
> were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were made into jellies and jams
> and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly just covered with paraffin was
> and left to sit. As you can imagine a lot of it went moldy. We just
> scraped the mold off and ate it anyway. (Hardy bond servant stock from
> Blighty doncha know). A practice I find dangerous nowadays with our
> impaired immune systems.
>
> As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated during
> the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the coolth of
> winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the food we had put up
> earlier.
>
> As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
> Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December 1960
> and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever since. We
> bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in 1964. An old
> Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever did. New gasket
> every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle (there are two) once
> because I dropped it and it landed on the handle. I've got three steam
> gauges that are taken annually to a local shop that has the equipment to
> test them. If they're off I mark the gauge glass in Sharpie black to
> designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on keeping on.
>
> We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
> aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer than
> the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another pressure
> canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I haven't used it
> as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam gauge. I operated
> high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb it's really oil)
> industry and like to be able to track the pressure at all times. I never
> leave the stove unattended when the canner is going.
>
> We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
> (even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food storage)and
> are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift stores. I've got
> more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste not, want not is our
> motto.
>
> Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes, pecans,
> etc because they know we will put it up properly and share with them. One
> friend just announced that we're in line for one-third of a young steer
> he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal like that. We are
> blessed with many good friends.
>
> As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the end
> result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our canning
> friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons. I won't
> repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!
>
> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are not
> learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore nor have
> they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has some good stuff
> in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some." Heck, the local high
> schools around here no longer even have Home Economics classes, everything
> is geared toward other forms of science and even then half the kids are
> not fully literate. I fear my great grandchildren will never know the joy
> of putting by their own food or even the growing of that food. I do
> rejoice in having so many friends, even those I've never met in person,
> who do enjoy putting it by. May we all live long enough to impart our
> knowledge to a new generation of canners and preservers.
>
> George

Nice post, George. I do envy some of the opportunities you had/have.

I'm 43, does that count as a youngster? Prolly not ;-)

I remember when I was about 10, we'd go berry picking when we were camping
and my mom would make jams and jellies from what we didn't eat fresh. She
sealed with paraffin too and so that's what I did when I started canning
myself. I had an aunt who made dill pickles, but other than that, I didn't
know anyone who 'preserved'.

My very first post to rfp was back in '94 I think (but I could be wrong)
when I pickled some garlic and asked why it turned greenish turquoise -
well, all us rfp'rs know posts like that now. But it was here that I
learned about 2 piece lids and boiling water baths and other safety issues.
(So you can tell yourself that you did pass on your knowledge the next
generation of canners and preservers - cuz that would be me!!) And here
that this preserving addict gets her fix! I have all the past and present
rfp folks to thank for that. Now I do jams and jellies, pickles or all
kinds, chutneys and salsas. I don't have a pressure canner ....yet.....

My 14 year old isn't interested, but my 8 years old always wants to help
when I'm making jam or jelly - maybe she will keep the tradition going.

I personally don't eat much of what I put up - I gift it to family and
friends at Christmas. But I do enjoy watching their faces, and the
compliments I get as they open their gift bags to see what kinds of goodies
I spent the year making.

Kathi

The Cook wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:10:18 -0600, George Shirley
> > wrote:
>
>> My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to ten
>> acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits, pigs,
>> and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>>
>> No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a
>> freezer locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of
>> whatever you wanted to put in it.
>>
>> I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and deer.
>> Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then. In addition we had a
>> huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath use. We canned
>> a lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes and in stock of the
>> same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder and other southern peas
>> were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were made into jellies and jams
>> and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly just covered with paraffin was
>> and left to sit. As you can imagine a lot of it went moldy. We just
>> scraped the mold off and ate it anyway. (Hardy bond servant stock from
>> Blighty doncha know). A practice I find dangerous nowadays with our
>> impaired immune systems.
>>
>> As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated during
>> the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the coolth of
>> winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the food we had put
>> up earlier.
>>
>> As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
>> Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December
>> 1960 and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever
>> since. We bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in
>> 1964. An old Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever
>> did. New gasket every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle
>> (there are two) once because I dropped it and it landed on the handle.
>> I've got three steam gauges that are taken annually to a local shop that
>> has the equipment to test them. If they're off I mark the gauge glass in
>> Sharpie black to designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on keeping on.
>>
>> We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
>> aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer than
>> the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another pressure
>> canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I haven't used
>> it as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam gauge. I
>> operated high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb it's really
>> oil) industry and like to be able to track the pressure at all times. I
>> never leave the stove unattended when the canner is going.
>>
>> We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
>> (even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food
>> storage)and are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift
>> stores. I've got more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste
>> not, want not is our motto.
>>
>> Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes, pecans,
>> etc because they know we will put it up properly and share with them.
>> One friend just announced that we're in line for one-third of a young
>> steer he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal like that. We
>> are blessed with many good friends.
>>
>> As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the end
>> result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our canning
>> friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons. I won't
>> repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!
>>
>> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are
>> not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore nor
>> have they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has some
>> good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some." Heck,
>> the local high schools around here no longer even have Home Economics
>> classes, everything is geared toward other forms of science and even
>> then half the kids are not fully literate. I fear my great grandchildren
>> will never know the joy of putting by their own food or even the growing
>> of that food. I do rejoice in having so many friends, even those I've
>> never met in person, who do enjoy putting it by. May we all live long
>> enough to impart our knowledge to a new generation of canners and
>> preservers.
>>
>> George
>
> Fond memories. I am about your age and grew up in a small town in
> rural North Carolina. My parents were divorced so Mother worked and
> had little time for canning. But I had lots of aunts and uncles who
> either farmed or at least gardened so we had jars of food given to us.
> I remember that every time you went to Uncle Oscar's you came home
> with food. In the early 1950's he bought a humongous freezer. Now
> that I think about it, it must have been about the size of our new
> one, 25 cubic feet. He is also the one who mailed me a cigar box of
> scuppernongs from NC to Florida where we had moved. They were
> heavenly.
>
> My husband & I started gardening in about 1967 in Denver. I remember
> a back fence and corn planted all along it. I have no memory of
> whether or not we actually got any corn. We moved to San Antonio, TX
> in 1968 (can you tell we were military?) In 1969 we had a garden. We
> had cucumbers since I started making pickles. And I have a picture
> somewhere of me standing beside a squash plant that was about as tall
> as I am, 5' 4".
>
> After we moved to Hampton, VA in 1974 we started gardening in earnest.
> We noted that a neighbor had beautiful tomato plants growing on the
> east side of his house, so we did the same. We added plants each year
> and then stopped for a few years while we had a store. We also added
> raised beds and grew other thing in the back yard.
>
> We have now retired and moved back to my home town in NC in 2004. We
> are in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am about 20 miles
> from the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am having to adapt to a slightly
> shorter growing season, but we have plenty of land for gardening. Last
> year we had over 100 tomato plants in addition to beans, okra, corn
> and other goodies. I could not keep up the preserving. This year we
> had 65 tomatoes, 7 40' rows of beans. Okra, peppers and other
> things. We also have strawberry, rhubarb and asparagus plants. There
> are about a dozen fruit trees out there too. I almost kept up with
> the preserving since we had a late freeze which cut the early fruits
> and vegetables very short. The last of the peppers are in the
> dehydrator and there a couple of plastic boxes of green tomatoes in
> the dining room. I just reduced 28 quarts of raw cubed pumpkin to 6
> quarts of pureed. Tomorrow it goes into the freezer, after some
> pumpkin custard.
>
> Next year is going to be much smaller, unless the freezers and shelves
> are much closer to empty. We actually sorted the canned goods
> according to year. Get rid of the oldest first to make room for
> something next year.

I did the same thing this year. Discovered some stuff that went back to
2003. I normally toss the contents after two years are up so it was a
surprise.

Speaking of surprises, I was in the freezer today redoing the inventory
and ran upon a side of silver salmon from a whole salmon a friend sent
us last year. Had filleted the fish and put the fillets up in vacuum
bags so it was in mint condition. It will be grilled for supper tomorrow
with lemon and garlic. No other surprises except we are running out of
last years cauliflower and broccoli quickly.

George

Kathi Jones wrote:
> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> .. .
>> My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to ten
>> acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows, rabbits, pigs,
>> and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>>
>> No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a freezer
>> locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of whatever you
>> wanted to put in it.
>>
>> I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and deer.
>> Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then. In addition we had a
>> huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling water bath use. We canned a
>> lot of meat back then, mostly cut into small cubes and in stock of the
>> same meat. Loads of green beans, corn, crowder and other southern peas
>> were canned too. Wild berries and fruit were made into jellies and jams
>> and, sometimes, water bathed, but mostly just covered with paraffin was
>> and left to sit. As you can imagine a lot of it went moldy. We just
>> scraped the mold off and ate it anyway. (Hardy bond servant stock from
>> Blighty doncha know). A practice I find dangerous nowadays with our
>> impaired immune systems.
>>
>> As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated during
>> the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the coolth of
>> winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the food we had put up
>> earlier.
>>
>> As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in the
>> Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in December 1960
>> and have been putting up food for our family and friends ever since. We
>> bought our pressure canner, as near as I can reconstruct, in 1964. An old
>> Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as good as it ever did. New gasket
>> every couple of years, had to buy a new lid handle (there are two) once
>> because I dropped it and it landed on the handle. I've got three steam
>> gauges that are taken annually to a local shop that has the equipment to
>> test them. If they're off I mark the gauge glass in Sharpie black to
>> designate 11 psig and 15 psig and keep on keeping on.
>>
>> We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
>> aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer than
>> the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another pressure
>> canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I haven't used it
>> as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no steam gauge. I operated
>> high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for Barb it's really oil)
>> industry and like to be able to track the pressure at all times. I never
>> leave the stove unattended when the canner is going.
>>
>> We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
>> (even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food storage)and
>> are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift stores. I've got
>> more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste not, want not is our
>> motto.
>>
>> Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes, pecans,
>> etc because they know we will put it up properly and share with them. One
>> friend just announced that we're in line for one-third of a young steer
>> he's going to butcher in January. Can't beat a deal like that. We are
>> blessed with many good friends.
>>
>> As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the end
>> result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our canning
>> friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons. I won't
>> repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!
>>
>> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are not
>> learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore nor have
>> they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has some good stuff
>> in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some." Heck, the local high
>> schools around here no longer even have Home Economics classes, everything
>> is geared toward other forms of science and even then half the kids are
>> not fully literate. I fear my great grandchildren will never know the joy
>> of putting by their own food or even the growing of that food. I do
>> rejoice in having so many friends, even those I've never met in person,
>> who do enjoy putting it by. May we all live long enough to impart our
>> knowledge to a new generation of canners and preservers.
>>
>> George
>
> Nice post, George. I do envy some of the opportunities you had/have.
>
> I'm 43, does that count as a youngster? Prolly not ;-)
Yeah, you're still a younker. My youngest child is only a year older
than you and my eldest grandson is about seventeen years younger than
you. I won't say any of the ages of the other canners on here that I
know but we're almost all pretty darned old. <BSEG>
>
> I remember when I was about 10, we'd go berry picking when we were camping
> and my mom would make jams and jellies from what we didn't eat fresh. She
> sealed with paraffin too and so that's what I did when I started canning
> myself. I had an aunt who made dill pickles, but other than that, I didn't
> know anyone who 'preserved'.
>
> My very first post to rfp was back in '94 I think (but I could be wrong)
> when I pickled some garlic and asked why it turned greenish turquoise -
> well, all us rfp'rs know posts like that now. But it was here that I
> learned about 2 piece lids and boiling water baths and other safety issues.
> (So you can tell yourself that you did pass on your knowledge the next
> generation of canners and preservers - cuz that would be me!!) And here
> that this preserving addict gets her fix! I have all the past and present
> rfp folks to thank for that. Now I do jams and jellies, pickles or all
> kinds, chutneys and salsas. I don't have a pressure canner ....yet.....
>
> My 14 year old isn't interested, but my 8 years old always wants to help
> when I'm making jam or jelly - maybe she will keep the tradition going.
>
> I personally don't eat much of what I put up - I gift it to family and
> friends at Christmas. But I do enjoy watching their faces, and the
> compliments I get as they open their gift bags to see what kinds of goodies
> I spent the year making.
>
> Kathi
>
>
>
Your children's attitudes may change. I see lots of young people sort of
yearning for a return to some of the old ways, as long as it doesn't
involve too much work.

George

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
.. .
> Kathi Jones wrote:
> >
> > I'm 43, does that count as a youngster? Prolly not ;-)
> Yeah, you're still a younker. My youngest child is only a year older
> than you and my eldest grandson is about seventeen years younger than
> you. I won't say any of the ages of the other canners on here that I
> know but we're almost all pretty darned old. <BSEG>
> >

Hey, watch who yer calling old <G>.....I'm just a year older than Kathi and
been canning since I was a pup helping mom around the house!

Heck, one of my 2 Presto pressure canners is older than I am and it still
works like a champ! :-) The wife and both boys were into it with me last
year when this idiot decided to start tomato plants from seed as a winter
project. Does anyone know how many seeds are even *in* a single
packet?......much less 5 varieties/packets?.....I gave away boo-coop plants
and still wound up with over a hundred in the ground. We ended the year with
IIRC 168 pints of salsa alone.

These are pictures of the first batch of salsa (36 pints) and the final (and
smallest) major picking of the season for 06.

Salsa
http://tinyurl.com/yujwx7

For reference on the quantity of tomatoes in this picking, they stand mostly
2 deep and the section of countertop they cover is 3' wide and 8' long. I
can and will call BS on all the naysayers of late about whether or not it is
feasible to blanch, peel and dice 500 tomatoes. (Accomplished the task all
by my lonesome on this batch that likely numbered 300+ )

http://tinyurl.com/yovvld

Alas, with my travel schedule and our severe drought........ this season was
mostly a bust.

KW

KW wrote:
> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> .. .
>> Kathi Jones wrote:
>>> I'm 43, does that count as a youngster? Prolly not ;-)
>> Yeah, you're still a younker. My youngest child is only a year older
>> than you and my eldest grandson is about seventeen years younger than
>> you. I won't say any of the ages of the other canners on here that I
>> know but we're almost all pretty darned old. <BSEG>
>
> Hey, watch who yer calling old <G>.....I'm just a year older than Kathi and
> been canning since I was a pup helping mom around the house!
>
> Heck, one of my 2 Presto pressure canners is older than I am and it still
> works like a champ! :-) The wife and both boys were into it with me last
> year when this idiot decided to start tomato plants from seed as a winter
> project. Does anyone know how many seeds are even *in* a single
> packet?......much less 5 varieties/packets?.....I gave away boo-coop plants
> and still wound up with over a hundred in the ground. We ended the year with
> IIRC 168 pints of salsa alone.
>
Try Pinetree Seeds online, they sell much smaller seed packets than most
seedsmen. I gave up growing more than 4 or 5 plants when the last kid
left home.

> These are pictures of the first batch of salsa (36 pints) and the final (and
> smallest) major picking of the season for 06.
>
> Salsa
> http://tinyurl.com/yujwx7
>
> For reference on the quantity of tomatoes in this picking, they stand mostly
> 2 deep and the section of countertop they cover is 3' wide and 8' long. I
> can and will call BS on all the naysayers of late about whether or not it is
> feasible to blanch, peel and dice 500 tomatoes. (Accomplished the task all
> by my lonesome on this batch that likely numbered 300+ )
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yovvld
>
> Alas, with my travel schedule and our severe drought........ this season was
> mostly a bust.
>
> KW
Who is going to eat all that salsa, that would be a fifty year supply
for us? Good thing you had a drought or you would be over your head in
tomatoes. They look good though, usually the stink bugs, etc get to ours
and then the squirrels and red birds get them just as they ripen.

George

>
>

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
.. .
> KW wrote:
> > "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> > .. .
> >> Kathi Jones wrote:
> >>> I'm 43, does that count as a youngster? Prolly not ;-)
> >> Yeah, you're still a younker. My youngest child is only a year older
> >> than you and my eldest grandson is about seventeen years younger than
> >> you. I won't say any of the ages of the other canners on here that I
> >> know but we're almost all pretty darned old. <BSEG>
> >
> > Hey, watch who yer calling old <G>.....I'm just a year older than Kathi
and
> > been canning since I was a pup helping mom around the house!
> >
> > Heck, one of my 2 Presto pressure canners is older than I am and it
still
> > works like a champ! :-) The wife and both boys were into it with me last
> > year when this idiot decided to start tomato plants from seed as a
winter
> > project. Does anyone know how many seeds are even *in* a single
> > packet?......much less 5 varieties/packets?.....I gave away boo-coop
plants
> > and still wound up with over a hundred in the ground. We ended the year
with
> > IIRC 168 pints of salsa alone.
> >
> Try Pinetree Seeds online, they sell much smaller seed packets than most
> seedsmen. I gave up growing more than 4 or 5 plants when the last kid
> left home.

Thanks I'll look that one up!

>
> > These are pictures of the first batch of salsa (36 pints) and the final
(and
> > smallest) major picking of the season for 06.
> >
> > Salsa
> > http://tinyurl.com/yujwx7
> >
> > For reference on the quantity of tomatoes in this picking, they stand
mostly
> > 2 deep and the section of countertop they cover is 3' wide and 8' long.
I
> > can and will call BS on all the naysayers of late about whether or not
it is
> > feasible to blanch, peel and dice 500 tomatoes. (Accomplished the task
all
> > by my lonesome on this batch that likely numbered 300+ )
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/yovvld
> >
> > Alas, with my travel schedule and our severe drought........ this season
was
> > mostly a bust.
> >
> > KW
> Who is going to eat all that salsa, that would be a fifty year supply
> for us? Good thing you had a drought or you would be over your head in
> tomatoes. They look good though, usually the stink bugs, etc get to ours
> and then the squirrels and red birds get them just as they ripen.
>
> George


Well in 2005, I put up 26 pints and after sharing 1 or 2 pints, the whole
batch somehow disappeared by October. I was bound and determined to have
plenty to share in 07 .....Remember the old Prell shampoo commercials?
(IIRC from the late 70's/early 80's)...well those 2 friends told 2
friends....and so on...and so on....Anyway, God blessed me with a bounty and
I gave accordingly! Believe it or not here it is just 14 months later and I
have less than a dozen jars remaining to last until next years crop starts
coming in.

Keith

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
.. .
>
> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today are
> not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it anymore nor
> have they taught their children anything other than "Granpa has some
> good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll give you some." Heck,
> the local high schools around here no longer even have Home Economics
> classes, everything is geared toward other forms of science and even
> then half the kids are not fully literate. I fear my great grandchildren
> will never know the joy of putting by their own food or even the growing
> of that food. I do rejoice in having so many friends, even those I've
> never met in person, who do enjoy putting it by. May we all live long
> enough to impart our knowledge to a new generation of canners and
> preservers.
>

I'm 41 so I guess I'm another youngster.

I would have done a lot more canning when I was younger but like
a lot of young people I lived in a succession of apartments, which
typically have very small kitchens which are not easy to work with.
They also tend to have electric stoves. But most important, they
don't have dirt or any place to grow anything.

There are a few urban gardens in the area but walking 10-15
blocks in the rain to work a patch of dirt 50'x100' and sharing that
with 20 other plots is not really worth it.

Green vegetables really suck when canned, they turn to mush, and
a lot of the urban gardens don't let you put in cane berry crops or other
fruit crops like fruit trees, so what you can get out of an urban garden
isn't that useful for canning. And eventually you get sick of eating
tomatoes or derivative foods. And unless you can and put up enough
food to last for the year, home preserving becomes just a seasonal
thing.

This year I put up about 20-30 quarts of jam, about 30-40 quarts of pear
halves, and I'm working on another 20-30 or so quarts of applesauce.
My only costs for the fruit for all of it was in gasoline, all of the
fruit came free from gleaning efforts.

I own my home now but another contributing problem I think is
that most home properties are landscaped with ornamental trees.
My parents still live in the suburban home they bought in 1975 but
there isn't a fruit tree anywhere on their property - if I had known
as a boy what I know now, I would have at least planted an apple
tree there.

There is a growing movement out there called "urban gleaning"
here is where I got part of my fruit this summer:

http://cookingupastory.com/index.php...ruit-gleaning/

You may notice that the folks in the video are also "youngsters"
They had several canning parties this year and taught a number of
folks how to can.

Food preserving is a natural follow on to cooking. Cooking, food
growing, gardening, and preserving are all wrapped up with each other.
This paradigm is utterly foreign to adults who were raised from
childhood on a steady diet of microwave-ready meals, fast food
take out, and genetically-engineered, shipped-from-Mexico,
picked-when-green-and-ripened-with-ethylene-gas food in
the Supermarket. To them, the taste of a Tomato harvested
at the peak of ripeness isn't "normal" The taste of fresh food is,
to them, an acquired taste.

The only way to change the situation is to catch the kids when
they are young, and start introducing them to regular home cooked
meals of wide variety. Later when they are older you start having
them help with the cooking. A family that doesen't cook on a regular
basis, or who does cook but the cooking is limited to making just
a few foods, is teaching the kids that cooking is nothing more than
a means of getting food ready to eat, it is not an end in of itself.

If the kids are taught to cook well, then they are going to start
really learning how things taste and how they are supposed to taste.
That is a natural lead in to teaching them how to select the best
ingredients, and later on how to garden and grow their own, then
eventually learn to preserve the extra.

Ted

On Wed, 7 Nov 2007 20:09:02 -0500, "KW"
<keith_warrennospamatallteldotnet> wrote:

>
>"George Shirley" > wrote in message
. ..
>> Kathi Jones wrote:
>> >
>> > I'm 43, does that count as a youngster? Prolly not ;-)
>> Yeah, you're still a younker. My youngest child is only a year older
>> than you and my eldest grandson is about seventeen years younger than
>> you. I won't say any of the ages of the other canners on here that I
>> know but we're almost all pretty darned old. <BSEG>
>> >
>
>Hey, watch who yer calling old <G>.....I'm just a year older than Kathi and
>been canning since I was a pup helping mom around the house!
>
>Heck, one of my 2 Presto pressure canners is older than I am and it still
>works like a champ! :-) The wife and both boys were into it with me last
>year when this idiot decided to start tomato plants from seed as a winter
>project. Does anyone know how many seeds are even *in* a single
>packet?......much less 5 varieties/packets?.....I gave away boo-coop plants
>and still wound up with over a hundred in the ground. We ended the year with
>IIRC 168 pints of salsa alone.

You don't have to plant all the seeds in one year. I have used 5 year
old tomato seeds with no problem. I always start more seeds than I
want plants. Last year we had over 100 tomato plants. This year it
was 65. Next year down to about 25. We are still eating tomatoes
from 2005.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

George Shirley wrote:
> UK climate is a lot different than the US, plus a lot smaller. Plus,
> plus, your population hasn't been on antibiotics as much as ours has.
> Many differences between the two nations, we don't even share the same
> version of English anymore. If you don't believe that get two Texans
> talking next to two Geordies, no one can understand either pair unless
> they're from the same area. <VBG>

Aye, fair comment, our temperatures are much lower.


> Today is a cool, damp November day and the temperatures are about 75F.
> I've seen temps in the high seventies in the middle of February
> hereabouts. I've never been in the UK when it was really hot or even
> very warm, even in August. Nearly froze to death in Paris in late
> April one year. Came out of the Middle East desert with only a
> short-sleeved shirt and tropical slacks on.

Hahahahaa I can imagine

The Cook wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:10:18 -0600, George Shirley
> > wrote:
>
>> My first memory of putting food by is about age 10 when we moved to
>> ten acres in the Texas countryside. We had a couple of cows,
>> rabbits, pigs, and chickens and a huge (3 acre) truck garden.
>>
>> No home freezer as they were rare in that day (1949) but we had a
>> freezer locker at a place in the nearby town. Held about 200 lbs of
>> whatever you wanted to put in it.
>>
>> I remember helping my Dad and uncles to butcher calves, hogs, and
>> deer. Was butchering rabbits and chickens myself by then. In
>> addition we had a huge pressure canner and a big pot for boiling
>> water bath use. We canned a lot of meat back then, mostly cut into
>> small cubes and in stock of the same meat. Loads of green beans,
>> corn, crowder and other southern peas were canned too. Wild berries
>> and fruit were made into jellies and jams and, sometimes, water
>> bathed, but mostly just covered with paraffin was and left to sit.
>> As you can imagine a lot of it went moldy. We just scraped the mold
>> off and ate it anyway. (Hardy bond servant stock from Blighty doncha
>> know). A practice I find dangerous nowadays with our impaired immune
>> systems.
>>
>> As a young lad I remember how much work it was and how we sweated
>> during the summer and fall in the humid SE Texas weather. During the
>> coolth of winter the sweat was forgotten as we feasted on all the
>> food we had put up earlier.
>>
>> As luck would have it I met a beautiful young woman while I was in
>> the Navy who came from a family of gardeners too. We married in
>> December 1960 and have been putting up food for our family and
>> friends ever since. We bought our pressure canner, as near as I can
>> reconstruct, in 1964. An old Sears Roebuck jobby that still works as
>> good as it ever did. New gasket every couple of years, had to buy a
>> new lid handle (there are two) once because I dropped it and it
>> landed on the handle. I've got three steam gauges that are taken
>> annually to a local shop that has the equipment to test them. If
>> they're off I mark the gauge glass in Sharpie black to designate 11
>> psig and 15 psig and keep on keeping on.
>>
>> We're on our eighth or ninth water bath kettle and this latest one is
>> aluminum and has a stainless steel rack so should last a lot longer
>> than the enameled steel pots we used to use. We also have another
>> pressure canner, somewhat smaller than our old 18 quart one, but I
>> haven't used it as yet because I'm leery of the jiggler with no
>> steam gauge. I operated high pressure boilers in the oll (that's for
>> Barb it's really oil) industry and like to be able to track the
>> pressure at all times. I never leave the stove unattended when the
>> canner is going.
>>
>> We have ten or twelve cases of jars ranging from half pints to quarts
>> (even have a case of gallon jars but I use those for dry food
>> storage)and are always looking for more at garage sales and thrift
>> stores. I've got more jar rings than I will use in my lifetime. Waste
>> not, want not is our motto.
>>
>> Friends are always calling us about their excess fruit, grapes,
>> pecans, etc because they know we will put it up properly and share
>> with them. One friend just announced that we're in line for
>> one-third of a young steer he's going to butcher in January. Can't
>> beat a deal like that. We are blessed with many good friends.
>>
>> As you all know home preserving is quite often a lot of work but the
>> end result is well worth it. We all live vicariously through our
>> canning friends on rfp who enter fairs and garner all those ribbons.
>> I won't repeat what they call themselves as it isn't polite. Ha!
>>
>> All of that being said I grieve because so many young people today
>> are not learning about home preserving. My own kids don't do it
>> anymore nor have they taught their children anything other than
>> "Granpa has some good stuff in the pantry, go admire it and he'll
>> give you some." Heck, the local high schools around here no longer
>> even have Home Economics classes, everything is geared toward other
>> forms of science and even then half the kids are not fully literate.
>> I fear my great grandchildren will never know the joy of putting by
>> their own food or even the growing of that food. I do rejoice in
>> having so many friends, even those I've never met in person, who do
>> enjoy putting it by. May we all live long enough to impart our
>> knowledge to a new generation of canners and preservers.
>>
>> George
>
> Fond memories. I am about your age and grew up in a small town in
> rural North Carolina. My parents were divorced so Mother worked and
> had little time for canning. But I had lots of aunts and uncles who
> either farmed or at least gardened so we had jars of food given to us.
> I remember that every time you went to Uncle Oscar's you came home
> with food. In the early 1950's he bought a humongous freezer. Now
> that I think about it, it must have been about the size of our new
> one, 25 cubic feet. He is also the one who mailed me a cigar box of
> scuppernongs from NC to Florida where we had moved. They were
> heavenly.
>
> My husband & I started gardening in about 1967 in Denver. I remember
> a back fence and corn planted all along it. I have no memory of
> whether or not we actually got any corn. We moved to San Antonio, TX
> in 1968 (can you tell we were military?) In 1969 we had a garden. We
> had cucumbers since I started making pickles. And I have a picture
> somewhere of me standing beside a squash plant that was about as tall
> as I am, 5' 4".
>
> After we moved to Hampton, VA in 1974 we started gardening in earnest.
> We noted that a neighbor had beautiful tomato plants growing on the
> east side of his house, so we did the same. We added plants each year
> and then stopped for a few years while we had a store. We also added
> raised beds and grew other thing in the back yard.
>
> We have now retired and moved back to my home town in NC in 2004. We
> are in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am about 20 miles
> from the Blue Ridge Parkway. I am having to adapt to a slightly
> shorter growing season, but we have plenty of land for gardening. Last
> year we had over 100 tomato plants in addition to beans, okra, corn
> and other goodies. I could not keep up the preserving. This year we
> had 65 tomatoes, 7 40' rows of beans. Okra, peppers and other
> things. We also have strawberry, rhubarb and asparagus plants. There
> are about a dozen fruit trees out there too. I almost kept up with
> the preserving since we had a late freeze which cut the early fruits
> and vegetables very short. The last of the peppers are in the
> dehydrator and there a couple of plastic boxes of green tomatoes in
> the dining room. I just reduced 28 quarts of raw cubed pumpkin to 6
> quarts of pureed. Tomorrow it goes into the freezer, after some
> pumpkin custard.
>
> Next year is going to be much smaller, unless the freezers and shelves
> are much closer to empty. We actually sorted the canned goods
> according to year. Get rid of the oldest first to make room for
> something next year.

Many thanks for sharing

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
.. .

snippage of a wonderful story


I fall in the midrange (48) and I didn't have a mom who cooked. I grew up
with the aunties cooking mass quantities and putting up some. I was never
invited as they felt the kids had no place in the kitchen. Thank God for
Aunty Mary, my next door neighbor and friend's mom. She worked full time as
did her husband and they had a 50 acre garden in the Piedmont Sandhills of
NC. She would grow and can anything and any extra pair of hands was
appreciated. She taught me rudementary cooking and some basic craft skills
(my mom was crafty but had no patience to teach it). I remember being the
'littlest kid' I had the job of intestine holder when they butchered the
hogs (hold the the intestines while boiling water is rinsed thru them to
remove the poo so the intestines can then be washed and used as sausage
casings)......for this I got to later (after washing my hands of course)
help mix the sausage meat.

Moved on, went to college, got married, had 1 kidlet, and started wondering
just how to cook. Bought a few cookbooks, remembered some of the aunties
doing certain things with certain items. Had a few more kidlests and
started to really wonder how to save money. By this time, we lived in
Philly, so I started a little garden in my back yard (13'x24' and that
includes the paved area with a clothesline - older neighbors smiled when I
hung out clothes, new ones asked about why I didn't use a dryer). Grew
tomatoes and peppers. Ate them as soon as they came off the vine.

Moved north of Philly and put in a little garden, not much to write home
about, but the squirrels and deer appreciate my efforts. Eldest son in
scouts at time and an older woman was canning one day when I had to drop off
something for the scout unit. I was intrigued. She invited me in and the
rest was history. She took me to a couple of 'pick your own' orchards
(sadly, now housing developements) and I got to pick what I wanted to can.
Now I rely on farmers' markets, but at least they were grown at someone's
home.

Then I discovered or shall I say, was discovered by Barb, the Queen of all
canning, and the rest is history. She initiated me into how to really become
a Ribbon Whore. I started canning and putting things in fairs, and the rest
is history.

So to the originator, Betty, and the instigator, Barb, I tip my hat.

I have discovered a website called the Urban Homemaker. They sell canning
items, tell stories and give general advice. To the more religious of the
lot, they teach a premise called the Titus 2 woman, where the younger are
taught skills to care for the older when they need it (referenced to the
book of Titus in the Bible). They actually have a syllabus on how to teach
young girls (and I add boys to the list, as my boys can cook, my girls -
forget it) the homemaking arts, from cooking, to canning, to bread making,
to sewing, homecrafts, etc. I am trying to encourage my church's youth
group to look into buying the syllabus, and I would try to gather up some of
the more seasoned ladies who remember how to do this and teach it. If we
don't try to teach the next generation, they will be looking in the pantry
after we're gone and ask where the pickles went to......

-ginny

Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> .. .
>
> snippage of a wonderful story
>
>
> I fall in the midrange (48) and I didn't have a mom who cooked. I grew up
> with the aunties cooking mass quantities and putting up some. I was never
> invited as they felt the kids had no place in the kitchen. Thank God for
> Aunty Mary, my next door neighbor and friend's mom. She worked full time as
> did her husband and they had a 50 acre garden in the Piedmont Sandhills of
> NC. She would grow and can anything and any extra pair of hands was
> appreciated. She taught me rudementary cooking and some basic craft skills
> (my mom was crafty but had no patience to teach it). I remember being the
> 'littlest kid' I had the job of intestine holder when they butchered the
> hogs (hold the the intestines while boiling water is rinsed thru them to
> remove the poo so the intestines can then be washed and used as sausage
> casings)......for this I got to later (after washing my hands of course)
> help mix the sausage meat.
>
> Moved on, went to college, got married, had 1 kidlet, and started wondering
> just how to cook. Bought a few cookbooks, remembered some of the aunties
> doing certain things with certain items. Had a few more kidlests and
> started to really wonder how to save money. By this time, we lived in
> Philly, so I started a little garden in my back yard (13'x24' and that
> includes the paved area with a clothesline - older neighbors smiled when I
> hung out clothes, new ones asked about why I didn't use a dryer). Grew
> tomatoes and peppers. Ate them as soon as they came off the vine.
>
> Moved north of Philly and put in a little garden, not much to write home
> about, but the squirrels and deer appreciate my efforts. Eldest son in
> scouts at time and an older woman was canning one day when I had to drop off
> something for the scout unit. I was intrigued. She invited me in and the
> rest was history. She took me to a couple of 'pick your own' orchards
> (sadly, now housing developements) and I got to pick what I wanted to can.
> Now I rely on farmers' markets, but at least they were grown at someone's
> home.
>
> Then I discovered or shall I say, was discovered by Barb, the Queen of all
> canning, and the rest is history. She initiated me into how to really become
> a Ribbon Whore. I started canning and putting things in fairs, and the rest
> is history.
>
> So to the originator, Betty, and the instigator, Barb, I tip my hat.
>
> I have discovered a website called the Urban Homemaker. They sell canning
> items, tell stories and give general advice. To the more religious of the
> lot, they teach a premise called the Titus 2 woman, where the younger are
> taught skills to care for the older when they need it (referenced to the
> book of Titus in the Bible). They actually have a syllabus on how to teach
> young girls (and I add boys to the list, as my boys can cook, my girls -
> forget it) the homemaking arts, from cooking, to canning, to bread making,
> to sewing, homecrafts, etc. I am trying to encourage my church's youth
> group to look into buying the syllabus, and I would try to gather up some of
> the more seasoned ladies who remember how to do this and teach it. If we
> don't try to teach the next generation, they will be looking in the pantry
> after we're gone and ask where the pickles went to......
>
> -ginny
>
>
You stirred my memory Ginny. My great grandmother lived with us for a
few years when I was a wee laddie. She taught me to knit, crochet, and
tat lace. Skills I have since lost for lack of doing it more often.
Learned to cook at my Dad's knee and his mother's side, she ran small
cafe's as she was widowed at about age 50 and still had two kids at home.

I had forgotten about clothes lines. I welded some two inch pipe
together into "Tees", put them in the ground and cemented them then
strung galvanized wire on them, four strands. Miz Anne had a clothes
line, which by the way, was all her parents ever had or mine. We lived
in an 8X49 mobile home on a half acre we owned, gardened on the adjacent
land which belonged to my Dad, fished in his pond, hunted squirrels and
rabbits on the same land and made ends meet until I got a really good
job with benefits. It's amazing what we will do to improve our way in
life when we have too. Sounds like you grew up in about the same way but
twenty years later than we did. Good thing you found the folks to teach
you, including Barb. She's been a big help over the years for all of us.
I think I've been reading this newsgroup since about 1992 but don't
really remember anymore.

George

"Ted Mittelstaedt" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> Green vegetables really suck when canned, they turn to mush, and
> a lot of the urban gardens don't let you put in cane berry crops or other
> fruit crops like fruit trees, so what you can get out of an urban garden
> isn't that useful for canning. And eventually you get sick of eating
> tomatoes or derivative foods. And unless you can and put up enough
> food to last for the year, home preserving becomes just a seasonal
> thing.

I canned some green beans in 2005 and 2006 because I wanted to enter them in
the county fair. I wouldn't go so far as to say they sucked, but canning
isn't the best way to preserve them.

I'll take exception to what you say about the produce from urban gardens not
being that useful for canning. Tomatoes can very nicely and, more
importantly, can be the base for killer home preserved salsa. Then there's
pickles -- not just cucumbers, but dilly beans. And zucchini (the hardest
part of growing which is getting rid of the ones you don't want to eat,
freeze or pickle -- I swear you can stand and watch the zucchini fruits get
larger).

Carrots and cauliflower pickle nicely, too. One year I cut zucchini and
carrots into stips the right size to stand up in half-pint jars, and pickled
them. I nestled in a clove of garlic and a sprig of oregano, on the outside
where you could see them. Made a very pretty presentation, and the pickles
were yummy, too.

Anny

"George Shirley" > wrote in message
.. .
> Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
>> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
>> .. .
>>
>> snippage of a wonderful story
>
> I had forgotten about clothes lines.

(more big snip)

hey!! I have a clothes line! I actually have 2!!! I used to fill the
original one and then have to wait for everything to dry before I could pull
it all down and fill it back up again. So I begged for another. Now I have
2 that are as long as we could get clothes line rope for. Everything goes
on the clothes lines. I'm known as the Laundry Queen in my neighbourhood -
I have a neighbour who tries to get her laundry out before I do every
Saturday morning - it has become a competition - she'll never win. ;-)

My grandmother loves my clothes lines. She told me the story of how she
used to open the bathroom window on the second floor of the 2 story house my
Dad (and his 5 siblings) grew up in, to lean out to hang the day's laundry -
all year round. This after hand washing everything and putting through the
ringer. Her hands tell the truer story.

I cook and bake all the time and my family appreciates it when I do. I've
been a stay at home mom for 10 years, but am now back at work full time, so
the baking is suffering a bit. Most of this year's preserving is done for
2007 - I have a few things in the freezer that I put there "for when I have
the time".

Much of what I do is because it's what my Mom did. I think my 2 girls will
learn by example. At least I hope so, for Holly (my 8 year old) will never
find a strawberry kiwi jam as good as what she's used to

Kathi

"Anny Middon" > wrote in message
t...
> "Ted Mittelstaedt" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> >
> > Green vegetables really suck when canned, they turn to mush, and
> > a lot of the urban gardens don't let you put in cane berry crops or
other
> > fruit crops like fruit trees, so what you can get out of an urban garden
> > isn't that useful for canning. And eventually you get sick of eating
> > tomatoes or derivative foods. And unless you can and put up enough
> > food to last for the year, home preserving becomes just a seasonal
> > thing.
>
> I canned some green beans in 2005 and 2006 because I wanted to enter them
in
> the county fair. I wouldn't go so far as to say they sucked, but canning
> isn't the best way to preserve them.
>
> I'll take exception to what you say about the produce from urban gardens
not
> being that useful for canning. Tomatoes can very nicely and, more
> importantly, can be the base for killer home preserved salsa.

I don't think we would go through 40 jars of salsa in a year, is the
problem.

Spaghetti sauce, possibly.

> Then there's
> pickles -- not just cucumbers, but dilly beans. And zucchini (the hardest
> part of growing which is getting rid of the ones you don't want to eat,
> freeze or pickle -- I swear you can stand and watch the zucchini fruits
get
> larger).
>

You have to like them. I don't, my wife does. I can, she doesen't. We
don't have home canned pickles here. ;-)

> Carrots and cauliflower pickle nicely, too. One year I cut zucchini and
> carrots into stips the right size to stand up in half-pint jars, and
pickled
> them. I nestled in a clove of garlic and a sprig of oregano, on the
outside
> where you could see them. Made a very pretty presentation, and the
pickles
> were yummy, too.
>

The kids go through raw carrots like they are going out of style. They
wouldn't touch cauliflower, though. What about freezing carrots? Does
that work?

Ted

Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> .. .
>
> snippage of a wonderful story
>
>
> I fall in the midrange (48) and I didn't have a mom who cooked. I
> grew up with the aunties cooking mass quantities and putting up some.
> I was never invited as they felt the kids had no place in the
> kitchen. Thank God for Aunty Mary, my next door neighbor and
> friend's mom. She worked full time as did her husband and they had a
> 50 acre garden in the Piedmont Sandhills of NC. She would grow and
> can anything and any extra pair of hands was appreciated. She taught
> me rudementary cooking and some basic craft skills (my mom was crafty
> but had no patience to teach it). I remember being the 'littlest
> kid' I had the job of intestine holder when they butchered the hogs
> (hold the the intestines while boiling water is rinsed thru them to
> remove the poo so the intestines can then be washed and used as
> sausage casings)......for this I got to later (after washing my hands
> of course) help mix the sausage meat.
> Moved on, went to college, got married, had 1 kidlet, and started
> wondering just how to cook. Bought a few cookbooks, remembered some
> of the aunties doing certain things with certain items. Had a few
> more kidlests and started to really wonder how to save money. By
> this time, we lived in Philly, so I started a little garden in my
> back yard (13'x24' and that includes the paved area with a
> clothesline - older neighbors smiled when I hung out clothes, new
> ones asked about why I didn't use a dryer). Grew tomatoes and
> peppers. Ate them as soon as they came off the vine.
> Moved north of Philly and put in a little garden, not much to write
> home about, but the squirrels and deer appreciate my efforts. Eldest
> son in scouts at time and an older woman was canning one day when I
> had to drop off something for the scout unit. I was intrigued. She
> invited me in and the rest was history. She took me to a couple of
> 'pick your own' orchards (sadly, now housing developements) and I got
> to pick what I wanted to can. Now I rely on farmers' markets, but at
> least they were grown at someone's home.
>
> Then I discovered or shall I say, was discovered by Barb, the Queen
> of all canning, and the rest is history. She initiated me into how to
> really become a Ribbon Whore. I started canning and putting things
> in fairs, and the rest is history.
>
> So to the originator, Betty, and the instigator, Barb, I tip my hat.
>
> I have discovered a website called the Urban Homemaker. They sell
> canning items, tell stories and give general advice. To the more
> religious of the lot, they teach a premise called the Titus 2 woman,
> where the younger are taught skills to care for the older when they
> need it (referenced to the book of Titus in the Bible). They
> actually have a syllabus on how to teach young girls (and I add boys
> to the list, as my boys can cook, my girls - forget it) the
> homemaking arts, from cooking, to canning, to bread making, to
> sewing, homecrafts, etc. I am trying to encourage my church's youth
> group to look into buying the syllabus, and I would try to gather up
> some of the more seasoned ladies who remember how to do this and
> teach it. If we don't try to teach the next generation, they will
> be looking in the pantry after we're gone and ask where the pickles
> went to......

I am enjoying this thread so much))
Thank you Ginny

Kathi Jones wrote:
> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
> .. .
>> Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
>>> "George Shirley" > wrote in message
>>> .. .
>>>
>>> snippage of a wonderful story
>>
>> I had forgotten about clothes lines.
>
> (more big snip)
>
> hey!! I have a clothes line! I actually have 2!!! I used to fill
> the original one and then have to wait for everything to dry before I
> could pull it all down and fill it back up again. So I begged for
> another. Now I have 2 that are as long as we could get clothes line
> rope for. Everything goes on the clothes lines. I'm known as the
> Laundry Queen in my neighbourhood - I have a neighbour who tries to
> get her laundry out before I do every Saturday morning - it has
> become a competition - she'll never win. ;-)
> My grandmother loves my clothes lines. She told me the story of how
> she used to open the bathroom window on the second floor of the 2
> story house my Dad (and his 5 siblings) grew up in, to lean out to
> hang the day's laundry - all year round. This after hand washing
> everything and putting through the ringer. Her hands tell the truer
> story.
> I cook and bake all the time and my family appreciates it when I do. I've
> been a stay at home mom for 10 years, but am now back at work
> full time, so the baking is suffering a bit. Most of this year's
> preserving is done for 2007 - I have a few things in the freezer that
> I put there "for when I have the time".
>
> Much of what I do is because it's what my Mom did. I think my 2
> girls will learn by example. At least I hope so, for Holly (my 8
> year old) will never find a strawberry kiwi jam as good as what she's
> used to

Wonderful Kathi))

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> The kids go through raw carrots like they are going out of style. They
> wouldn't touch cauliflower, though. What about freezing carrots? Does
> that work?

Not for eating raw. They get mealy and limpish when they thaw.

B/