Well, it is pickle season, green bean season is in intermission, and tomatoes are on their way. What does that mean? I am canning like crazy. Canning, freezing, blanching, depending on whatever the particular vegetable is. Now, for those of you thinking that it sounds great to take excess food in the summer and turn it into meals for the winter, you are right, in a way. However, canning is not fun. It isn't. I'm not going to sugar-coat it. It used to be okay, when I only had 7 jars of beans to make, or a few dill pickles. Now, however, I look out the window and see Luke carrying 3 bushels of pickles. That makes a lot of jars of pickles. When he set 6 bushels of cauliflower in front of me, I literally had tears roll down my eyes.
Part of the problem with canning is that there is no immediate reward for canning. You kitchen starts a mess with food all over, and it ends a mess with more dishes, and hot jars sitting on a towel on the cupboard. The food you preserved you don't enjoy for several months, so it seems like you got nothing out of it. Regardless, I'm going to tell you a little about canning.
Canning is a several step process; wash and clean the produce (which takes FOREVER for pickles), then, cut it as necessary (like dicing tomatoes or snapping green beans). Seems easy enough, right? Wrong - it can take a few hours to cut up all the tomatoes or to snap all the green beans, and that is supposed to be the easy part! Then, cooking the food. Now for green beans and pickles, this is easy - you don't have to cook them. But for tomato juice, salsa, pasta, or any tomato product, you are looking at 3 hours of sitting in the kitchen and stirring to prevent burning. You are basically trapped next to the oven, but it gives you a good chance to clean up!
Then comes the canning part of it - either a hot-water bath, or a pressure cooker. For I long time I worried that I was going to screw up and have the pressure cooker explode, but I got over that! (mostly, I'd be lying if I said a small part of me didn't want to tie couch cushions around me for protection - but again, I am nuts). Then, you take the jars out, and let them sit until cool, usually overnight. Now, this is the most annoying part, because no matter how hard you try to ignore it, deep down you are sitting there listening for the "ping." The ping that says, "yes, this jar is sealed." Now, somedays it is like "ping, ping...ping ping ping." That is a good day. Right now, I just finished canning 7 jars of pickles, and I have been sitting and waiting patiently, but, NO pings! I am getting mighty nervous that they might not seal....which is the worst. You are sitting there thinking you made this great product for the winter, and then it doesn't work. I better start hearing some sealing happening pretty quick - or I'm retiring from this business.
Okay, I know this was a bit of a rant session, but I needed to get that out. If you ever want canning lessons, let me know - it is better to can food with partners! And, this winter, when I'm happily munching my pickles and eating pasta, you can shove this post in my face and I will admit it was worth the headache. Now, keep your fingers crossed for those pings...
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