So, today, while I was waiting for my prescriptions to be filled at Meijers I was browsing the store and I walked past a large display of canning supplies, inhaling and I was lost . . . It was like I was in the TARDIS being drug back to my junior and senior high years! There, smack dab in the middle of the isle was a display of Mrs. Wages'. Pickling seasonings, salsa, spaghetti, all tickling my nose hairs like it was yesterday. . . .
When I was a teen my parents grew a garden every year. It wasn't just a small, backyard deal like I do, but it was a HUGE sucker! Rows and rows of green beans, corn, maters, onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, every so often watermelon or cantaloupe. The places varied -- a couple years we had a good tract out at my grandpa's, then we moved it over to my aunt Ruth's and we stayed there for many years. We spent a majority of our summers out at aunt Ruth's and let me tell you, I am so glad, to this day, that we had a pond to swim in! We would go out and pick, weed, water if necessary, swim, and go back to it.
Then we would go home. . . .
It was like someone shot off a gun and the race was on to can the products before they turned. We had corn that would be placed in the deep freeze (and I think at some point it might have been canned), green beans would have to be strung, snapped, and soaked (this was my favorite part, see why later), tomatoes would be cleaned, boiled, strained (what a mess the kitchen would be) and made into spaghetti sauce, salsa, BBQ sauce, ketchup and just plain on tomato sauce! Cucumbers would be cleaned, speared and shoved tighter than a can of sardines into pint jars to be pickled into bread and butter pickles. Lord, that was a stinky job! For one, I hate the smell of vinegar and then you add the pickling spices! Might as well plan on smelling like pickles for a few days!
Everyone raved about my mom's salsa. She would make it from mild to super spicy. She would toss some corn in it, some times it was black beans, but it was always good! Her motto was always "You can have a jar if you promise to return my jar!"
Now, we not only did veggies, but we also did fruit! Strawberry jelly is my all time favorite that we have canned (and a few years ago, Mom and I canned 53 jars right here in MY kitchen!). When we would go to Tennessee every summer we'd bring a bushel of peaches back and make peach jelly. We made cherry and grape as well! My Granny, oh my, Granny could whip out apple butter that would melt your biscuit! How I miss that apple butter!
Although I always hated the gardening aspect of the summer, the snapping of the beans is something I will always cherish. My parents always planted string beans, therefore, before snapping, you had to snip off each end of the green bean and pull the string off. I can remember many of days, sitting on the back porch with my Mom, Granny and Dad. . . we'd sit out there for a few hours talking and stringing beans. Granny would always tell mom she was doing something wrong (isn't that a mother's right to do?) like she'd tell mom how to soak the beans overnight and salt them, etc. Memories that I never want to forget out . . . the early summer evenings snapping beans with my parents and granny!
So, today, when I inhaled that godawful pickling seasoning, I stopped in my tracks and was taken back 20 years to the carefree days of being a kid and helping her parents. . . .
When I was a teen my parents grew a garden every year. It wasn't just a small, backyard deal like I do, but it was a HUGE sucker! Rows and rows of green beans, corn, maters, onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, every so often watermelon or cantaloupe. The places varied -- a couple years we had a good tract out at my grandpa's, then we moved it over to my aunt Ruth's and we stayed there for many years. We spent a majority of our summers out at aunt Ruth's and let me tell you, I am so glad, to this day, that we had a pond to swim in! We would go out and pick, weed, water if necessary, swim, and go back to it.
Then we would go home. . . .
It was like someone shot off a gun and the race was on to can the products before they turned. We had corn that would be placed in the deep freeze (and I think at some point it might have been canned), green beans would have to be strung, snapped, and soaked (this was my favorite part, see why later), tomatoes would be cleaned, boiled, strained (what a mess the kitchen would be) and made into spaghetti sauce, salsa, BBQ sauce, ketchup and just plain on tomato sauce! Cucumbers would be cleaned, speared and shoved tighter than a can of sardines into pint jars to be pickled into bread and butter pickles. Lord, that was a stinky job! For one, I hate the smell of vinegar and then you add the pickling spices! Might as well plan on smelling like pickles for a few days!
Everyone raved about my mom's salsa. She would make it from mild to super spicy. She would toss some corn in it, some times it was black beans, but it was always good! Her motto was always "You can have a jar if you promise to return my jar!"
Now, we not only did veggies, but we also did fruit! Strawberry jelly is my all time favorite that we have canned (and a few years ago, Mom and I canned 53 jars right here in MY kitchen!). When we would go to Tennessee every summer we'd bring a bushel of peaches back and make peach jelly. We made cherry and grape as well! My Granny, oh my, Granny could whip out apple butter that would melt your biscuit! How I miss that apple butter!
Although I always hated the gardening aspect of the summer, the snapping of the beans is something I will always cherish. My parents always planted string beans, therefore, before snapping, you had to snip off each end of the green bean and pull the string off. I can remember many of days, sitting on the back porch with my Mom, Granny and Dad. . . we'd sit out there for a few hours talking and stringing beans. Granny would always tell mom she was doing something wrong (isn't that a mother's right to do?) like she'd tell mom how to soak the beans overnight and salt them, etc. Memories that I never want to forget out . . . the early summer evenings snapping beans with my parents and granny!
So, today, when I inhaled that godawful pickling seasoning, I stopped in my tracks and was taken back 20 years to the carefree days of being a kid and helping her parents. . . .
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