The abundance of late summer and early fall is epicurean. A stroll through the farmers’ market or local outlets like On the Farm Market or Kitchen Quickies is filled with ripe, ready goodness including peaches, pickling cukes, and apples. What to do, besides wonder who really buys 50 pounds of tiny cucumbers, is the question? My answer – can it!
My mother always made homemade jams, along with peaches and pears in sweet syrup that we would eat as dessert all year long. The jars lined cobwebbed shelves in the dark, cool recesses of our basement and never seemed to run out before her next summer batch was ready. With four kids, a frugal bent and an affection for her kitchen, she was practical as well as economic. Having canned goods made in large batches ensured she always had something on hand to offer – either to us, or in a last-minute pinch as a hostess gift when they were going out to dinner.
Fewer people make preserves these days – a result of a healthier gender balance in the workforce and likely some fear of the unknown. I was leery of poisoning my family if the hot water bath didn’t properly seal the jars, or if I committed some other enormous rookie canning faux pas. However, with 70 pounds of organic blueberries from Hare’s Farm in Pemberton in my chest freezer, and 30 pounds of spontaneously-bought pickling cukes and stalks of fresh dill from On the Farm Market cluttering the boot room, there was no way around it. Having purchased a few flats of jars and lids from Home Hardware (and kicking myself for not saving more of the same jars and lids I’ve been recycling for years), I set off on an Internet canning odyssey, as my mom and her recipes were away for a month. The trick was the lack thereof – the whole process requires an oven, some counter space and common sense. Wash your jars and lids in hot, soapy water or run them through the dishwasher. Be a little paranoid like me and follow up by baking them at 225 degrees for 20 minutes in the oven to ensure all sneaky bacteria is dead. Keep the jars in the oven while you prepare the fruit or vegetables. Pickling cukes requires a wash and a trim before you put them into the jars with dill blooms and garlic cloves and top with a vinegar bath (found in any of the hundreds of recipes online). My blueberry jam was a mash of berries (I used a pastry cutter instead of the blender because I like chunky jam) with some lemon, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and gelatin, but if you prefer to skip the sugar and gelatin, there are lots of other recipes and guidelines online. Final step is a 10-minute plunge in boiling water in your biggest pot to seal the rims and preserve your treats. Slap on some hand written labels and you have yourself a proper treat, all in the span of an afternoon. Laura Ingalls Wilder would be proud.
