Missing a Garden

                                  

This is the time of year that I inevitably miss having a garden.  My exhusband and I always had a huge garden and I would spend hours outside cultivating it.  I taught myself how to home can there, and I miss the fruits of that labor of love every year when it's impossible to get good fresh produce.  I taught myself how to can with the memory of my Mamaw floating around in my brain and how it seems to be a dying art.  The first thing I ever canned was strawberry jam.  I remember how proud I was of myself for making it and it turning out right.  That was the spark at the fire under my butt!

After that, my interests in canning really grew.  I started putting together my own canning cookbook, checking out all the books that the Knox County Public library has on canning. I made lots of copies, searched the internet relentlessly and got a lot of mason jars from all over the place.  You can preserve almost anything in a mason jar, you just have to do it properly.  The processing time is the key to a lot of it.  You also have to take in to account the packing style when you are dealing with vegetables. 

I have grown all kinds of things in my gardens.  I miss the sweet, simple joy of walking out to the garden to work and seeing a new plant that has shot up over night that I planted and watched.  A list of what I can remember that I grew in my garden:

tomatoes
cucumbers
strawberries
onions
beets
carrots
pole beans
bush beans
dill
cauliflower
brocolli
pumpkins
canteloupe
watermelon
silver queen corn
green and red bell peppers
cayenne, jalapeno, anaheim, habanero, and sweet banana peppers
berry bushes that were like blueberries but I can't remember the name
pears
lettuce


That's a pretty big variety of things, and I think I have grown more than that, but I can't remember what it was right now.  I learned things when I had a garden that I didn't know before, like one variety of cucumber is a member of the melon family, and if you let them get too large, the flesh turns pink and they are bitter.  I learned that corn makes a wonderful noise when the wind blows through the stalks at night, and racoons love corn, but they can only reach the bottom ears.  Most importantly, I learned how great it is to give someone a gift that you grew, harvested and made yourself.  It's much nicer than just picking something up at the store. 

Over the coming weeks, I hope to get some of my canning recipes out and shared with you folks.  Maybe someone else can enjoy my experience while I am just dreaming about it.  Some things that you will need if you want to enjoy home canning:

Mason jars (the smaller ones for jams and sauces and the quart size for vegetables)
new mason jar lids
bands (the screw on part of the lid)
a huge pot that you can submerge the jars in.  You need at least one inch of water over the jars. 
          I suggest a pressure canner.  There are several varities.  You can also just can with a water bath.
non- iodized salt
a sharp knife
some large bowls
non metal spoons to stir with
get a canning kit from Wal-Mart.  It has a pair of canning tongs (they grab the jars), a magnet
         to pick up the lids from boiling water, and a funnel
a jelly bag, if you want to make jelly
immagination
patience
music
clean counter space
time




If there are particular things that you want to know how to home can, please let me know in the comments section.  I will do my very best to oblige you!  Hope you are all having a happy summer!