canning part 1

my dad used to make choke cherry jelly with the bountiful crop from our yard.  just ask anyone.  there wasn't a person i talked to this weekend that didn't have a story about dad's jelly.  and silly me.  i was "to good" to try it out when he was around.  guess i wasn't a real jelly person...or was too busy being "the princess."  at any rate, my friend said, "face it.  he's up there laughing at you making choke cherry jelly."  and i wondered how she knew him so well.  without ever having met him.

the boys did the picking.  this was just the start.  later they got their "ladders" out so they could reach the good ripe berries.  do i not live in the most amazing place on this side of the continental divide?  where else could my littles go out in their cowboy boots and gym shorts to pick edible berries in their own yard?  that view just knocks my socks off every. single. day.

here is a little note on canning.  if you have parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or friends that can.  please, please, please just listen to their stories and listen to what they have to say.  there is something amazingly pure about harvesting something you've grown and preserving its goodness throughout the year.  let's not reinvent the wheel, here people.  i will be the first to get out my new ball blue book, but i wish to heaven that i just would have listened to those folks.  in fact it dawned on me that my father and i never had a conversation about pectin.  and yesterday i tried to envision him in my very kitchen adding pectin to the ripe chokecherries by himself while stirring ferociously to avoid scorching.  and i wondered about the lemon juice.  to add or not to add.  and someone reminded me yesterday that every good canning recipe starts with a base and is perfected over years and years of practice.

this is the canning project i'm truly looking forward to.  all of these ingredients were taken out of my backyard garden (except the garlic).  i made a test batch of pickles this weekend.  a neighbor suggested we use his huge propane fueled turkey frier for the brine.  awesome idea!  get ready, brit, mrs. smith, and all you other canning mamas.  it's almost pickle season!!!