Anyway, last week I bought a box of peaches that ended up being about 22 pounds. And I did it with the intent that I would learn how to can. I would learn to preserve. I would become, in some small way, the type of old timey wife who 'puts up fruit' for the winter. And learn I did. And I'm actually really proud of myself! I've always wanted to know how to do it, and now I do.
So last Monday, September 23rd, I decided that would be the day. But I didn't know what I was doing. So I enlisted the help of a friend in the ward named Roxsan. She's a pro and offered to come over and help me. Carson was out of town so it was nice to have the company as well. She taught me everything and I yielded 12 quarts of peaches and two quart sized zip lock bags that went straight to the freezer. Not bad, right???
Then I realized that my tomatoes needed to be harvested out of our garden. On an unrelated note, I spent a bunch of time in the spring preparing and planting our garden....all I could get out of it was tomatoes. Oh well, say lave. The boys and I harvested the ripening tomatoes and some that were not so ripe and did a quick ripening where you put them in a box with a banana. It worked sort of. But it wasn't nearly enough to warrant the work for canning. But then I found out about a house in our ward where both the husband and wife had passed away within the last few months. They had a large garden that had mostly tomato plants. So I was able to take all of those and ended up with a quite a lot of tomatoes. That became my job on Tuesday. I was able to do 12 pints of tomatoes! Yay! Then I had some extra tomatoes left over that were already blanched so I needed to use them. I made a quart of homemade marinara sauce.
On Monday of this week, I was able to buy half a box of pears at the grocery store for what I would consider a good price. It ended up being about 22 pounds of pears and they were just itching to be canned. So Carson and I got to work last night. Him doing the pealing, me doing the coring, slicing, soaking in water and lemon juice, making the syrup, stuffing the jars and processing. It may sound like a lopsided division of labor, but the pealing was hard and tedious and I didn't want to do it.
After a lot of issues, mainly having to do with the brand of jars that I bought, I was able to can 14 quarts of pears and that one jar of marinara sauce. It was all great fun. And I'm excited to tackle the bucket of apples that Roxsan gave me tomorrow during the priesthood session of conference. Yeah, I know that I can now watch that session, but I probably won't....for old times sake. Don't want to mess with tradition. But I digress.
I really enjoy learning new skills. It helps me get out of my head a little bit. I read something once regarding Sherlock Holmes playing the violin. It said that the reason he plays the violin is because it's the only thing that has ever been difficult for him so it's actually quite soothing for him when he's all anxious and going crazy. Whether that is true to the Arthur Conan Doyle cannon I can't say but I can see the logic. Now I'm not saying that I am a Sherlock level genius...that would just be crazy. But I do have a LOT going on in my life so doing and learning something new has become very calming and relaxing....even though I was up until 1 am finishing those darn pears.
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