Fruits of Our Harvest

It’s the middle of October and canning season has finally wound down to a simmer. What started in the middle of the summer has produced for me a cupboard full of jewel-toned jars of peaches, pears, tomatoes, grape juice, apple juice to name a few.

I especially start to get rather squirrel-ish by about mid August. I start calculating how much fruit I will need to buy to put up for the winter. “Put up” is a Utah/Idaho colloquialism for preserving food, thus “putting it up” on a shelf. At first I begin to think one bushel of peaches should be enough since I only have one child at home.  But then, I get worried, because one year, there was a late freeze which made peaches rare and pricey.  I had better get two bushels then…I can always give away some, and the kids at college will want to take some for their meager menu.

My favorite variety of peaches, “Ida Lady” (“Summer Lady” as it is known elsewhere) is sure to come in for harvest around Labor Day weekend. You can almost bet that my friend Ellen and I will be hunkered in at my house for the holiday weekend peeling, slicing, bottling, and processing quart jars of peaches. For a while we made our children help us so they could learn not only the process of canning, but also for the work value.  But now, we recognize we are much more efficient by ourselves. There is a sort of rhythm that exists in my kitchen which has bonded us over the years. 

Here is the secret to our success of putting up 4 bushels of peaches in a day:

1. Most important. Get a canning buddy.  It could be a like-minded girlfriend, spouse or grown up child. Just make sure it is someone you like spending time and a kitchen with.
2. Get a camp stove.  I mean the kind of stove that has two large burners on four tall skinny legs attached to propane. It is perfect for running two boiling water baths out on the back porch so the kitchen doesn’t get all hot. Sort of harkening back to those summer kitchens so often part of farm houses years ago.
3. Forget the sticky syrup production unless you want to be hosing down your kitchen, dogs, children or anything else that might come in contact with you. Opt instead for putting 1/3 cup sugar in each jar for light syrup and dissolving with an inch of boiling water. Less than this amount we’ve found leads to water-logged peaches because all the sugar goes into the water (remember the principles of osmosis and diffusion?) and the texture really deteriorates over the months in your cupboard. We assembly line about 3 dozen jars at a time on a covered protected card table. Before putting the sugar in, put in about 1/8 of a teaspoon of ascorbic acid in each jar. It is available in bulk at our local health food store co-op. 
4. Fill the jars with sliced peaches. We find that quarters seem to work the best.  If you want to make them all pretty in halves for state fair quality, just make enough to put on the front row of shelves to show off.  Trust me, you won’t get more in the jar and you aren’t going to get the eight boxes of fruit staring you in the face done today if you obsess about looks.
5. Top off the jar to ½ inch from the top with more boiling water (we keep two tea kettles going). Wipe the rims and put your clean lids on. That’s right; you don’t need to put them boiling water first.  When you process them in the boiling water bath it will take care of unwanted bacterial contaminants; more than that is just over-kill.
6. Process your bottles according to size and altitude. Check this website for further information: http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/pnw0199/pnw0199.pdf

And so the peaches go, followed quickly by pears, applesauce, tomatoes and anything else I can get my hands on for a reasonable price. By the time October is here, I am pretty much getting tired of it all and the squirrel in me has overstayed its welcome.

So why do I bother with all this? Is it worth the time and money?  Good questions.  First of all, let me say that if you haven’t had good home canned peaches or other fruits and vegetables, you won’t ever be able to answer these questions. When fruit is canned commercially, it tends to be either under-ripe or of a variety which is easier to process in mass but lacks flavor and sweetness. So by preserving just ripe fruit of the many flavorful varieties available, you won’t be looking back to insult your palate with the tinned variety; good in a pinch, but not much else.

As to the economy of it all, not including time, it comes out about the same price if not a bit less. The difference it’s made for our family is that they actually eat their fruit and veggies, because they taste good. I also don’t need to run to the store as frequently, thus reducing impulse spending.  Did I mention that the peaches make excellent pies in a jiffy?

I get a lot of personal satisfaction knowing that I have food put away for emergencies, like job loss, natural disasters, illness, or other unforeseen emergencies.  Because it’s there, when someone I know is sick or in distress, I can readily provide some yummy food or treats. I also like the idea that I am helping sustain our local economy.  I really am trying to go with the idea of eating within a hundred square miles of my home.

So, yes, it’s a lot of work, but it is a kind of security I am not willing to live without. As my friend Ellen says: “I don’t see anyone complaining about eating them”.