'The Garden'

With this spring like weather we're having in North Alabama, I feel it only appropriate to talk about gardens and canning... I took an interest in cooking at an early age. I can remember watching Justin Wilson on PBS when I was about 8 years old and it seemed like a really cool thing to get in to. That's also about the time I really remember my summer Saturday mornings being overtaken by 'The Garden'. 'The Garden', referring to my granddaddy's garden. Thinking back, I believe he could have sustained a dozen families out of that thing... It was huge. I really didn't enjoy or appreciate the whole process as much as I do now but I'm glad I have the memories. It seems like all we did was pick and shell butter beans and peas, shuck and husk corn, pull peanuts, pick plums, pick grapes and there was always a box or two of tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers, squash and cantaloupe's out by the mail box with a 'FREE' sign on them. I can remember my grandmother, mother and my aunt working endlessly in the kitchen canning and freezing the summers bounty and as a kid I just thought, "wouldn't it be easier to just go buy this stuff", totally missing the meaning of it all. Years passed and one day my sister, Phillis Nelson, said something about canning some vegetable soup. You see, that's what we done with all the left overs at the end of the year, we made soup...and a lot of it. It wasn't long before my sister and I were canning soup together. My mother would guide us along and over a couple of years we got pretty good at it. If you'll take a couple quarts of home canned vegetable soup and add browned ground beef or a shredded rotisserie chicken, with a pan of cornbread... Wow !!!


Canning shouldn't be intimidating at all... If you'll prepare yourself, have everything you need ready to go and pay attention to what's going on with your canner, you'll be fine. I usually process and can about 30 quarts of soup every year. I use vegetables grown in my raised bed garden as well as some fresh produce that I purchase at the local farmers market or that friends and family give me. *** IMPORTANT*** Always use a tested recipe when canning. The Ball "Blue Book' of canning is full of tested recipes and instruction.


Last year I ventured out a little and canned a lot more than I ever had. I canned green beans, pepper sauce, chow chow, pool room slaw, blackberry jam, fig jam, peach preserves, scuppernong jelly, pinto beans, chili beans, mushrooms, carrots, sweet potatoes and soup. Its very rewarding to walk into the pantry, pull out a couple of jars and have supper ready in less than 30 minutes. Its even more rewarding when those who eat it, tell you how good it is. On the healthy side of things, I can't even pronounce half of the ingredients listed on a can of soup that's bought in the store. If someone ask me what's in mine, besides the fresh vegetables... Salt, that's it.


At the end of last summer, when I canned about 10 quarts of sweep potatoes, I remember telling my wife "I'll never do this again". I mean, that's a lot of work and I really don't enjoy peeling 25 lbs of sweet potatoes but after I tried them for the first time, I changed my mind, they are absolutely delicious !!! I'll never say that its not a lot of work, its time consuming and a little costly to get started but so worth it. After the initial purchase of the canner and jars all you'll need is a little time an commitment.


Just a little heads up, it can become consuming, if you let it. In the winter months, I catch myself walking through the grocery store just looking for something to be on sale, that I can put up and can. I have so many jars in my house, it looks like a 'Ball' or 'Kerr' warehouse. I have pots and pans of all sizes, dishpans and 2 pressure canners (well, maybe 3 canners... I might have bough another one today just because I got a great deal on it and you can never have too many pressure canners but don't tell my wife, she'll think I'm nuts). I might have bought 8 more cases of jars today as well. I mean really, you can't can without them and I have not bought any since I bought 18 dozen last summer, that I also got a great deal on.


If preserving your bounty is something you're interested in, I would suggest reading all you can about it before you get started. 'Water Bathing' is pretty simple and that's how you preserve most of your jellies, pickles, fruits and salsa (high acid foods). That's where I would start and graduate up to pressure canning. Like I said before... be ready and have everything you'll need when you get started. Once you get a canner up to pressure, its hard to call time out and run to the grocery store for rings and lids.


As the summer progresses, I'll be posting recipes and pics of things I'm canning and or freezing. I've had over 350 people look at this blog site in the last 2 days. That's flattering and as I continue to post, I hope that I'll provide information, tips, ideas and suggestions that will be helpful to you. Thanks for following...