"Putting up" Time

I've been learning over the years to embrace this farm wife role.

 In the summer time it's canning and freezing time of garden fresh veggies.

I'm not sure I ever thought I would be "putting up" vegetables. Our first summer married my grandmother-in-law asked if I wanted to can tomatoes with her. I thought this could be a fun thing to learn. So I did and have been every summer since. I wasn't sure what I would do with all these tomatoes but it makes great chili and I've started canning salsa too. I've expanded to other food as well: sweet corn, strawberry jelly, blackberries, peaches, and applesauce. It may seem like alot of work for something so cheap from the store but it taste so much better and it's less I have to buy. I did have a garden our first summer but I didn't know what I was doing and it didn't turn our so great. I did learn that people who like to garden also like to share the fruits of their labor or vegetables. I like having fruits on hand to throw in a cobbler or muffins. Now that I'm feeding 2 active little boys it helps to have all this on hand.

I remember visiting my great grandmothers and seeing her shelves lined with bread and butter pickles and fig preserves. It was always a treat to open a jar and I had to have her permission; now I understand why they were so treasured.
 

This week I canned tomatoes one day and froze sweet corn the next day. I won't go into all the process but here are some pictures along the way. I had no idea you could pour boiling water on tomatoes for a few minutes and their skin just peel right off. I learned that from my first tomatoes canning lesson. I use a pressure canner for sealing the tomato jars. I started with 2 five gallon buckets of tomatoes and ended with 14 quart jars and 10 pint jars.

 

 Freezing sweet corn isn't as time consuming as canning. I did have help shucking all that pile. I started by shucking that pile and boiled it for about 10 minutes and let cool. Then I cut off the kernels and froze some on the ears. We like to eat it on the ears once in a while. I will give a shout out to Pampered Chef for the best corn-kernel-cutter-off-thing. I'm not sure what it's called but it works so nicely and keep corn from splattering all over. Corn is quite a messy job. So yummy in the winter popped right of the freezer. I started with that huge pile and ended with 26 bags with 2 cups in each and 4 bags with 6-8 ears still on the cob. We should make it til next summer.



Next on the "putting up" agenda is applesauce in the fall. This comes in first place in favorites in our house with strawberry jelly not far behind.