“My mom put up lots of fruits and vegetables but never showed me how,” my friend said wistfully as she helped me prepare peaches for the canner. “Even my in-laws canned but always said it was too much work and I wouldn’t want to do it.” I put that sentiment in the same disappointing category as not sharing the European language my parents spoke at home when I was growing up because they didn’t want us to start school “sounding foreign.” Fortunately, we were a 4H family and food preservation was just what everyone did in summer and fall. There were community packing/processing plants that welcomed the public and even provided “seconds” (blemished or off-size fruits) for pennies that we peeled, cut, and placed into cans for their facility to safely process. The local 4H food preservation instructor let my city-raised mother join us kids to learn the art and science of preserving nature’s bounty for the lean times.
Too much work, you say?Yep, it takes some time, planning and some spe
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