Visions of sweltering kitchens, exploding jars and botulism have kept me away from canning in the past, but circumstances this year convinced me to give it a try. First, Eric found a prolific
patch of wild black raspberries. Second, our garden is really kicking out the summer squash and cucumbers this year (along with everyone else's), and no one wants my extra produce. Being a frugal Sprague I decided that only thing left to do was make jam and pickles. The jam was encouragingly easy to make. I created my "To Pickle" list while basking in the glow of the successful jam. First on my list was to tell everyone I knew (including the woman behind me in the grocery store, a
few people at the farmer's market and the head librarian, who I don't really know but I was sure they were wondering) what I was going to make. Tell a woman over the age of 50 that you are thinking about making some pickles and you are guaranteed recipes, lots of
advice, a canning story, or if you are lucky all three. My list grew from Bread & Butter Pickles, Refrigerator Pickles, and Sweet Relish to include Dilly Beans and Hamburger (dill) slices.
I now have several treasured family recipes for each of these types of pickles, loads of advice, and a new steamer canner. I made the Refrigerator Pickles first
(the easiest so far), the Dill Slices next and Mom and I made the Bread & Butter Pickles together (with her recipe). Making pickles isn't as easy as jam, but it really is easy.
The kids start back to school in a 12 days (not that I'm counting). They are excited, but that will end with the first assignment. They both grew up and matured a lot this summer both in looks and in personality. Corie spends more time in her room listening to music and has started taking an interest in her appearance. She takes care of Zakary when I'm busy.
She pours his milk, makes their lunch, helps him pick up his toys and find things he has misplaced. Zakary is all little boy now. Any trace of toddler is gone. He picks out his own clothes, gets dressed and makes his own lunch sometimes (if you can call bread covered in peanut butter, fluff and mini marshmellows lunch) without me or Eric being right there to supervise.
Eric's basement remodel is moving steadily along. He has finally pulled out all the dry wall and is starting... actually, I don't know what he is doing down there. He say that he has revised the plan to include a pantry for the canned goods and a root cellar. Isn't he the best?!
