Sometimes, I wonder just how well we plan ahead. Do we plan ahead for holiday celebrations? If we’re expecting a new family member – do we plan ahead to welcome that babe? Do we plan ahead for our retirement. Personally, planning ahead may not be my best attribute. And, although I think I’m pretty good at planning a week’s menus, for example, after the planning is done – even after the groceries to make that food has been purchased – I don’t always execute the plan for the meals.
Thinking back over my life of caring for my family (five of us to feed), I remember all of the canning of vegetables, fruits, and jellies that were stored in my basements, ready for the coming winter. Getting those jars filled with foods required a lot of planning, don’t you think?
When I lived at home and my mom had seven of us to feed during the winter, her winter supplies were always in jars. She had no freezer in which to store her winter food supplies. She did not dry foods; rather, she canned them.
Long before my mother put things into jars and used a pressure cooker to safely preserve them, the method for doing this was to use jars and put them into a water bath and boil the whole mess for a long time. I suppose that as a very young woman – a girl, actually – that she helped her mother with this task. She was one of ten children; my grandmother and grandfather made twelve. Food preparation for that size family was one terrific chore!
After she married, my mother had a more modern set up. In my early years, she still used a wood, cookstove in her kitchen. But, she had a pressure cooker. Knowing nothing about such a new fangled gadget, she was fortunate to have married a man who knew all about machines involving pressure. Her pressure cooker would hold eight or nine quart jars filled with tomatoes, green beans, and venison. My father was a hunter, and each year would bring home a deer. I remember that one time he brought home a part of an elk. He had shared the elk with the other hunters in his party.
My father taught my mother how to safely use the pressure cooker. Her pressure cooker had no rubber ring between the lid and the base. The lid was fastened to the base with several wing-nuts. The gauge sitting atop the lid measured the inside pressure of the canner. There was a “petcock” valve for releasing pressure after the canner had cooled. And, there was a little, escape valve – in case, the pressure inside reached too high a number, the valve would pop, releasing the pressure and not blowing up the canner.
The canners were very heavy. To move one from the stove, loaded with the filled jars, and water for steam and pressure was a herculean task. As a kid, I really didn’t understand this whole process and knowing that it might explode, I tried to keep my distance from it when it was working. My mother’s use of her canner was exceptional. It never blew the pressure, release valve. And, it served her well all of the years that she used it to can the meat and vegetables.
Fruits such as peaches were another story. She never put those into a canner. She did can them, but she used the “open kettle” method of preserving them for the winter. I only remember peaches canned this way. I never remember preserved pears. Usually, apples were not canned but stored in a cool, dry place – in a barrel, I think. Apples could and were turned into applesauce for the winter.
“Open kettle” means that the fruit is prepared (skins and pits removed; fruit either halved or quartered). The fruit is then heated in a large pan (some water added) to boiling. Sugar “to taste” is added to the mix. When all of that is done, the fruit is ladled into VERY HOT, STERILE JARS. The jars are wiped down to remove spills. Care is given to making sure that the top of the jar onto which the flat lid will be placed is very clean. A ring is then screwed tightly onto the jar.
During the cooling time for the open-kettle fruit, as well as the pressured vegetables and meat, the flat, metal lid that has been put on the top of each jar after it is wiped clean from any spills and fastened with that metal ring is heard to “ping.” Pinging is extremely important. That means that the jar has successfully sealed in the food. So, no ping – no seal – and the contents will spoil over time. And, the process has to start again.
My mom also made grape juice in her canner. About a cup or so of juicy, purple grapes were cleaned and dropped into jars, seeds, skin, and all. Water was added to fill the jar. They were pressured for a time and set aside for some weeks or months so that grapes could produce the grape juice.
Jellies were also homemade for our table. Perhaps, that can wait. Now that spring is here, it reminds me that at this point in the year, we had used so much of the food that my mom had prepared, it would have been time to start planning for the next winter. What to plant in the garden?. Where to harvest the vegetables – at home or a local farm? Would there be a trip to western Colorado to pick peaches for next winter?
Planning was so important in our past lives. Now, we simply need to go to the market to get those same foods that we’d spent so much time preparing for the winter. Admittedly, that is far more convenient. I think, though, that it may not be as satisfying as it once was, looking at all of the canned goods we’d prepared, sitting on the shelves in the basement. It seemed better than money in the bank!
Be Safe and Be Well.
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are always appreciated.
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