Mama's Canning Time

One rewarding aspect of summer was canning time. When the bountiful garden overproduced the need for a meal and the plenty could be stored away for a winter treat. I've done my share of canning over the years when we've had a large productive garden but my mother topped anything I've ever done.

During her healthier days she would reap produce by the bushel basket full: peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, okra, potatoes, onions, carrots, sweet corn, turnips, broccoli, zucchini, and more. She had a king size upright freezer, more like a commercial brand. I've never seen another one like it. She would fill the shelves with mounds of vegetables and neatly stacked boxes that were ready for a winter's day meal.

She would spend hours preparing homemade catsup and fill up saved bottles and store them in the freezer. There were pots of pungent pickles that would brew to fill the awaiting sterilized jars. Lime pickles, dill pickles, vegetable relish, green tomato mincemeat, cherry olives, pickled okra, and picked beets. She had the most beautiful relish trays, all from the jars she stored in the cool, dark basement.

There were jars of tomato juice, tomato sauce, and tomatoes ready for any recipe. And when the concord grapes ripened there were jars of grape juice, grape pulp, and jams and jellies. Those joined the rhubarb, raspberry (black and red) and strawberry jams. There would be bags of chopped peppers and onions in the freezer that were time savers and boxes of berries ready for a special dessert.

Somehow she always seemed to be the recipient of bags of apples, someone else's surplus and she would make amazing applesauce with the peel left on, and containers of apple pie filling. She used her time so wisely and always had something in store for a delicious meal or to make a delightful treat as a gift for someone else.

Mama lived through the depression era and never ever wasted anything. She was a wife of noble character, a Proverbs 31 woman who earned her reward at the heavenly gates.

"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies...She gets up while it is still dark; and provides food for her family...she opens her arms for the poor and extends her hands to the needy...when it snows, she has no fear for her household... " Proverbs 31 NIV.