It's a start...

One of the things SWMBO and I kept talking about wanting to do now that we live in an area with much more agriculture than we moved from is getting into canning.  We had talked about doing it when we lived in Belfair, but kept coming up with excuses about why we should wait until next year.  Even after moving here, I have continued to make excuses: Not enough storage space for the canner, a good pressure canner(like the All American Brand) is WAY expensive, not enough pantry space for the finished product, and, well, 'It's too Hard! '

Finally, back in Mid-July, my wife had had enough of excuses.  The trigger for her happened while she was spending some time at my mom's house.  Unknown to either my wife or my mom, there was a cherry plum tree located behind my mom's apartment complex.  They discovered this because one day some strange walked by, climbed the little hill to behind my moms apartment, and pulled a few fruits off the tree.  SWMBO did some research, and found out that the little cherry plums make a pretty good jam, so she decided to jump in with both feet.  She ran down to the store, and bought some jars, lids, rings, and a 'Start Canning Kit', which had a stockpot, a rack, and assorted other torture devices.  When she came back from my mom's she had 10 half-pints of cherry plum jam.  I was a little leery at first, but when the kids didn't die after a week of eating it, I tried some...and it was better than Okay...much more flavor than what comes out of the grape jelly jar in the refrigerator.

Since then, she has done a little more canning...we aren't talking OMG Canning Parties...we are talking 4 or 5 jars of something when she finds it on sale, working on recipes and technique.  This last week, she went to a U-Pick Peach Orchard with the girls, and because they weren't paying attention to how much they were grabbing, they actually came home with 30 pounds of peaches.  Yesterday, she cordoned off the kitchen, and went to work.

 

She isn't fast, but they sure look pretty.  So far, she has only gone through about 10 pounds worth of the peaches.  In back are peach/strawberry jam.  In the middle are Honey Spiced Peaches, and then up front are a few jars of Apple Jelly she made just because she had three half-pint jars empty and ready to use.

I'm very proud of her....she has put her mind to it, and started cranking out a very viable product.  It's not her fault we live in an apartment and don't grow any of our own fruits or veggies, so we can hardly be considered 'self-sufficient.  Still, making a couple of jars of whatever she gets on sale once or twice a week IS nice, and is much better than a stick in the eye.

I know I am looking forward to trying one of those jars of Honey Spiced Peaches come about November...