Quest for a Homestead: Canning
First encounters of the canning kind.
Canning equipment! Ooooo!
I so aspire to morph into a woman who sniffs the air to check the seasonal ripeness of the harvest and says, intuitively, “It’s canning time!” Meanwhile, I need a Wiki to house all my thoughts and likely a warehouse to store all the tools we’ll need to accompany those thoughts: gardening equipment, a slow cooker, bread baking supplies, candle making tools, and of course – canning devices.
Quinn had introduced us to her friends Lisa & Ron in Madison County, and they showed us around their home. This was my first encounter with a canning device outside of a library book. It was bigger than I expected, but exciting. I mean, I got this close to a device which makes harvested edibles, well, edible throughout winter. That’s pretty close! The only thing that could top that is walking inside a root cellar that wouldn’t make Ryan scream like a girl because of spiders. 🙂
Really cool pantry!
This one, I believe, can fit 7 jars for canning and has a little timer thingy. And not only that, but we got to see the pantry, too, which is where canned goods and jars full of awesomeness live. In the pantry was soup, vegetables, dehydrated fruits like pear and banana, beans, cooking oil, and more. It was loaded! I wanted to ask, “What do you do with the rest of the beans when you open that gigantic can??” but maybe it wouldn’t have been very polite. I’m certain we don’t have a tupperware dish big enough for the leftover beans.
We got to sample the tasty dry pears and it was like candy! Chewy and reminiscent of light perfume or Christmas. I have never seen a dehydrator, not even in a book, but know that it’s only a matter of time (in years) before I start dehydrating carrots, squash and pears just like these folks. It was super nice of them to share their lives with us, even for just a moment. Thank you Ron & Lisa!
Good morning honey. So happy you were able to see first hand the canning ‘industry’ equipment. I grew this way. Your Nanny did all her canning. First boiling the jars and lids, then preparing, grinding, sifting whatever home grown veggies, (yes, you know they were grown by her and your Pap) that were ready to be canned. This was done right in our kitchen! Everything lined up in order to begin the wonderful home made processing. She would even buy chunks of bologna, (when we could afford it) and big jars of pickled relish, when she did not make her… Read more »
That’s a great idea and what a wonderful story about the good ole days! I’ll ask Nanny about it sometime soon. Thanks!