Monday, November 7, 2011

Thankful Harvest

Every harvest time I think of my mom.  We lived on a ranch in the mountains of Wyoming, but each year she planted a large garden.  There were rows of beans, peas, carrots, and beets.  (Also a few rows of bachelor buttons, zinnias, and marigolds.)  We visited my grandma in Utah and brought back bushels of fruit from her orchard for canning.  When fall came, mom and all us kids would pick the bounty, and she would let us help prepare them for canning.  First of all, they were rinsed in a large, round laundry tub, Peas were shucked, corn cut off the cob. Beans were snapped, except for a few of the very best, which she would carefully place in jars--all straight and proper like a row of soldiers, to be used when company came for supper. 
Then after the jars were full, into the pressure cooker they went, for 20 minutes or so of processing, all on a coal/wood burning cook stove.  By the end of the season she had "put up" 100 quarts of beans, many pints of peas, and countless quarts of other vegetables, along with many quarts of peaches, pears, apricots and applesauce.  We would have enough fruits and vegetables to last til the next harvest.  Looking back it must have been a huge task, but she was always sang through the whole job, thankful that God again had given a good harvest.

14 comments:

  1. Wow, the pressure cooker? Must have been a lot of work but also very rewarding! Hope you have a great day!

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  2. Mmmm...Good! Great blog...Thanks for visiting and commenting on mine...that is how I found you!
    Enjoy this bountiful season ~L

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  3. I just put my pressure cooker away yesterday! It does not look quite like the one you pictures - must be older. I have had it forever and it was passed to me from my grandmother. I actually call it "old faithful" - I love to can my own vegetables.

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  4. That reminds me of my grandmother! I used to watch her in action as she put up everything she could preserve, and the best things were always her jellies! :-)

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  5. Thanks for visiting my blog! It's great to meet you!

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  6. I had a pressure cooker and it scared me to death!
    Ah the good old days.

    sandie

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  7. What great memories! My husband and I had a huge garden this summer and dabbled in canning and picking and blanching and all that stuff.... Lots of work!,

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  8. My grandmother used to put up a lot of stuff when I was younger too. She doesn't do it much anymore, but now I have fallen in love with putting up food to have over the winter. Our harvest wasn't very good this year, but hopefully next year I will have a pantry full of canned goodies!

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  9. Grandma was always making jams, pickles etc. Sadly that must have skipped a generation because I don't do any of it!

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  10. I see my DIL reads you. How nice. Yes, I don't know how I would live without my garden and my canning. When I got married one of my aunts got me everything I would need for canning, except a pressure cooker and my Mom got me one of those for Christmas that year.
    It has been so nice and now that my girls do the canning for their families I am so happy.
    Very nice post.

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  11. Such a lovely story. I can remember going to grandmothers in the summer and there were always apricots, peaches, plums, pears, & apples that had to be canned. I remember there being tomatoes and chiles. Grandfather always had some green grapes. There was a fig tree that was so delicious. Thanks for sharing. Have a great day. Wasn't the rain just beautiful!

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  12. Enjoyed reading of your wonderful memory. I can relate, as we grow and I can our vegetables too, and enjoy it so much.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Sue

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  13. I was always afraid of pressure cookers and canned the old water bath method. It took much longer, though. I don't can anymore but do freeze a few things if I have a decent enough garden.

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  14. I love your blog!Sure can make one want to go as I say "back in the day" when things were simpler. What beautiful canning. Thank You for visiting me also. I will be back to share yours. Have a great day....

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