When I was about 10 or 11 years old, my family moved from town to a 20 acre plot of land with a big, old farmhouse on it. The selling point was not so much the house, which needed some work, but that it had a large yard and more importantly, a huge garden space. As my Mother's arthritis continued to wreck her body, the medical bills continued to grow accordingly, and it became more important to garden as a way to feed our family without the outlay of so much cash. In Minnesota, getting through the cold winters is a priority.
As Mother became more ill, she could no longer do the canning as she had in the past, so as the oldest child it fell to me to help her. About the time we moved to what we called 'the farm,' I learned how to can vegetables and fruit and how to properly freeze some of the garden's bounty. At the time I complained bitterly about having to spend so much time working when I would rather have been playing, but in later years I was grateful to have learned those skills for they were used to keep my own family fed.
We canned the standard vegetables along with dill and sweet pickles and several kinds of relish. We froze the garden fruits of strawberries, raspberries and rhubarb. In addition, Dad brought home cases of peaches, pears, apricots and cherries. Some of these we canned in a sugar syrup to be used as a dessert sauce. Some we froze to use in various recipes like peach cobbler, or to use over ice cream as a treat. And some of the fruit from the store as well as from the garden went to make jams.
The cellar had a large bin for potatoes, and another where we kept squash. We canned half the carrots and stored the rest in a third bin, to be eaten raw.
There was a small apple orchard just southwest of the house. It was an old orchard and some of the trees no longer produced fruit, but there were enough apples in the fall to make lots of jars of applesauce. And there was one crab apple tree that had the best tasting crab apples I have ever tasted. We ate many of those fresh from the tree and we used many of the smaller ones to make crab apple pickles.
When we had as many jars of canned fruit on the basement shelves as we needed, we started making pies, using peaches and apples. We kept a stack of those foil pie tins and used them for the freezer pies. We made the pies the same as we would if we were going to bake them, wrapped them in tin foil and stacked them in the freezer. I don't know how many pies we made each fall, but I do know there were at least two stacks of each kind in the freezer when we were finished, just waiting to be baked for a dessert treat or for when company came for supper.
We didn't can meat back then. I don't know why, but I never heard of anyone doing so. We bought chickens from a farm neighbor. Dad had a small field on the property and the neighbor rented it to plant corn or soybeans and paid with beef he raised on his farm. I think we got the better of that deal.
Food preservation wasn't just a trendy thing to do as it seems to be now. It was a way of life. It was the means by which you fed your family. I fear that these skills will be lost. I do hope that enough people will learn them for a time when we may need them to survive.
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Great story and amazing way to grow up. And isn't it funny how things we learned, maybe reluctantly, as a child serve us well now.
ReplyDeleteMy love of veggie gardening really started when I would shadow my great uncle. He grew up on a farm in Ohio and brought his love and skill for gardening to CA.
It's snowing again today. Dog is snoring once again at my feet.
Cheers, SJ
SJ...When we are kids, it doesn't occur to us that we are learning skills that will help us later in life. All we, or at least me, could think about was how unfair I believed life to be that I should have to work so much then instead of playing like others my age. But I am truly grateful for all I learned. Those skills really helped me when I needed them to.
DeleteHow lucky we were - you with your great uncle and me with my Dad - to have those who were willing to show us how to raise food.
No snow here as yet, but the promise of a few inches of it come Sunday or Monday. Dog has the right idea...sleep and snore the winter away. :)
My mother had such a hard life and still canned enough peaches, tomatoes, and green beans to feed a family of 7 all winter. She had lots of back problems, and as the oldest of five kids, I was the helper. I felt so sorry for the abuse she suffered daily from my father and for the pain in her back, that I don't think I ever complained. Even though we had a garden, Daddy brought stuff home from the farmer's market, the huge one in downtown Memphis so we could can. I don't think there is a better taste than Elberta peaches half thawed. She made cobblers and pies, but if I had had my way, I would have eaten a quart of the peaches on my own. Before she had a deep freeze, all the peaches and other produce were canned. After she got the freezer, she still canned but at least she could freeze some of it and avoid the heat of summer with wbc or pressure cooker heating up in the Southern summer heat.
ReplyDeleteI would like to go get some peaches and freeze them just so I could eat half-thawed peaches.
Linda...It is sad when someone we love has such a rough life. It is to your Mom's credit that she was able to do all the things she did and that she could teach those skills to you.
DeleteI think peaches are one of my most favorite fruits, but I have to say that I really like half frozen strawberries the best. Sometimes when I can get flats of them at the Farmer's Market, I will freeze some of them in small freezer bags just so I can have some half frozen without thawing out too many. Delicious.
Hi Vicki, I love hearing about your childhood and the things you've learned that you still use now. I wish I had learned more things like that when I was younger but it's never too late to start!
ReplyDeleteJenn...Some of my kids seem to like reading about times past, so much of what I write in this vein is for them. I am so glad you like it as well.
DeleteIt is never, ever too late. I was once talking with a cousin who owned a successful business. I was bemoaning the fact that at age 40 I felt I should have done more with my life than I had. He told me to look around at what he had. He said everything he had was acquired after he turned 50 years of age. He is the one who told me it is never too late and I believed him. Still do.
I never did any of that sort of thing myself, but all my female relatives did. I'd never thought about this before, but The only people I knew who DIDN'T can were welfare and food stamp folks. Even the rich folks seemed to can back then.
ReplyDeleteWhere I lived, it was the difference between town living and country living. Those my family knew who lived in town didn't do any preservation of food, but the country folks did. I guess it was just a difference in how people lived. Town folks went to the grocery store. Country folks raised their own food.
Deletei think meat wasn't canned at home for safety reasons. pressure canners have made the difference.
ReplyDeletedeborah...I think you are right. My Mother didn't can meat even when she had a pressure canner. I'm thinking she didn't try it because she still believed it unsafe to do so. I didn't start canning meat until around 1980 when I learned from a friend who canned venison.
DeleteI know a lot of women whose blogs I read are still canning food. But I can only remember one young woman who started learning to do it. She was British, and traded me a medical book for a Ball's Canning Guide. Most of the women who I know , who can, are past forty.
ReplyDeleteHarry...I read somewhere that canning supplies are a bit scarce in England. It was good you could help that lady out.
DeleteI have found there are few younger women who have an interest in canning. My own daughters have had zero interest in learning how. I think those of us who do still can food might have been raised in rural homes where food preservation was necessary to feed a family from one growing season to the next. I have a feeling that if things keep on like they are, many are going to wish they had learned the old timey skills.