I remember growing up in a house smelling like vinegar in the summer. My parents had a huge garden and always grew lots of canning produce like tomatoes, apples, and of course cucumbers. I remember my dad getting out the meat cutter (you know like those that the deli people use to cut deli meat) and slicing cucumbers for hours. The cats would always run away scared from the noises. My parents were always afraid that any draft would break the hot jars as the came out of the water so all doors and windows were to remain shut. I remember one year they had canned over 150 quarts. They were mostly pickles in different varieties. I miss those days.
So this year when I grew my first garden I was excited to can as well. Our tomatoes are beautiful, sitting large and green on the plants....in October! I am fearful that they won't ripen before the frost gets them. But my banana peppers did very well and between those, some locally grown beets (I love beets) and apples from my mom and friend's orchard, I had enough to do some canning last night.
I washed and cut up the peppers and made a vinegar sauce (reminded me of home). I added some locally grown garlic and canned 7 half pints of pickled peppers. Meanwhile I had some cherry tomatoes slow roasting in the oven with some olive oil and fresh local garlic. I then proceeded to cook, cut, and stuff the beets into the jar while the apples I had cored were cooking on the stove. I've found that pink applesauce is best (it saves you from peeling them.) I ended up with four pints of pickled beets and two pints of applesauce. The whole process took about three and a half hours. I slept very well last night.
My parents are my heroes.
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