Some of you who follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook may know that I went on a bit of a preserving spree this year. I really hadn’t planned on it, but I hadn’t done any last year either, and honestly? It was more stressful not to do it (kind of like withdrawal…sigh…).
I have been canning and/or freezing summer’s bounty since my childhood days when I helped my mother (see? it’s genetic!). In fact, the need to preserve is so much a part of me that it actually helps me move from one season to the next…it also makes trips to the farmers’ market somewhat challenging (“Honest, sweetheart, I have no idea how the bushel of tomatoes got here. It must have followed me home!” :D).
But there’s also a darker side to my desire to can anything that doesn’t run away from me. I’ve lived through power outages long enough to become unsettling (5 days during the ice storm of 1998) and frankly, I prefer knowing that my family will at least be warm (we have a wood stove insert in our basement fireplace) and fed should anything untoward happen. It doesn’t help that I write dark, apocalyptic novels. Or that one of my favorite genres for reading is dystopian (author Mike Mullin already knows I blame him for at least part of this year’s spree!).
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I’m nearly done for the season. I’ve canned tomatoes (chopped and whole), tomato sauce (2 kinds), salsa, peaches, pears, dill pickles, pickled beans, pickled beets, minestrone soup, tomato soup, chicken soup, beef stew, and chicken broth…for a total of 272 jars…which should be good for at least a few days without power.
Or a zombie apocalypse. 🙂
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