We learn a lot about ourselves when the world turns upside-down. I've learned that in order to keep my wits about me and not dive down into a pit of despair, I need to keep busy. Not just busy like puttering aimlessly, I mean like so busy I can't even think of picking up my phone to check the news because my hands are covered with either dirt, paint or kitchen muck. I started off our March lockdown with lots of house projects, ended up painting the interior of the house, worked a lot in the garden and finally almost permanently attached an apron to my body and processed loads and loads of fruit.
All our abundance was thanks to our fruit trees getting the memo that we cancelled all our vacations and trips this year and that we'd be home. All. The. Time. And then other people with fruit trees had the same thing happen and they had fruit trees gone bonkers too. Once people hear about the couple that welcomes all produce happily into their lives, you become like the fruit dump, but in the best way possible.
First it was our plum trees, We've lived here for 8 years now and never ever have we had so many plums - even the old half dead tree that looks like it needs to be put out of its misery went bananas with fruit. And like I said, we were here. All. Summer. Long. So instead of the squirrels and the birds and the dog getting fat on our plums, we picked it all before that could happen. And then came the huge box of yellow plums from the friend of a friend. And a huge box of pears from another friend. And then our peach tree got all jealous and even though it's still really small, it went to town with a huge crop. And not to be outdone our fig tree got into the act and produced a nice crop too. We can't forget the boat load of onions we received, onions to last a lifetime. I cooked with and chopped up onions in so many ways but still more onions! What to do, what to do?
It was time to get busy canning. As I mentioned, canning hands can't check the news so it was the perfect activity to get my mind off many things out of my control and take control over all this healthy organic produce.
All we needed were the canning supplies, especially lids. What?? The rest of the world was canning too and canning supplies became the new toilet paper? What do you MEAN all the stores were out of lids? How could there be no pectin? That's preposterous! I searched in my stash for any lids and rings and jars like a Depression-era housewife, determined to stock up the pantry for her Vitamin C starved family. I put out the call for any friends who had supplies, and then got on Craigslist. Getting on Craigslist during a pandemic to look for canning supplies was a surreal experience. "I'm not a prepper, but hey I got these peppers..." Bingo, we got some jars with 1976 Bicentennial designs on them, that had sat that long in someones's garage, and a friend snagged some supplies at Walmart and we were in business.
I got jamming making jellies and preserves from figs and plums and pears. I made peach just-about-everything, including my first attempts with peach chutney and peach salsa, even using up all the onions for crying out loud. I even got to use the peppers from the failed tomato garden, It was a wonderfully successful time in the kitchen and now we have our larder full. That's the first time I've ever typed the word larder and it feels really good. People ask me if I want to sell them and OH NO, that's way too much pressure. I really love to give them away to friends who visit, it brings me great joy. We have one more batch of figs to do and I can state that the Summer Canning Season of 2020 is sweet history.
Blogger had finally updated its features, and I admit I cannot figure out how to insert my typical comments under each photo. So feel free to make up some incredibly witty remarks for each of the following photos and attribute them to me.
