It was 36 years ago that I first got my "taste" of home canning. I was a new mommy with an almost 6 month old Tony. We'd just come back to Greenville after being in Virginia for a little over 2 years in the Coast Guard. It was so good to be back home!
Since Greenville is so small we lived with Mom for 6 weeks while we waited for some place to live. It was while we were there that Mom taught me how to can.
I don't know where we got the apples, I know it wasn't for our wormy apple tree (so sad!) Mom showed me how easy it was to turn that box of apples into applesauce! She taught me right there in our tiny, little kitchen that I'd grown up in... being her #1 helper. I loved that little kitchen with its trash burner (wood stove) right along side the gas stove. She showed me how to just quarter the apples, cut out any bad spots and pop them in a big pot and steam them until tender. Then we sent them through the old Foley Food Mill. (If you want more instructions than this I found this site online.)
Add sugar if necessary, heat again and bottle using the open kettle method (which most sources don't recommend, but I've never had any trouble in 36 years!)
The years have been good to me where canning is concerned. For some odd reason I enjoy this process. There is something basic and satisfying about bottling your own fruit.
Now here I am... a Grammie but I am still canning. Since moving here to Utah I've been blessed with all of this produce right in my own backyard!!
5 comments:
Look at my little sister-- 20 years old and making applesauce. Mom's kitchen looks so pert, doesn't it? Boy, those were the days--- 1972.
I just love the photo of Grammy's kitchen! It looks just how I always picture it in my mind. You were so fortunate to learn how to can under her tutelage. I wish I had had the same choice experience. Maybe I'd know how to can now. Of course it's triple digit temps outside so canning right now is out of the question.
Love,
Cindy
Cindy, this photo makes me what to have pano-vision and just be able to do a 360 of Grammy's kitchen. I can just smell the applesauce with a small undertone of wood smoke!!
Ladies,
I wonder if I could get a little info. from you re canning. Pls. let me preface my question by noting that I know nothing about it. I have a terrible wt. problem, have had for years. I think I've finally found a solution in the South African succulent, Hoodia gordonii. It entirely kills my almost always ravenous appetite. I work on ships and am trying to come up with a way for my wife to get it to me. Fresh Hoodia is very effective as I mentioned previously but I'm not sure what effect drying, freezing, canning (where you heat it up etc.) or other processes would have on its potency. Thus I'd like to find a way to send the fresh stuff, if indeed such a thing is possible. Would it somehow be possible to literally can it in tin cans somehow pulling a vacuum on the can in the process to avoid oxidation and air degradation, or to can it in something inert like nitrogen, avoiding botulin etc.?
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Andy Eppink
As far as I know the only way to home can foods is with heat either in the cooking or canning process. Low sugar/acid foods like vegetables and meats have to be processed in a pressure canner. I do know that you can buy Hoodia in capsule form... beyond that I don't know.
Good luck-
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