Savor seasons' bounties by canning
29.09.11
Most recent summer is here and so are large harvests of tomatoes, apples and pears arriving on the heels of peas, corn, berries and leafy beans from earlier in the summer. What do you do with it all? How can you make the summer last?
I started canning fruits and vegetables about 10 years ago, partly because it reminded me of aliment that I got from my grandmother when I was a kid. She and my grandpa kept canned peaches, canned corn, and all kinds of jam in Mason jars in their old, swarthy cellar.
Another reason I started canning was my interest in supporting local agriculture. My trouble, kids and I got fruit and vegetables from pick-your-own farms and district farmers markets. We’d start in May with strawberries, move through summer with blueberries, blackberries, peaches, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers and raspberries and deliver up in November with the late-ripening crops of apples and pears. Now we become more pleasing to mature some of our own and buy the rest from local farms.
I started by making jam — one quart jar of raspberry jam in the puny kitchen of our apartment in Staten Island, N.Y. Last year, we canned 40 quarts of peaches, 20 quarts of dill pickles and more than 10 kinds of jam.
Source: Centre Daily Times
Hardware store to offer fresh produce this weekend
09.09.11
Billings Machinery customers will be able to pick up supplies
for weekend projects as well as dinner start Friday.
For the second year, the store is hosting a farmers’ hawk of
sorts, bringing in 120,000 pounds of peaches, pears, cantaloupe,
corn and other hatch by way of three semitrailers.
That’s triple the order they brought in last year.
“Last year, we sold out of a semi-burden in about a day,” said
store owner TJ Comstock.
This year’s encumber includes 3,000 cases of peaches — all of which
will be placed under six tents skilful for sale — and tasting — on
Friday morning in the garden center.
The set aside went outside its hardware niche last summer when
Comstock noticed a backlog of canning supplies.
Jars, lids and other supplies weren’t poignant as the summer ended
in 2010. Looking for solutions, Comstock said the depend on brought in
the fresh fruit and veggies hoping to hint interest in canning
supplies.
They had no idea how successful the event would be, not only in
selling the produce, but the canning supplies.
Source: Billings Gazette
