The Summer Spin Cycle

OK, has anybody figured out yet that I am not the biggest fan of summer?  I sweat a lot, and don't like to sweat, so there's that.  There are crazy levels of activities, and I am a homebody.  But I do have a love/hate relationship with one part of summer: home canning.

I realize I might be speaking a foreign language right now to some of you.  But I grew up in rural Pennsylvania (HEAVEN! as I like to call it) in what was in many ways an old-fashioned way to grow up.  Plus, it apparently was a Long, Long Time Ago, since my 10yo thinks I was born before women could vote.  (Yeah, I'm not letting that go any time soon.)  So I grew up helping my mom make jam and jelly and canning green beans and peaches and pears and pretty much any fruit we wanted to eat over the winter.  I also grew up with an extremely frugal mom who thought fresh fruit was too expensive to buy in the winter.  Sigh.  Anyway.

So this is how I view summer:
end of May: Strawberry Season.  Get busy because it comes earlier in south Jersey and I'm still trying to do school w/ the kids.  But wait, south Jersey strawberries aren't that great so I need to make at least one trip up to PA to get some yummy, small, mouth-wateringly tasty strawberries from the Amish/Mennonite farmers who live around my Grandma.  Then go home and start making jam.  This year: 4 batches, 2 in which I forgot to add pectin, which is what makes your jam and jelly set, meaning I have 2 batches of strawberry syrup and 2 batches of jam.  Oh well.  Any child that complains WILL be given an extra chore to do.  So there.



It doesn't look like enough for a year, does it?  Hmmmm . . .

June: the crazy rush of berries.  This year I found a place close by where we could pick black raspberries.  This is a rare find in south Jersey.  (Heaven has them growing wild everywhere.)  So we spent time picking raspberries and making raspberry jam and jelly.  This year: 1 batch of black raspberry jam (that means w/ the seeds), 2 batches of red raspberry/black raspberry jelly.  At this point in the summer my daughter started signing her name as "Stirrer, Spreader and Consumer of M.A.D. (Mother and Daughter) Jam, Inc. - that's the company that's incorporated not the jam."  I sure do love that funny girl!

Also in June, going through July: blueberries.  My husband went vegan about a year ago.  All of the kids consider frozen blueberries w/ a little bit of milk poured over them a big treat.  Last year I froze 40 pounds and we ran out in December.  So, starting in mid-June, I bought one 20 pound box a week and washed and froze them.  Ideally I would like to pick (or buy) organic ones in bulk, but I'm in get-'er-done mode, and it's more important to me just to get tasty fruit that is better than what I can get in the grocery store in the middle of winter.  This year I believe I got 100 pounds, but I did give some away to my dad and my grandma, so probably I only have 80 pounds left in my freezer.

This is only a small part of the 80lbs.  It was hard
to find room for them, what with all the ice cream.

Also in June, going through July and August: my husband's garden starts producing zucchini.  He grates this and puts it in quart bags in the freezer.  SUCH a huge blessing in the middle of winter when I make zucchini-carrot quiche.  Seems a bit of a trial in the middle of summer when I'm busy with other things.  :)

60 quart bags - about as exciting to look at
in person as they are in the photo.  ;)

Then, August.  The Spin Cycle has me in its grip.  It is that crazy, last, flying burst of activity that won't stop until September hangs me up to dry.  Peaches. Tomatoes. Canning.  We have a gas stove-top and our gas bill doubles this month.  It is worth every penny, though!  This food is far tastier than anything we get in the grocery store.  It's not as cheap as the super-cheap, low-quality stuff you can buy w/ a zillion coupons, but this year we calculated the peaches are about 1/4 the price of the quality stuff that we buy.  So far we have 60 jars of peaches in the pantry, and plans for 20 more.  Tomatoes are coming on Monday.  Hello, heart-healthy tomato sauce.

Sunshine in a jar!

Have I mentioned that I look forward to September?

~Stephanie