Mama Kat Thursday: Something I Was Thinking About

The Mama Kat prompt I'm doing today is a post on, "Something I Was Thinking About."

Actually I was thinking about canning---the preservation of food in glass jars.

In our local paper, a particular chiropractor includes a fly-sheet ad for his business and, the funny thing is, back in the mid-90's I did a little work cleaning houses and I used to clean that chiropractor's house every other week. They had a vacuum in the closet I'd use and I remember the upper shelf was loaded with quart jars of canned tomato chunks---but I observed they weren't very well done. The tomatoes were floating high in the jar with 2 inches of liquid beneath.

I remember thinking, "Those are tomatoes are really badly canned." 

I could think that because I know what a well-done canned anything ought to look like---growing up in Indiana, we had a huge garden and Mother canned tomatoes, beans, beets, jams, jellies, peaches, tomato sauces, homemade chili sauce, pumpkin---everything and was very good at it.

There's technique involved in canning in learning how to do it so there's no floating space under your product or at least, very little. It's a skill to learn judge the correct head space in the jar while packing and to remove all air bubbles before processing.

I remember Mother running a knife up and down around the inside of the jar and also tapping the jar on the counter as she did so, explaining to me it was important to get the air bubbles out.

I remember one year she canned green beans and fresh peach halves in particular for entering competition in the County Fair Preserves & Canning division.

I recall we picked peaches that year from a pick-your-own orchard, then she very carefully arranged the peel and seeded peach halves face down on top of each other in neat, alternating layers in a quart jar. They came out of the pressure cooker with absolutely no floating space. Of course, floating is an absolute no-no for competition. She also did a beautiful pint jar of green beans, full length, all arranged upright in the jar. 

I looked through Pinterest at pictures of canned half peaches and couldn't find a single one as neat and pretty as the jar I recall Mother canned for the Fair that year.

I don't recall what ribbons she brought home from it, but I do know the competition was stiff.
You have to remember we lived way out in the country in a farming community where everyone had big gardens with wives and grandmas who been canning for a couple generations.

Have I ever canned? Yes.
Back years ago, when I had a pressure cooker, I did maybe 4 or 5 pints of tomatoes over a couple years and I tried pickles once. In my mind I thought, if you had a garden, canning should follow because that was what I was used to.
But eventually I figured out my garden was just too small to support canning. Also my pressure cooker gave out. 

I do still can blackberry jam from time to time, because that doesn't require a pressure cooker.

Anyway, that chiropractor's ad always reminds me of his wife's badly canned tomatoes.

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