Canning Days

    For basically as long as I can remember (which is back to when I was almost three), my family has annually canned fruit. When you're little, you can find yourself sitting in a chair at the kitchen table wielding a butter knife in one hand and a cherry in the other. No, dear, you don't need to cut it with that; we're not taking the pits out. Just pluck the stem off and put the cherry in the jar. But . . . we all grow older, don't we? And before we know it, we are soaked from our fingertips up to our elbows in mushy pear juice. No matter how messy it gets, the reward of smooth, sweet slices of pear is so delicious. I'd say canned pears, peaches, and cherries are my favorites, though we do others, also.

   This year, our canning adventures included:

          apricots,

              pears,

             cherries,

              and prunes.

   If you are considering helping with a pear-peeling session, here's a spot of advice: make very sure you hold the pear over the table . . . and hold it gently; do not hold it tightly. If you do, you'll soon be left with an empty, sloppy hand and with a runaway pear half gloating over its victory while it's four feet away from you on the kitchen floor. I've learned this, and it's not fun to chase after rebellious fruit halves that can't stay where they are supposed to.

Have you ever canned or helped with canning? What's your favorite canned food?