Wow, I didn't know you were into cooking. My mom used to can jams and jellies. But my favorite was APPLE BUTTER. OMG. This is the best thing in the world. Since I was the dishwasher in the family, I got sick of washing those mason jars. They were inexpensive back then, and we used to buy them by the case. My mom would make preserves for the entire neighborhood if they brought her the fruit. Peaches, Pears, Figs. Oh, I forgot to mention those figs. Not only was fig absolutely the best preserve, she used the white milky part of the stem to cure our ringworm. Sorry to talk about ringworm during cooking conversation.
It's really neat to prepare your own fresh canned fruits. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Yeah my wife and I are trying to learn and bring back some of the things our families used to do many years ago! There’s a lot of fun to have doing it and you get to connect, I think, with food the way we should be doing. Going to the store and buying the stuff is easy but then there’s all kinds of other stuff in it you don’t want. I’m surprised it’s taken us this long to do it, we’ve done lots of things on our own but making our own preserves and sauces hasn’t been one until now. Better late than never!
We ended up getting a bunch of mason jar cases at just the right time. We got 2 cases of the 32 ounce wide mouth ones and some small ones. When we tried to look for more everything within a 35 mile radius of our place was completely sold out! We got lucky and found some tractor stores that had some and a local hardware store. I’m still working on putting it together but we turned about 700 pounds of tomatoes into homemade sauce!
Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman! I think eventually we would do the same with our neighbors and friends. It’s a good way to connect with them and pass the time, I think! Then you can share the joy of homemade stuff. The homemade fig stuff sounds great! I love figs but I don’t know what to do with them half the time. Using the stem in that way goes to show how we need to get back to those roots in many ways, so we can do things that nature provides us all along!
Appreciate the great comment, thank you!
!ENGAGE 25
So many skills and traditions are lost these days as the new generations feel they are unimportant or they have a lack of time. I guess pre-prepared foods (meals) from the supermarket don't help either. It's sad really, but that's progress for you. It's good you're finding your mojo in this regard and E will benefit too, in time.
Yeah I mean growing up in my parents house the only thing they ever made homemade was tomato sauce but even that was from cans. I dated a girl who’s family made homemade pasta traditionally and it was great! I certainly hope to do that with our little family, some of the best memories are had doing things like that with friends and family.
There’s definitely also the time factor. It’s been a huge help that I’ve been working from home now so I’m able to be there right away to help. When the two of us are working on it the time to finish is cut tremendously.
I have a mate, just a little older than I am whose family holds to the old ways. They make wine, sausages, breads, pasta, sauces, olives and even cheese all in the old ways from Napoli. A lot of the produce they use is grown themselves. His parents immigrated in the early 1960's and the family is one of the few I know who uphold traditions. It's always a great night to go over there and make wood oven pizza with them all...It's loud, very social and always tasty.
Ah damn that sounds like such wonderful memories! I hope the family keeps that up as long as possible, that makes me really happy to hear that!
Yeah they are a pretty cool family...I just hope the two kids (adults now) take it on...I don't know if both will but the parents are pushing for it, involving them. We'll see.
Yeah I definitely hope they will do it, that’s one of the tough things. My older generation did the stuff but my parents never bothered for the most part.
ENGAGEtokens.My mom too. Canned and made a little apple butter each year. We had cows, so we had fresh butter every Saturday. But apple butter was a special treat.