Preserving for the Future and Basics
I was raised on the foothills of Mount Diablo, in Danville, CA, when it was just a little town. Our neighbor was almost a mile away. My grandparents, Papa and Meme, had purchased 60 acres as their country place. After digging a well, they proceeded to plant every fruit and nut tree known to them. Before the water system was in, they would drag water up the steep hill to water the new trees. When I was a child, we would drag boxes of apricots, peaches, plums and prunes down the hill, gathering the apples, walnuts and almonds from the valley, shaking the olives, gathering the loquots, and rich small crabapples, gobbling fruit all along. My mother, Kita, with my grandmere, Florence, would can for days. Our larder was filled with summer’s bounty, which became food in the cold, unproductive months and gifts for all of our friends. It’s an art and a habit that I’ve continued to this day, planting fruit trees wherever we live, and supplementing with u-pick fruits and farmer’s markets. There is nothing better than home canned tomatoes, applesauce, conserves, and jams. We will share a preserving section in each seasonal edition.
Enjoy!
–Barbara
Preserving:
- Green Tomatoes
- Preserved Marinara Sauce
- Nectarine and Plum Pie Canned Filling
- Apple Pie Filling
- Sauerkraut
- Bing Cherry Conserve
Basics:
