Keeping Traditions Alive

It's a shame that now-a-days going through a drive-through to get dinner is "easier" for some folks to feed their family than it is to have a home cooked meal. Not only is this unhealthy but I feel it has also added to our country (USA) being one of (if not THE MOST) the most obese nations in the world today :(

How many youngsters know that vegetables come from a garden and then how many of them know that you can actually make a meal from those veggies that come out of a garden !!!

I'm a child of the 50's and my family didn't grow up eating fast food (grocery or drive through) - my mom worked 40+ hours a week but there was always a home made meal on the table (with my brother and sister being older than I am they were the ones that were in charge of getting dinner ready). By the time I was in 5th grade mom and dad decided to move to a different part of the city, so come the beginning of 6th grade I was going to a different school BUT mom also quit her job at the fabric store and she was home 24/7. She then always had a garden which she herself took care of - from getting the soil ready to harvesting all the goodie out of it. I can remember her making jams and jelly and putting wax on top as that is how they did it "back then" ! (and gosh I'm still here to tell about it), I also remember her making THE BEST pickled green tomatoes and now I can't find a recipe that comes close (but I can't pickle squat - they end up like mush !! )

So here I am ... all these years later and I want to pass on some of the things our parents did (and their parents) i.e., canning, sewing, gardening. We have our 8 and 12 year old granddaughter's quite a bit and if we do something in the garden or in the kitchen - they are very much involved in every aspect. Here is a quick view on what we got accomplished yesterday - 9/2/17.

I'm lucky to have a friend that lives right next to a local orchard and she's allowed to pick at the end of the season - so Thursday evening we went over and acquired about 1/2 bushel of peaches.

Celia, the 12 yr old, went out in the garden with her papa and a 5 gallon bucket - and these tomatoes weren't even from the row of tomatoes that we planted ! These are all from the volunteer plants that were growing everywhere else and this picture was taken AFTER we already took quite a few out !!!

The first thing we started on were the peaches - I have a brand new Ball waterbath canner that I'm using every chance I get !!

SOOO we've canned peaches in prior years but OY VEY these peaches didn't want to work with us but HEY they were free :) What should have taken us hmmm possibly 2 hours literally took all day long to blanche, put in ice cold water and peel, etc. The majority of the peaches DID NOT want to have their skins just slide off "sigh" thank goodness 2 years ago I invested in a tomato peeler !!! I bet I had to use this utensil on 80% of the peaches !!! Hubby was doing most of the blanching and ice water then peeling at first, but he was getting more frustrated as each batch of peaches wouldn't peel nicely for him so I took over !!! So Kaylee brought over a stool and I put the peaches in the hot water, blanched them, then put into the ice water and proceeded to peel them as best as I could. Then I would place the peaches on a bowl on the other side of the sink and Kaylee would cut the peaches in half and take out the pit and she would the cut the 1/2 peach into half again.

Then as the bowl would fill up she would take that bowl over to the island (actually right behind her) and would start filling up the jars (I showed her once how to use the funnel and put the peaches in the jars, use the debubbler, wipe the rim with a cloth (or paper towel as she was using) dipped in white vinegar then putting the lids and bands on - SHE DID WONDERFUL !!!

So while Kaylee and I were busy doing peaches, Celia and Papa started on the tomatoes !! I was lucky enough last year that on craigslist I found someone selling an attachment set for a kitchen aid for some unreal price and I scooped it up !!! So hubby put the attachment on the kitchen aid, Celia put on a pair of latex gloves and they started up the kitchen aid with the vegetable strainer attached !

Can't forget about Kaylee washing/desteming the cherry tomatoes to add to the mess her sister and papa were making lol

Once they were done with all the "maters" - into a pot on the stove it went.

This was the first time either of the girls helped with this part of "homesteading/homemaking" they didn't seem to mind, in fact, Kaylee was rather proud that she now knows how to can (as she informed me !! ) She's ready to do more !!!

Can't forget the beans Celia and Papa found in the garden (harvesting beans is our next project)

but tomorrow (Labor Day) is a trip to Lehman's to meet up with Tawra from Living on a Dime !!!

Thank you for taking time out of your day/night to read about our day ! Tuesday is Kaylee's 8th birthday (wow where has time gone !!) and today was our other granddaughter's 13th birthday !!!

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