Yes, I Can

I've told this story before but I love it so much, by golly, here I go again.

Almost forty years ago, after we had made our move to the farm and become caught up in the farm way of life, back in Tampa, one of my mother's (and now one of my) friends was at a fancy cocktail party, chatting with my mother.  The friend asked how I was doing in this new environment.

"Oh," said my mother, probably rolling her eyes and pursing her lips, "She leads a very different sort of life." There was a dramatic pause (at least, as I imagine it) and my mother lowered her voice. "She cans."

And I still do . . . Having used up a lot of freezer space with corn and with tomato herb sauce, I started canning tomatoes -- just a start, And I picked a basket of apples to make applesauce but used way too much water and it's more like apple soup. Hmm, maybe it'll be nice to braise pork in. Any suggestions? 

If You Can't Take the Heat. . .

A canning house was once a common addition to farms around here -- a way to keep the heat of canning (often on a wood stove) out of the house during the summer.  This fine example, which sits across the street from our driveway, even has a cellar to store the canned goods.

I don't have a canning house -- and I really don't want to use a wood stove in this summer heat.  But the kitchen still get horribly hot, even with the gas range, even with a fan going.

John to the rescue! He suggested that I move operations to the back porch. And with the help of this one-burner cooker, I canned tomatoes today. 

Forty-five minutes of a boiling canner and several hours of cool down for the jars afterward -- all done outside!  

This is the way to go!