The Ball canning book is a good source of imformation. Also, for some of you that want to begin canning next year, I would go to the library and stock up on books about canning and read them this winter. Maybe make a notebook and write down notes and recipes. This would be a good winter project for many of you. Maybe you could do it with your daughters for homemaking in home school.
When I go to the library, I come home with stacks and stacks of books on homemaking. When Jim works in the afternoon, he likes to rest and eat his lunch and then watch tv for a while then go to work. He likes for me to be with him in the living room, not especially to talk to him but to just be there. So I read my books and get ideas of things I have to do after Papa leaves for work.
If you have tomatoes, but you won't be canning this year, you can freeze them in freezer bags. Or just the ziplock bags. You just wash them and core them and cut them up into pieces, and put them in the freezer. You don't have to cook them first. I used to do this when the children were young if the tomatoes were coming in too fast and I didn't have time to can them. I would make up bags for the freezer with green peppers and tomatoes and onions. I would use these packages to put into boiling soups and stews and chili for the winter. You don't even have to peel the tomatoes, as the skins float to the top of the soup, anyway. While it is cooking, just skim them off.
And many old time mothers would freeze their fruits, like grapes and berries and peaches, and make jams out of them in the fall when the other canning wasn't taking up all of their time. This way, you can have more fun making your jams and jellies, and even make some for Christmas presents. You have more time to play and get fancy. But it's easy to just have your fruits frozen and to just make your jam when the canning season isn't in full swing, like it is now.
One year, I made a Christmas jam with frozen strawberries and store bought cranberries. You just cook the cranberries as it says to on the package and, at the end, put in a few cups of strawberries. Cranberries will thicken anything up, so you don't have to use the surejell. But I usually make the rhubarb jam in the spring, before anything else is ready to can.
I am so looking forward to fall and winter. My aunt has given me so many old pieces of sewing that my grandmother made, and great grand mother made. So many doilies and embroidered dresser scarves. I want to just have time to look at them in the quietness of a winter's evening. I want to look at every stitch and think of how much time all this sewing took. I will do some hand sewing, too.
These old time mothers were not out running to the store. They were at home, sewing and cooking and watching over their dear children. Their hands were busy and their hearts were happy.
"Happy willing hands make happy willing hearts."
