Food Preservation

Dear Mothers,

Ya know in the old days, when the cool days of autumn would come, the old time Mothers would start gathering all of the odds and ends out of her garden before the late fall freeze came. Nothing was ever wasted.

Wow, it is actually cold this morning. We were in that horrid heat spell for so long and nearly roasted. And now, as I stand here, I am in some warm sweat pants and a long sleeved sweater. I am actually cold. I bet it got to almost 40 last night and, before that, it was days in over 90 degree heat. What a change in the weather!

Well I am not up early. It's 6:00 am. But thought I could write about pickles while I visit with Papa. You would be proud of me. I have a pickle recipe in front of me. But I have made enough bread and butter pickles in my day to not need a recipe anymore.

Ok, you need about 5 pounds of cucumbers and a few onions and green peppers. Just take a big pan and put cold water in it and slice the cukes up in it with the onions and peppers. You don't have to peel the cukes. Just wash them good and slice the cukes with the peeling on them.

About canning potatoes ...

I just wouldn't waste my canning jars on potatoes. You dig your potatoes up in the fall and they will last about 3 months. Then, around here, potatoes are cheap in the winter. I can buy them for like 3 bucks for 20 pounds. Since they are so cheap, I don't even waste garden space on them.

This is so easy it's embarrassing.

Just pick your rhubarb and cut the leaves off and wash the dirt off. Cut the stalks in about 1-inch pieces until you have 5 cups of rhubarb, then put the pieces in a big pan for the stove. Add to this pot 5 cups of sugar. Turn the pan on and let this cook.

Now, if ya stir it fast enough you won't have to put any water in. But if ya wanna, you can add a fourth cup of water ... it won't hurt it. But the rhubarb will produce its own fruit along with the sugar as it cooks.

My ketchup recipe is so fun to make, and I can't wait to do it myself. We are waiting for our tomatoes to turn red.

You take, like, 8 pounds of tomatoes and a few onions and peppers, clean them up, cut the seeds out of the peppers. But just core the tomatoes and you can keep the skins on. Then have 3 cups of white vinegar ready. You need a blender for this. Just put some vinegar in your blender and start blending tomatoes, etc. and pouring it into a big roaster. Pour some in the roaster and leave some in the blender to keep blending until all of the vegetables are ground up.

It is a bit after 5:00 am. I have been up early, straightening up the house. I still have sprinkles of flour on the floor from yesterday's baking. I will vacuum after Papa wakes up. I was too tired last night to clean up a lot. I was going to rest yesterday from having all my company, but my batch of bread kept growing. Papa had bought for me a nice big 10 pound bag of unbleached white flour... also whole wheat flour ... he thought it would last me a while, anyway. But I used at least 8 pounds of flour yesterday making bread. Now he has to buy me some more.

When I was raising my very large family, I was so busy in the summertime! It was always easy for me to feed the family in the summer months. My garden produced all the tomatoes I needed and other vegetables. Then, food is cheaper in the summer, also. But, boy, ya hit those winter months and it is hard to keep the cupboards full.

Well, today, I have to get into some serious organization concerning my green tomatoes. Papa picked all the green ones because it got close to freezing. They are in sacks. Some have turned red, but most of the green ones will rot before they turn red.

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.