Frosty Pumpkin
Canning Applesauce
Stocked Pantry
It was such a long warm autumn. Many thought we deserved it after our frigid summer. We sported light jackets in mid November, the compost was still cooking and the ground was soft. But I started to have trouble with it when the air was still warm after Thanksgiving. My children started begging me to get the Christmas boxes from the attic and I just didn’t have the spirit for it. I also had this nagging feeling that there were still jobs calling to me in the garden. I would find myself wandering through the rows after collecting eggs or picking a few kale fronds looking for a weed to pull or just something that needed me, but it was quiet.
Now winter has come. The ground is impenetrable. Composting is not an option. Splotches of snow are here and there. There has been one snow day, a little sledding and already many mugs of hot chocolate poured. The boxes from the attic have been pulled down and the contents strung up. And a contentedness of winter has settled on me. I am still canning though. Apples with their long storage capacity allow for a little procrastination when it comes to putting up applesauce. For those of you that put up a good amount of food every fall understand the persistence of ripe vegetables that teeter on the edge, nearly falling to the side of rot, before being chopped, boiled and pickled. Apples give me the small luxury of flexibility- allowing me to make smaller batches when I have the time. And so my pantry is still filling, even as we are beginning its depletion.
We having been cracking open jars of dilly beans, salsa and peaches. Fully enjoying, well I guess I can say, “the fruits of our labor”. It is also time to spruce up my jars with pretty labels and ribbons and decide what goes to whom for the holidays. The blog, A Sonoma Garden (http://asonomagarden.wordpress.com), has some free canning jar labels you can download and print out. It is also an interesting read. Have a wonderful holiday and see you in the New Year!
Tags: applesauce, canning, Winter
