Mason Jars

I was washing out a mason jar this morning and got to thinking... I wonder how many different things that one jar has preserved over the years? My mama gave me several dozen of these wonderful inventions when I moved to my new home. That summer I dutifully filled them all with green beans, tomatoes, and sweet pickle relish. Then, after the contents were eaten or used in recipes, the jars were washed and stowed away 'til next summer. Next summer came, and I filled them again, with green beans, tomatoes, relish, peaches, applesauce,and apple pie filling. I canned and canned and canned, driven by some kind of desire to have my shelves full for winter.

People have been preserving food for years, either by drying, salting, canning or freezing. For some reason I enjoy the satisfying feeling of seeing all those mason jars filled with various and sundry kinds of food to enjoy during the bleak winter months.

Canning was something that my Mama taught my sister and I how to do. We peeled and sauced tomatoes, snapped green beans, and sliced up squash and stuffed them all in those re-used glass mason jars. My sister was the champion "bean stuffer" (to this day, I don't know how she could cram what seemed like a half-bushel of beans into a single quart jar.) I was the chief mess-maker. I would always be covered in tomato stains by the time the job was complete. Mama taught us how to make pickles, grape juice, and apple sauce. She showed us how to extract the juice from fruits and make jellies, or mash them up to make jams. Nothing can beat homemade strawberry jam on buttered homemade toast. Mmmmm....

One time, as I was discussing canning with Tyler's Nanna, his Grandfather asked me, "Amanda, how many girls your age do you know that can as much food as you do?" I just laughed and shrugged. I know I'm probably an odd ball, but it's important to me to preserve the garden's bounty, as well as preserve an art that not everyone knows about.



So, as I put the empty jars away, I plot and plan on what I will fill them with next summer. There's always a new recipe to try. And as long as my shelves are full, I know we will have food to eat, gifts to give, and in every jar there's some kind of memory that you just can't get in a can of Green Giant.