June 16, 2014
When my husband and I first got married we rented a small house in an incredibly small 2 ' x 4 ' Garden, and all we had was the room that first Garden we had approximately 50 strawberries.
It's not much, but it gave me a sense of accomplishment and gardening, I was so proud of the first strawberries that I wanted to make every single Berry count.
When I was in the library one day looking for cookbooks with Strawberry recipes (you know, before the internet was invented, and I could look up online recipes) occurred in the first book of the canning industry. I was mesmerized by it.
Although canning jam is pretty straight forward, the canning industry is not something I grew up around so say was intimidated by the whole canning process would be a major understatement. But that first summer went by slowly, I got the hang of home canning and before I knew it we had about 60 jars of jam sitting on our cabinets.
Now, my husband likes to jam as much as the next guy, but 60 jars? How on earth did we had to eat 60 jars of jam in one year, before they all went bad? (The USDA recommends a hard home canned jams within the year)
It took a moment, but then we had a light bulb moment. "We will give the jam jars away as a Christmas gift."
And it was there that a small little kitchen in our tradition began. Every year since then we have made a variety of jams and jellies to family and friends during the summer months, the hotel's Garden produces.
Canning. It's cheap, easy and fun. So get out there, grow more and get some of those Christmas gifts crossed off the list this summer. Come winter, and you'll be glad you did.
~ Mavis
All photos courtesy of Mavis Butterfield
Read previous: 3 standard pillows to get Facelifts thanks to inexpensive decorationsPlease read the following: spring is here: it's time to get to the Camp
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