Bottling

We do a fair amount of bottling... Okay, we actually do what most people would consider A LOT of bottling. When the teenagers were in the house, a typical summer of bottling included 200 quarts of tomatoes, 30 quarts of salsa, and 20 pints of pizza sauce. One of our first home modifications was to build sturdy shelving in the closet under the stairway. You would be amazed at how many quart jars can fit in a small closet like that if there are shelves from floor to ceiling. We also bottle apples, peaches, apricot jam, strawberry jam, raspberry jam, apple sauce, green beans, dry beans, chicken, cubed beef, pickles, and grape juice. Most of the fruits and vegetables are grown in our back yard, although we have to buy some of the fruit when visiting relatives who live in a cooler climate.

The inspiration of this blog entry is to point out there are wonderful resources available for people who haven't bottled at home before. And for those who do have experience, there are new recipes to try. We used an old cookbook to start with, and wanted something more comprehensive that focused on bottling so found the Ball Blue Book. I don't mean to advertise for them, but they sell a very good book and it covers all the basics including dehydrating (make your own apricot fruit leather), pickling, water bath canning (tomatoes and jams), and pressure canning (meats and low acid foods). It also lists the equipment you need and explains how to use it. It is an excellent resource.

It is an investment to get the equipment together so you might want to borrow or work with a friend who bottles to see if  you really want to do it. I recommend starting with water bath canning and something simple like tomatoes or jam. People who lecture on storing food say it actually costs more to bottle your own, so the only reason to do it is because you get superior flavors. I would add that you also have the comfort of knowing how to store and cook foods from basic ingredients. This is becoming a lost art in our age of zipping off to the store for every little thing. I personally find great satisfaction in growing food and preserving it, plus we know exactly what the ingredients are. Now that we have children living in other states, it has been very rewarding to have them call and say they miss home made bread, or salsa, or pizza sauce, or they wish they could find tomatoes in a can that taste as good as the ones we grew at home and bottled. I would rather hear that than have them lament they can't find the same kind of frozen waffle with the freezer burned taste...

Sorry, no offense to those who purchase everything and don't have a garden. I am biased and I admit it. For me there is something magical about planting, growing, and harvesting things in the garden. Learning to preserve those foods is a natural next step and has become part of our family heritage and skillset.