Home Canning - A Family Tradition

Today I am canning beets from our garden. Among other things ti has me thinking about years past. I was raised on a small family fram, the oldest of five children. My parents always had a big garden and my Mom did lots of canning. I can remember her saying that she had to have at least 1,000 jars of food put up to get us through the winter. That sounds like a lot but it really isn't when you are feeding 7 people plus extended company that enjoyed visiting us. When Steve and I got married we planted a garden and have every year. I have to admit that I don't can nearly as much as I did when our kids were home. This year I did not have to can green beans or tomatoes as we had plenty left from last year. I have canned several jars of zuchinni relish and zalsa (salsa with a zuchinni base) and beets. As of right now that may be it. If Steve gets a deer during hunting season I may can some venison. We enjoy the canned venison. In fact dinner tonight is venison stew in the crock pot. This year our yellow summer squash has gone crazy and we have lots of it in the freezer to enjoy this winter. I also chopped up a squash and put it in the stew. In years past I used to can a 50 lb bag of small potatoes. I haven't done that in a really long time and I do miss having them on the shelf. They are a lot of work but worth it. My father-in-law used to go downstate and bring home trailer loads of carrots and sell them for deer feed from his front yard. I would go out and sort through the trailer and bring carrots home to can. I tried making dill pickles but for some reason they just never turned out. With just Steve and I here now I don't seem to can as much as I used to but what I do can I share with our kids.