Growing up, gardening and canning food were two things we saw as a chore but as we grew older, we appreciated the fruits of our parents’ labors.
Dad is an avid gardener and starting around the end of March, he spends every free minute he has outside. He keeps himself busy mowing the lawn, planting the garden, trimming the trees, watering the yard, etc., until the first snow hits—which in Idaho can be July 4th—but usually, we’re good until late September. All summer long there are raspberries to pick, beans to snap, and a variety of other fruits and vegetables to gather from the garden.
Once the harvest begins, so does the canning. This is mostly my Mom’s department—although Dad and the rest of us helped out with various steps throughout the process.
As hungry college students, we would come home on the weekend and do a little “shopping” in the storage room—stocking up on various canned fruits and veggies and of course, the folks’ famous salsa. It’s hard to understand as a kid just how much work goes into all those jars of pickles, freezer jam, and bags of dried plums, but we always appreciated how they tasted! Now that we’re older, we spend time asking our parents how they plant corn, water tomatoes, juice grapes, and preserve peaches. This site pays tribute to their hard work by archiving many of their tips and tricks.
Mert and Harriet