Canning season officially began for me today. I woke up to a kitchen full of fresh tomatoes, vidalia onions, basil, dried herbs from last year, and apples freshly picked from my tree. The thing I love most about canning is that I start with all of these wonderful ingredients, jars, lids, rings, numerous large pots, & various canning paraphernalia and I end with a clean kitchen and precisely packed jars full of beautiful produce that I can enjoy all winter. This is the ultimate experience of summer for me. Today I ended up with 12 half pints of pizza/spaghetti sauce (thanks to my uncle Marvin for the tomatoes & to Kate for the recipe) as well as 5 half pints & 3 pints of applesauce (thanks to my beautiful tree for providing bountiful apples this year).  I already made some strawberry-rhubarb preserves in June, but this is my official kickoff!

When I woke up this morning, I had a frozen sternocleidomastoid muscle in my neck and the thought of canning seemed very overwhelming. After using heat, ice, arnica gel, and heat again, I decided it was probably going to hurt all day. So I got started canning in the afternoon, thinking that maybe I wouldn’t do much canning this year. By the end of the 4 hours, I was thoroughly enjoying myself & hardly noticing my neck as I juggled pots of boiling water & bounced to the music. I even cooked up some Crispy Mung Beans and dried the sage out of my garden so I can use it for the Thanksgiving stuffing. I’ve been smiling all day thinking about how much my family will love their delicious organic treats at Christmas and dreaming about the new canning recipes I’m going to try this year to surprise them. Maybe being the only person in my immediate family who can carry on the family tradition of canning isn’t so bad!