The Beginning of Harvest

I'm pretty sure I've expressed my LOVE of fall/autumn weather. Love love Love. It is crisp and fresh. The bugs aren't too bad. The colors are amazing. And something about harvest season just gets me all warm and fuzzing inside. We aren't quite in our "getting ready for winter" stage yet, but we are getting there. Right now we are deep into canning season. Our tomato harvest is abundant and we find ourselves checking the garden daily and picking baskets full at least every 2-3 days. We have in the past 10 days canned 40 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 30 quarts of spaghetti sauce, and 16 pints of jelly. This week is peaches. I can't take credit for doing the peaches though, but my mom knows my heart is there with her as she jars probably about 8 boxes of peaches. You see, my mother and I have an agreement. John and I grew all the tomatoes this year and are picking picking picking until there aren't any more to pick. And I will can can can until I am out of jars. And blanch and freeze as many tomatoes as possible for my mother. She's taking care of my peaches and I'm taking care of her tomatoes. It's a fair trade. :-) Oh, did I mention the sweetcorn? My mother has a sweetcorn source that grows the sweetest corn I have ever tasted! And last week she bought, shucked, blanched, and bagged 26 dozen ears of corn. Can you believe it?! Amazing. And then she proceeded to bring me some for my freezer. I think she loves me. So then after tomatoes are done (in the next couple weeks) we will move onto apples. I love doing apples. It gets messy and sometimes annoying but apples straight from the tree - especially the trees we get them from - are absolutely luscious. I grew up around canners. My great-grandmother canned everything. And since she lived just across town, she and my mother became the best of canning buddies. I remember picking berries (every kind) for jellies, cucumbers for pickles, sweetcorn for freezing, peaches and pears, apples for sauces and butters, tomatoes for sauce and salsa. They did everything. My great grammy taught my mom so much and I am grateful that she did. So as I follow in my mothers footsteps, I think of Gram and her wrinkled, soft, time-worn hands moving so gracefully over the most delicious food ever. I hear her telling stories and giving tips on how to peel potatoes with a knife at top speed. I giggle because I can hear her contagious laugh that sounded like a joyful warm cackle. And I remember her icy blue eyes twinkling with happiness and love. She was a simple woman who loved with every fiber of her being.....and she loved most through her food, her flowers, and her sewing. The simple things.

I didn't begin this post thinking of Gram, but it certainly ended that way. Which is alright with me because she was definitely a woman I was/am proud to be loved by. Miss you, Grammy.