Friday seems like a generation ago for me. It was another blur of a weekend that I can barely remember. Since this is not Facebook, I am not going to get into all of those details but what I will say is that everything was about closure and preparation to move on. For the foreseeable future, it is just us guys home.

One thing that I haven’t done in a couple of years is canning of peaches and pears. In fact, we are out of pears and down to our last quart of peaches. I think the last time I did it was 2018. Ideally, you would plan to can what you would eat in a year. When I was growing up, my mom would shoot for 1 quart a week. For us, I think that is a little steep but I definitely want to have a little more than what I think we would eat so I am shooting for 24.

What you are looking at is 60 lbs of peaches and 56 lbs of pears. With peaches at least, you always want to get them a little firm and let them ripen up. Otherwise, they get crushed when packed for transport. Both of these I bought at a local feed store chain so I didn’t really get as much choice as I would have liked but I got volume and I didn’t have to pick them. I will also need to get the pears laid out but I think I have a little more time since they are still green.

What does one need to know to prepare for canning?

  • Get your recipe in line, that way you will have an idea of how many jars to have ready and how many other supplies will be necessary like sugar or salt or spices
  • Keep your calendar flexible but realize that when it is time to go, it is time to get canning. I am hoping everything can last until the weekend.
  • If you haven’t done this before, allow plenty of time when starting and plan on completing the job when it is done, not by a time slot
  • Have a place ready to store the jars when done ideally for the rest of the year.
  • Be prepared for a mess, you may end up having to clean the kitchen after a late night even if you are careful.

So, not only do I have single parenting responsibilities, handling some estate duties on this side of the country and dealing with my own messes now I have a bunch of canning to do. I am keeping it short today but now you know why I titled today’s post.

End Your Programming Routine: When harvest season comes, the work has to get done. This is the one time to take advantage of the bounty and put it away for the rest of the year. I am going to enlist the boys to help me out because they eat most of them anyway but it is now or never (for this year).