Returning to my Roots

For as long as I can remember, my daddy has planted a garden.

Not a little garden.

Not a pleasure garden.

But an extremely large vegetable garden.

A garden filled with string beans, butter beans, shell beans, kidney beans, peas, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, okra, watermelon and cantaloupe.

And sunflowers in a few of the rows.

One year he planted at least 6 kinds of bell peppers, and 6 kinds of hot peppers!


These rows are not your normal rows.
They seem to go on for miles, and miles, and ... well, you get the idea....

Anyway, for all of my childhood years we were forced given the opportunity to work help out the family by means of harvesting all of those vegetables.  Not that I am complaining mind you, for I really enjoyed eating all of that food.  Nevertheless, I remember thinking back then that I would NEVER work in a garden picking beans, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, etc. EVER AGAIN!!!  Sorry, didn't mean to yell...

However, as I have gotten older wiser, I realized the value of having fresh vegetables (have you seen the prices at the grocery store lately???) and the necessity of putting food up (canning and freezing) for when fresh is not available.

This year I had planned on getting a garden planted for our family, but due to circumstances beyond my control (the tiller died) ours never got planted.  So Tuesday Savannah and I made a visit to the local Mennonites and bought tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and italian peppers, squash and zucchini.

Lunch!

I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday canning the squash and zucchini.  I bought a box of squash and a half box of zucchini.  This is all that remains.

Now putting up squash is nothing compared to shelling, washing, and canning beans, peas, or tomatoes, but it still takes time.  Time to wash the squash, cut the squash, prepare the jars, fill the jars, process the jars, etc.  But when it was all finished I had 35 quarts of squash/zucchini to show for my efforts.

Now it is true that I was a little out of practice.  What with moving last year, I didn't do any canning!

But I pulled my canner out and got to work.

This canner has seen lots of use!

Tools of the Trade (Jar lifter)

It may not seem like much to anyone else, but I am thankful that I had the ability to do this for my family.

Oh, and by the way, next week I will be back in the garden at Mama's.
Helping her with more picking, preparing, and canning...

Never say never.....

She looks well to the ways of her household
   and does not eat the bread of idleness.  Proverbs 31:27

 ~ Liana