"Can it!"

This was my first year canning all on my own. Up until now I canned peaches with my mother-in-law and grape juice with my grandma. But for various reasons, this fall I was on my own - my first solo attempt at what could quickly become a terrible mess. As if I need more messes around here!

So, after very little preparation, I dove right in. That's my usual M.O. for the unknown. I spend tons of time preparing for the familiar, but when I don't know how to do something I just wing it. So I skimmed over the canning instructions in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and then went and picked a bushel and a half of peaches. There would be no way to eat all of those before they went bad (though I made a valiant effort), so now it was can or die, buried under a mountain of peaches

Thankfully, my friend Jenny came over for round one of canning - I say thankfully because we did it during the afternoon and of course, both kids took bad naps and I spent almost the whole time trying to get them back to sleep while Jenny did all the work. It was fantastic.

I learned my lesson and did the rest of the peaches at night after the kids went to bed. So now there are 17 quarts and 9 pints of peaches sitting in the pantry.

Then came the grapes. I am able to get the grapes for free from Benjy's mom and dad, and it has become one of my favorite fall traditions. Normally I pick the grapes, cart them (and all the accompanying spiders and earwigs) to my grandma's house, wash and sort them, and then watch grandma do all the important work of actually steaming and canning the grapes. Oh, and I get a fabulous lunch which she somehow whips up in 15 minutes out of what appears to be thin air. And then grandpa serves at least 3 courses of desserts, just in case I didn't get full.

Well, this year grandma was not able to be up and around and doing all the work for me. So the grapes and spiders and earwigs came to my house, but the fabulous lunch did not. Neither did the 3 courses of desserts, so I had to just make do by eating 3 times as much of the dessert I had on hand. Not the same, let me tell you!

Grapes are a little easier to juice and can than peaches. Hence, I canned over 60 quarts of juice altogether. In one week!

First batch

Steaming the grapes

The final product

It went really well, except for the very last bit of juice. It wasn't quite enough to fill a jar, so I got what I could and then covered it with plastic wrap to drink the next morning. As I was transferring the jar to the fridge, it just slipped out of my hands. I was able to catch the jar before it smashed on the ground, but the juice went cascading down the shelves of the fridge, splattering against the wall and all over the floor. The kitchen was instantly remodeled with gorgeous shades of purple. Unfortunately, all my kitchen towels and rugs are red, white, and blue - not a good match. Of course, this happened right as we were about to walk out the door on a Friday night, heading to drop off the kids at grandma's so we could go on a date. We still got to go on the date, and now I'm a little less uptight about Annie's spills.

It's all done now and I have a full pantry shelf to show for all the work - and if you've seen my pantry, you will be properly impressed.