Tuesday, September 1, 2009

“Catching Up” on Canning

I caught up on canning yesterday (only because neither Richard nor I visited the garden yesterday). So, yesterday morning, I decided to bring samples of our canned creations to those who have been our greatest support network: To Mamie – Cherries Jubilee Sauce and some okra and tomatoes for her friend. To Jack – Carrots from Mamie’s garden, some field peas, and a jar of pickled beets. To Charlie and Deborah – Carrots, red and white potatoes, maque choux, green beans, and field peas. To our next-door-neighbor Shirley – A jar of okra and tomatoes that I had promised her at the spaghetti dinner benefit where I heard her and her family (the Daltons) sing last Saturday. To the Baerreis Family – wine and liquor bottles. I know --That’s not a canned creation, but I’ll explain later.

You may think we were kind of stingy with Mamie considering all Mamie does for us. But Mamie has dozens of cans of produce in her basement, and she’s began making her own okra and tomatoes last year after we gave her a sample. Mamie wasn’t home, so I dropped the goodies off in her egg refrigerator and went to the garden. I picked okra and tomatoes, and then headed over to Jack’s.

I had to return a notebook to Jack, and we sat on the porch discussing his recently published book, as well as his more recent writing about corn in Coker Creek. He also spoke of the wild hog that ate all his watermelons in his and his brother Charles’ big garden. Jack’s gold-hunter friend Cotton (who also hunts wild game) had spent the night in the field watching for that hog, but had fallen asleep on the job. As Cotton slept, the hog had come and gone; so Jack thought he ought to go check his field.

As I prepared to leave, Jack (as usual) offered to give me more tomatoes and peppers – an offer I can never pass up. I told him about the green pepper jelly I made with his last batch of peppers, two batches of which have to be reworked because they didn’t set. We agreed that reworking can wait until after all of the fresh produce is taken care of.

We picked all his red banana peppers to add to the ones already in my freezer from last year. These will become red pepper jelly. Now, pepper jelly is new to the mountain folks. They make jelly from every fruit, including tomatoes, but Mamie told me that the first time she read a recipe for pepper jelly she thought it was a joke. Then again, okra and tomatoes was new to them, and they sure have developed a taste for it.

As we spoke about all the okra and tomatoes I hoped to can this season, Jack asked if I wanted to go with him to his big field to pick okra. This field is about a half mile down the Cooper Hollow Road from Jack’s house. For a year, I had been meaning to have Jack take me for a wildflower walk. We grabbed a bag and started walking. The bag was full of okra when we returned.

As I headed to Charlie and Deborah’s my van looked like a produce vendor’s truck. Since Charlie and Deborah had given me several cases of canning jars – and since they host a bluegrass pickin’ session (to which we are invited) every other Saturday -- we thought it was only fair to share some of our garden bounty with them. Placing potatoes, peppers (from Jack), carrots, maque choux, and fields peas on their new granite countertop, I marveled once again at the great job Charlie did in remodeling their home.

Charlie is a real mountain man, cutting timber on his property and dressing it out for his building needs with his own sawmill. A great storyteller, he regaled me with the story of a realtor who used to take people to look at Coker Creek property, telling them about the gold-mining and panning history of the area. As the prospects walked with the realtor along the creeks, the realtor would remove a piece of fool’s gold from his pocket. Bending down and acting as if he found it in the creek, he’d announce, “Look at that. That’s the biggest nugget I’ve ever found.” The prospect would immediately sign a contract for the land. He also raises several kinds of grape. I was hoping to collect some of his concord and fox grapes for grape jam. Much to my chagrin, he informed me that all his grapes had rotted and fallen off the vine as soon as they ripened.

On the way “downtown” to pick up some prescriptions, I ran by Designs by Baerreis to drop off the wine and liquor bottles. Martha, Phil and Elisabeth Baerreis make wonderful treasures out of wood, glass, and clay. Their hardwood hair toys, sculptural boxes, kitchenware, toys and puzzle boxes, as well as their fused glass jewelry, and other glass and pottery objects de art and photography are prized by collectors around the world. They aforementioned bottles are turned from ordinary recyclables to unique cheese boards in the creative hands of Elisabeth. The Baerreises are also gardening at Mamie’s, so we traded garden tales and recipes.

My last stop was next door at Shirley’s. Shirley’s house is on land that used to be part of the parcel we bought. Her daddy was Rube Dalton, a well-known mountain musician. Shirley grew up on the land that we now own. I remembered that she had talked about the root cellar on out property, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask her advice on root cellaring in our cellar.

She gave me advice, and we talked for a while about her family’s musical talents. I presented her with her first-ever jar of okra and tomatoes to try and asked her if she knew anybody who had extra red grapes. She called her brother who said that the raccoons had gotten to his grapes, and that her own grapes had already been harvested. It was with a heavy heart that I realized that I wouldn’t be able to provide Richard with his favorite jam this year.

As I prepared to depart, I offered her some of my fresh tomatoes, which she accepted -- saying her tomatoes and her brother’s tomatoes were finished bearing. Shirley then excused herself, asking me to wait a minute. Oh, joy of joys! Upon her return, she held a precious jewel out to me – a jar of her mountain grape jam. My winter larder will now be complete.

And then, it was home to can tomatoes.