Otherwise known as canning vegetables.

Not that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the adventures in canning and pickling last Saturday.  But there were definite moments when all of us, hunched over, immersed in a cloying, vinegary swelter, strings of hair falling into our faces as we stirred molten-hot cauldrons of boiling brew, resembled weird sisters of a Shakespearean era. 

We chatted, we listened to cheesy Spanish music, we chopped and chopped and chopped and chopped.  My question:  is it worth it?  As a fun experiment, and an opportunity to be a real consumer of the local food economy, absolutely.  Will I be shopping for canned tomatoes at Ingles this winter?   You betcha. 

But I now have a beautiful row of pickled okra, pickles, sweet pickles, onions, and beets lined up on my kitchen shelf.  Not to mention bbq sauce, bbq relish, and tomato chutney.

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible.