Today is Monday, July 27, 2008. The sun is shining and it is hot in Sacramento, California.
July has been an interesting month. Right now a daughter and her family are visiting us. Another daughter and her two children came for several days. That meant that we had 8 of our 20 grandchildren here to play together and get better acquainted.
When our children were growing up we often visited my husband's mother and father at the same time as other families. Glen comes from a family of 7 boys and they are a loving close knit family. The cousins loved to visit Grandma and Grandpa and play together on the farm. It's been a long time now since the cousins have been together. They have grown up, married and have children of their own. Even though we have a family reunion occasionally, not everyone is able to come.
Last weekend Glen and I attended a funeral for his oldest brother. It was wonderful to see all of his children and grandchildren even though it was for the sad occasion of saying goodbye to someone we all love so much. There is such great comfort for all of us knowing that we will all meet again in heaven. Family love is such an important part of my life.
The days that we can be together as a family go so fast. One daughter has already gone home with her two children. And tomorrow the other family will head back to their home. And the grandparents will be all alone again. The house will seem very quiet. We will be able to have the computer to ourselves once more. And if we choose to watch news or "Murder She Wrote" on TV, it won't interfere with anyone's plans. But how we will miss those loving arms around us and those cheerful noises that our grandchildren make.
And we get to anticipate the next time we will be together. How much I love our family- the immediate one and the extended one, too.
That's all for today.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Peaches and Cream
Today is Tuesday, July 8, 2008. The sun is shining and the sky is blue.
We just finished our breakfast and what a breakfast it was! Toast (homemade bread), fresh peaches right off our tree, and cream. (Well, our "city" form of cream - Carnation Condensed Milk.) Now that the peaches are ripening we will need to get the canning routine going again. We just finished canning apricots about two weeks ago. Every year when we can peaches we talk about the year in Bakersfield when we canned over 200 quarts of peaches.
All the children (9 of them) were still at home. Now peaches are not really hard to can. They require peeling but with a freestone peach that is not a hard thing to do. You just get a big pan of boiling water, drop in the washed peaches, count to about 20 (with practice you get so you can tell by the way the skin looks), plunge the peaches into cold water and peel off the skin with your hands. Then you cut around the seed and the two sides drop right off. During our lifetime we have bottled lots of freestone peaches.
This one particular year was a little different. The year I am talking about was the year of the "Cling peaches." Clings are the most popular kind for the commercial canneries. The skins are not so easily removed. Commercial canneries use some kind of lye solution that isn't practical for home canning. Out south of Bakersifeld was this huge cling peach orchard which was connected with commercial canning. For some reason the peaches were not just the way they were supposed to be - too small, too large, whatever - and the grower decided to sell them off to anyone who would come pick. $1 a box - and if you brought a small box that was your problem.
With all our "helpers" we headed off with several big toilet tissue boxes. We have 9 good workers in our children and with Glen and I we made quite a "pickin" crew. It was hot, let me tell you. But everyone kept right at the job. Then home to start the bottling process. Since each peach had to be peeled we used our potato peelers (we even went out to buy several more). Wash the peaches, peel them like you would a potato, and then they had to be cut off the seed. We got quite skillful and creative with that part of the job. One whack on each side - for two large pieces. One whack on each end for two smaller pieces. And then one person cut off as much as possible from the seed. We put them into the bottles in like manner. All big pieces in one jar, side peices in another jar, and the little bits in another jar. We had three basic "stules."
Now cling peaches taste wonderful from the can or the bottle. It is just the process of gettting them ready. We worked and worked at those first boxes. Of course, we also prepared plenty for eating fresh. No slackers in the work crew. I was even amazed at how long and hard the children worked. The whole job was no easy task.
We set a goal to can 100 quarts of cling peaches. We had to go to the orchard more than once. As we approached the 100 mark we were all excited. This took a matter of several days, mind you. Then lo and behold, when we finished the last batch we had 110 beautiful bottles lining our cupboard shelves. We were all so pleased with our hard work.
Then our oldest son said, "Why don't we go for 200?" I was ready to hear moans and groans from his younger brothers and sisters, but guess what? They all were caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment and heartily agreed with him. (They all love to eat peaches.)
How could the parents dampen that youthful eagerness! We piled in the car with our boxes. By this time we knew about how many quarts each box would do. And we picked more peaches. Then home to do the canning process. Lots of hard work, lots of family togetherness, and lots of good peaches to take us through the winter. Such a wonderful memory! Glen and I sure have fond feelings in our hearts over that work crew of ours. I wonder how each of them feels about that experience. One thing we know, our children all know how to work. Thank you all, our dear children.
That's all for today.
We just finished our breakfast and what a breakfast it was! Toast (homemade bread), fresh peaches right off our tree, and cream. (Well, our "city" form of cream - Carnation Condensed Milk.) Now that the peaches are ripening we will need to get the canning routine going again. We just finished canning apricots about two weeks ago. Every year when we can peaches we talk about the year in Bakersfield when we canned over 200 quarts of peaches.
All the children (9 of them) were still at home. Now peaches are not really hard to can. They require peeling but with a freestone peach that is not a hard thing to do. You just get a big pan of boiling water, drop in the washed peaches, count to about 20 (with practice you get so you can tell by the way the skin looks), plunge the peaches into cold water and peel off the skin with your hands. Then you cut around the seed and the two sides drop right off. During our lifetime we have bottled lots of freestone peaches.
This one particular year was a little different. The year I am talking about was the year of the "Cling peaches." Clings are the most popular kind for the commercial canneries. The skins are not so easily removed. Commercial canneries use some kind of lye solution that isn't practical for home canning. Out south of Bakersifeld was this huge cling peach orchard which was connected with commercial canning. For some reason the peaches were not just the way they were supposed to be - too small, too large, whatever - and the grower decided to sell them off to anyone who would come pick. $1 a box - and if you brought a small box that was your problem.
With all our "helpers" we headed off with several big toilet tissue boxes. We have 9 good workers in our children and with Glen and I we made quite a "pickin" crew. It was hot, let me tell you. But everyone kept right at the job. Then home to start the bottling process. Since each peach had to be peeled we used our potato peelers (we even went out to buy several more). Wash the peaches, peel them like you would a potato, and then they had to be cut off the seed. We got quite skillful and creative with that part of the job. One whack on each side - for two large pieces. One whack on each end for two smaller pieces. And then one person cut off as much as possible from the seed. We put them into the bottles in like manner. All big pieces in one jar, side peices in another jar, and the little bits in another jar. We had three basic "stules."
Now cling peaches taste wonderful from the can or the bottle. It is just the process of gettting them ready. We worked and worked at those first boxes. Of course, we also prepared plenty for eating fresh. No slackers in the work crew. I was even amazed at how long and hard the children worked. The whole job was no easy task.
We set a goal to can 100 quarts of cling peaches. We had to go to the orchard more than once. As we approached the 100 mark we were all excited. This took a matter of several days, mind you. Then lo and behold, when we finished the last batch we had 110 beautiful bottles lining our cupboard shelves. We were all so pleased with our hard work.
Then our oldest son said, "Why don't we go for 200?" I was ready to hear moans and groans from his younger brothers and sisters, but guess what? They all were caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment and heartily agreed with him. (They all love to eat peaches.)
How could the parents dampen that youthful eagerness! We piled in the car with our boxes. By this time we knew about how many quarts each box would do. And we picked more peaches. Then home to do the canning process. Lots of hard work, lots of family togetherness, and lots of good peaches to take us through the winter. Such a wonderful memory! Glen and I sure have fond feelings in our hearts over that work crew of ours. I wonder how each of them feels about that experience. One thing we know, our children all know how to work. Thank you all, our dear children.
That's all for today.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Apricots
Today is Wednesday, July 2, 2008. The smoke is out of the air and the sun is shining brightly. It is supposed to get up past 90 degrees today. Oh, boy! Hot summer days.
Our apricot tree has produced lots and lots of apricots. We have been canning nearly every day. (We are not as fast as we used to be.) And we have been eating lots of beautiful fresh apricots. The dryer has been going steady, too. It brings back memories of canning apricots at Glen's folks' place in Toquerville, Utah. Mother and Dad had an apricot "orchard." I can't remember exactly how many trees there were but enough to keep a full crew busy picking, canning and drying apricots.
Seems like we always had our trip to visit just at the time the apricots were ripe. Not only our family but some of the rest of the family came, too. And what a production line we had. Aunts, uncles, and cousins of all ages pitched in to help Grandpa and Grandma take care of all the fruit. One or two of the older boys helped Grandpa and the Uncles pick bushels and bushels of apricots. The aunts and everybody else (all ages) helped Grandma do the canning and filling the huge dryer with apricots. There was apricot nectar and apricot jam, too.
Grandma never wanted anything to go to waste so first thing she would enlist some help to pick up any nice apricots that had fallen during the night. Grandpa felt time would be better spent getting the trees picked but we always did what Grandma asked us. From those "gushy" apricots, as the grandchildren called them, we made the best tasting jams and that wonderful apricot nectar that we all loved so much.
Everyone, no matter how young, had a job to do. The men would bring in the apricots. A couple of the smaller children would carry from the bushel baskets to the kitchen sink, where the next older children washed the fruit. There was someone assigned to deliver from the sink to the various work stations around the big red, formica kitchen table. Some were assigned to cut out the bad spots - there were seldom many -, the next group split them into a big stainless steel bowl. The next assignment was to place the halves into the scrupulously clean Kerr jars. (The washing of the jars took place first thing in the morning. Each jar had to be washed with hot, soapy water and a stiff bottle brush. And every top checked for any nicks that would keep the jar from sealing. Nicked jars were just thrown in the garbage.)
There were aunts at the stove boiling the sugar syrup to be added to the jars. The "flats" had to be placed in boiling water to sterilize before they were placed on the full bottle of the beautiful orange colored fruit. Next, srew on the jars rings. Grandma kept those in order of a scrunched together coat hanger. Then into the hot water bath canner seven bottles at a time. Grandma had two canners so we could process 14 jars at a time. As soon as one batch was finished there were another 14 bottles ready to be put into the canners.
Such a busy wonderful time. It was a lot of hard, hot work but there could be no slackers. Cousins worked together and had a good time doing it. There really was not much complaining. Grandma would never allow that - well, neither would the mothers and aunts. It was just a job that needed to be done and the more people who helped made the work go faster. Besides, most of it really turned out to be fun. There were all kinds of stories told around the big kitchen table and the aunts and uncles helped when your job seemed to get overwhelming. That was a great part about it all. Once Grandpa and the uncles had finished picking they came in to the kitchen to help. Nobody wanted to be left out of anything.
I really think that the whole family has pleasant memories of that working together. And I know everyone learned to work hard. In this day and age I consider that a wonderful blessing. To learn to work. Every child needs to learn two things in life - how to work and how to obey. Those two principles take a person far in life.
Along with the canning there was always one person responsible for cutting up a big bowl of those fresh apricots to eat with sweet cream for dinnertime and suppertime. The fruits of our labors were delicious. That day and in days to come as we savored the finished products. Oh, there was another by-product of our apricot project. The trees were what we call "sweet pits." When you cracked the seed, the little "nut" inside tasted nearly like an almond. The boy cousins liked to crack the pits open for everyone to enjoy the eating.
I will always carry many happy memories of those days working with the family on the annual Apricot Project.
That's it for today.
Our apricot tree has produced lots and lots of apricots. We have been canning nearly every day. (We are not as fast as we used to be.) And we have been eating lots of beautiful fresh apricots. The dryer has been going steady, too. It brings back memories of canning apricots at Glen's folks' place in Toquerville, Utah. Mother and Dad had an apricot "orchard." I can't remember exactly how many trees there were but enough to keep a full crew busy picking, canning and drying apricots.
Seems like we always had our trip to visit just at the time the apricots were ripe. Not only our family but some of the rest of the family came, too. And what a production line we had. Aunts, uncles, and cousins of all ages pitched in to help Grandpa and Grandma take care of all the fruit. One or two of the older boys helped Grandpa and the Uncles pick bushels and bushels of apricots. The aunts and everybody else (all ages) helped Grandma do the canning and filling the huge dryer with apricots. There was apricot nectar and apricot jam, too.
Grandma never wanted anything to go to waste so first thing she would enlist some help to pick up any nice apricots that had fallen during the night. Grandpa felt time would be better spent getting the trees picked but we always did what Grandma asked us. From those "gushy" apricots, as the grandchildren called them, we made the best tasting jams and that wonderful apricot nectar that we all loved so much.
Everyone, no matter how young, had a job to do. The men would bring in the apricots. A couple of the smaller children would carry from the bushel baskets to the kitchen sink, where the next older children washed the fruit. There was someone assigned to deliver from the sink to the various work stations around the big red, formica kitchen table. Some were assigned to cut out the bad spots - there were seldom many -, the next group split them into a big stainless steel bowl. The next assignment was to place the halves into the scrupulously clean Kerr jars. (The washing of the jars took place first thing in the morning. Each jar had to be washed with hot, soapy water and a stiff bottle brush. And every top checked for any nicks that would keep the jar from sealing. Nicked jars were just thrown in the garbage.)
There were aunts at the stove boiling the sugar syrup to be added to the jars. The "flats" had to be placed in boiling water to sterilize before they were placed on the full bottle of the beautiful orange colored fruit. Next, srew on the jars rings. Grandma kept those in order of a scrunched together coat hanger. Then into the hot water bath canner seven bottles at a time. Grandma had two canners so we could process 14 jars at a time. As soon as one batch was finished there were another 14 bottles ready to be put into the canners.
Such a busy wonderful time. It was a lot of hard, hot work but there could be no slackers. Cousins worked together and had a good time doing it. There really was not much complaining. Grandma would never allow that - well, neither would the mothers and aunts. It was just a job that needed to be done and the more people who helped made the work go faster. Besides, most of it really turned out to be fun. There were all kinds of stories told around the big kitchen table and the aunts and uncles helped when your job seemed to get overwhelming. That was a great part about it all. Once Grandpa and the uncles had finished picking they came in to the kitchen to help. Nobody wanted to be left out of anything.
I really think that the whole family has pleasant memories of that working together. And I know everyone learned to work hard. In this day and age I consider that a wonderful blessing. To learn to work. Every child needs to learn two things in life - how to work and how to obey. Those two principles take a person far in life.
Along with the canning there was always one person responsible for cutting up a big bowl of those fresh apricots to eat with sweet cream for dinnertime and suppertime. The fruits of our labors were delicious. That day and in days to come as we savored the finished products. Oh, there was another by-product of our apricot project. The trees were what we call "sweet pits." When you cracked the seed, the little "nut" inside tasted nearly like an almond. The boy cousins liked to crack the pits open for everyone to enjoy the eating.
I will always carry many happy memories of those days working with the family on the annual Apricot Project.
That's it for today.
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