THE JOY OF CANNING

Good day to everyone.  Hope everyone is well.  My name is Alex Sanders and I am an AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer with Project Worth Outreach in Menifee County, Kentucky.

Our next Grow Appalachia Gardening participant's meeting is at 6 PM tonight.  This meeting will discuss the care of late gardens and weather related problems.

I would like to tell you about what the last month has been like in my household.  I grew up around gardening and canning.  I remember watching my mother and grandmother spend many hours canning pickles, corn, tomatoes, green beans, squash and many more items.  Of course, I did not pay much attention to details but I do remember how hard they appeared to be working and how much they enjoyed this process.  I remember thinking how could they enjoy working so hard.  On the other hand, my wife has never had anything to do with canning. Her parents were educators and the families of students were always giving them fresh food and canned vegetables.  As I stated in an earlier post my wife had never harvested anything out of a garden, her family's or anyone else's, until we grew our own Grow Appalachia garden.  I believe she as well as myself have become hooked on growing and canning as much food as we can.

Over the past month we have been very busy learning how to can many items.  These items include green beans, tomatoes, tomato juice,  and our personal favorites, different types of pickles.  Yes, I said pickles.  Bread and Butter, Dill and Sweet pickles.  We have purchased a canner and all the necessary items you need to can.  We have canned 19 quarts of green beans, 4 quarts of tomatoes, 27 quarts of tomato juice, 6 quarts of Bread and Butter pickles, 8 quarts of Dill pickles and 7 quarts of Sweet pickles.  Now she wants to try pickled corn and pickled eggs.  Oh my gosh, I think we have created a monster.  We are sharing this food with my sister and her 3 children as well as two elderly neighbors.  This activity has taught us a lot of new information and made us realize how much money can be saved by preservation, not to mention how much fun it has been.  Now I understand why my mother and grandmother enjoyed canning so much.  It is because when you grow your own food and preserve it the food taste much better and is healthier than anything that you can buy in the grocery store.  Thank you Grow Appalachia for the opportunity to grow and preserve our own food.

This week's recipe is listed below.  I hope everyone has a great week and has as much fun as we have had preserving the harvest from our garden.


Corn Pudding

1/4  cup flour
1 egg
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cup whole corn
1 3/4 cup cream corn
1 1/4 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
1/3 stick butter

Mix egg, flour and sugar.  Add corn and blend in milk.  Dot top with butter and bake at 325 degrees until center is firm and knife, inserted 1 inch from center, comes out clean (approximately one hour).

Paul Cooper

Note:  I submit these recipes as given to me.  Please feel free to substitute healthy ingredients whenever possible.