Canning Season

Canning season is here again! Canning season at our house starts around July and usually lasts until mid-October. Every year with a garden is different, and this year is no exception. Last year, we were swimming in zucchini and tomatoes and only grew enough berries to fill the kids' mouths. This year, we have had an abundance of blackberries (about 5 1/2 gallons) and a small-to-average size crop of tomatoes & cucumbers. So far, I have canned: tomatoes, pickles, sweet zucchini relish, dill pickle relish, candied hot peppers, mulberry syrup and blackberry jelly. I spend about five hours each week canning or preserving. Here is a peek at how it goes. Above is a photo of the essential guide to canning. It is a how-to, as well as a recipe book. 

I usually can on Sunday so that Darren can harvest everything he can from the garden. Nearly every surface of the kitchen is covered in canning paraphernalia in preparation for the task at hand. I pull up all the produce for the week and make a plan. The water bath canning pot is filled and is set to boil- it is a lot of water, so it needs a lot of time. From the cupboards, I pull down all my mixing bowls, large pots colanders & strainers. From the drawers, I grab spoons, slotted spoons, spatulas, knives & cutting boards. I just assume that I am going to need everything at hand... and I am usually right. I also make sure I have an assortment of jars and my canning specific equipment (eg. jar grabbers, magnetic lid grabber, etc.). There are also ingredients that every canner feels like they never have enough during canning season: vinegar, salt, sugar & lemon juice. There are also various spices. You can how the whole process takes over the space. I find that during this time Darren & the kids are good about making themselves scarce- not surprising because I get super-focused on the task at hand and the kitchen can get very hot with several pots of boiling liquid (in the middle of summer, though we have been blessed with a mild one this year). 

Jars, jars, jars... we do a lot of canned goods for gifts, and I cannot seem to buy enough 8 oz jars. I bought 5 cases at the start of the canning season and doubt they will last the summer. 

I wanted to get more photos of me working the produce, but it just gets to be too much. The above photo shows tomatoes ready to be boiled for peeling. I love my new tomato knife (it is super sharp, and I put a nice slice in one of my fingers a few weeks back to prove it). Every cook or canner has methods that work for them, and for tomatoes, I found that cutting off the stems and slicing an X in the bottom is the easiest way for me to peel them. I am constantly moving and working. So while I have something boiling, I am preparing the next batch of produce or mixing a brine or sterilizing jars. This was my first year making jelly, and I got a food mill to help me process my blackberries. It is very nice, but working with berries is messy work.  Below are photos of some of my finished products. 

Blackberry jelly

Dill pickles & Dill pickle relish

Tomatoes! We have a good crop of yellow tomatoes, and I think these look like jars of sunshine. 

Candied hot peppers... way too hot for me!

Of course, when all the "fun" of the canning day has ended there is still clean up to be done, which probably takes up an hour itself. This is a big ol' pile of the bigger pots, pans & bowls that I used. It is hard work, but it also feels like such a good, solid task. Our garden is organic, and what we put up is what we use (or give away to others). It is generally healthy and tastes good- the product of our joint toil. When I can I feel like I am preserving a history that I hope my children will continue. 

(Our First) Western & Southern Open

Darren has been wanting us to attend the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati since we first moved to Columbus. It is the biggest tennis tournament in our area and hosts the biggest names in tennis... all the top players attend! This year, we jumped on the chance to get tickets and headed down the road to Cincy for some tennis...grateful for the beautifully mild weather we have enjoyed this summer. We prepared for our day by bringin water, sunscreen, sun hats & sunglasses.

We encountered some traffic on the way down, so we arrived late to our first match. The grounds were packed with spectators, but our box seats on center court were the perfect! The photo below is the actual view from our seats, not zoomed in. Darren & I commented that our seats were better views than what we got on television, which is pretty rare (for us) for a professional sport. Our first match was King vs. Azarenka who is ranked #2 in the world. Azarenka won this match in two sets. 

Love the photos like this!

 Seeing professional tennis players from fab box seats is amazing, but what really made the day wonderful was just being together as a family. Darren really loves tennis, and having our family at this tennis tournament was kind of a dream come true. I just loved the whole day, especially watching Darren with the kids. Our second match was Isner vs. a top-ranked German player who I can't recall the name of right now. Isner is an American player who is nearly 7 feet tall. He won this match and would go on to lose to Nadal in the finals. 

Our next match was Ferrer (#3) vs. Harrison. This was a great match. Harrison is an up & coming American player who really put a lot into this match. There were some amazing points on both sides of the net, but Ferrer took the match in the end. In between all this tennis, we were able to eat and wander the grounds. There were tents for merchandise and tennis-related organizations. There is tennis constantly being played, whether it is other matches on other courts or practices on other courts. Wandering around with the kids is a bit more difficult, and you never get to see everything you want to see, but we had a good time. 

All the huge tennis stars were on the practice courts, and we had hoped to see the likes of Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Sharapova & Williams, but... so did everyone else. We managed to find the court where Nadal was practicing and Darren snapped a few photos. Nadal would go on to win the tournament. I was able to catch a glimpse of him through the crowd, but the kids couldn't see anything, and it didn't really mean too much to them anyway. So, I took them to see the champions' garden, and we decided to skip the practice courts. It was a little disappointing to be so near to these tennis players and not go see them, but, hopefully, we will have the chance to do it again in the years to come. 

Degen took this pic of me...and Darren! Cute!

This was our last match before we headed home (already strategizing for next year!). Wozniacki would easily win this match in two sets. We had a great day of tennis!

A Sailor's Life: Touring the Santa Maria

As Columbus, Ohio is the largest city named after Christopher Columbus in the world, it is home to the "most authentic replica" of his ship the Santa Maria. The non-sailing vessel is moored in the river in downtown Columbus. As a wrap-up adventure to our summer, we took a tour of the Santa Maria (after catching a morning matinee of "The Little Mermaid" at the Columbus Children's Theater). 

The kids were excited to get on board the ship and listened well to the descriptions of the ship and life aboard the sea-faring vessel. They learned the basics of how the ship worked and about the difficulties the sailors faced on their long voyage to the Americas. Mostly, they enjoyed exploring the three levels of the ship, especially the captain's room, and pretending they were sailors on the high seas. We had a beautiful day and learned lots!