Lessons Learned

Growing up, our family always had a huge garden. All types of vegetables were grown. Everyone had to join the work force, you could not escape the toil that it took to bring this garden to the kitchen table. The weeding never stopped, the minute you were old enough to grasp a hoe, your spring and summer changed forever. You soon learned what was a weed and what was not.

At harvest time every member of the family picked, shucked, peeled, cored, and snapped. Whatever it took, you did it. There was no getting out of the canning season. Believe me all four of our young inventive minds thought of every possible excuse to bale out!

My main job was washing the jars. As the only girl in the family, my hands were always the smallest. The mason jars were always super dirty because they were stored in the basement and under the edge of the house in the galvanized wash tubs.

I hated that job! That water was always scalding hot, and no matter how much I complained, Mama always told me that it had to be that hot to kill the germs, and that my small hands could reach every bit of the round bottom of the jars.

My Mama was a wizard at canning! She always had a basement full of canned goods, from homemade vegetable soup to beef and pork, to jellies and jams, to homemade apple butter. You could find any kind of pickle on my Mama's shelf. Why, you could even find homemade tomato juice there. Nothing could compare with that taste of freshness on a cold winter's day, all that was needed was a pan full of Mama's homemade yeast rolls!

My Mama had a great assembly line, she had four of the best workers that childbearing could produce. She kept us busy and out of trouble in one felled swoop! We never came home from school and flopped down in front of the T.V., and we never spent our summers out on the streets. We came home and changed from our school clothes and went right to work.

I see nothing wrong in her reasoning. But, golly gee, she could have at least left me with the knowledge of what to do with all of those vegetables after I picked, shucked, shelled, and husked them! At the very least, she could have told me what the heck "cold packing" was; and maybe even taught me how to make those wonderful yeast rolls.

Just what was I supposed to pass on to my daughter? What is she supposed to pass on to my granddaughter? Well thank goodness that I was smart enough to figure out how to put things in a zip-lock freezer bag!!

Judy Kiser ©