Is It Naptime Yet

I was at Sunflower Market today and I was buying a couple bag full of peaches.  An older gentleman, as in old enough to be my father and then some, commented on how good the peaches were that we were buying.  I mentioned I was going to try my hand at canning and he said he’s thought about it, but why can when you can easily go buy canned peaches? I mentioned our avoidance of high fructose corn syrup and he seem pleased. He then said I should go to Southern Utah to buy from the fruit stands there, the peaches we were buying were suppose to be from Utah, but I replied I never go to Utah. He then went on to say he had a house in St. George and goes up regularly. He joked that I should give him my number and he could buy the fruit for me. I laughed and said that was a thought.

I don’t think he was hitting on me per say, I think he was joking and in a way it came out wrong. There was no awkwardness, but it was still strange.

If only I really did have a connection to the Utah fruit, though the food storage specialist in our ward has given us opportunities to buy fruit. That’s where I got my 25 lb, box of apples for Sam and me.

I bought not too many peaches because I found a video on youtube and it looks like I can make as much or little syrup for the peaches and I only have four jars to put the peaches in. The peaches were on sale at Sunflower, and all very green, so I’m letting them ripen and experimenting canning the peaches myself later this week. Hopefully next year I can be better prepared and possibly can a box of peaches.

Canning is time consuming and not necessarily price effective but I’ve found two reasons why I think it’s good.

One: It helps the environment since you’re reusing bottles. Rather than buying a new jar of applesauce, jam, or a can of fruit , you reuse and reduce waste, something I’m trying to become more aware of.
Two: you have complete control over what goes in the food. You can make reduced sugar jams, and can fruit in a better syrup, though it’s still a lot of sugar or honey. (We’re trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup and I dare you to find a canned fruit that does not contain it. I’ve looked, maybe not hard enough, but enough to see it’s in a lot of brands.)

So I’m thinking of making this a new hobby. I just don’t have the space for a steamer of my own, thank goodness for friends who are willing to let you borrow, or space for tons of bottles of fruit. I hope we can find space if I do make it a hobby.

It’s such hard work, but fun at the same time.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 11:30 pm and is filed under baking, Craziness, fun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.