What would grandma say?

~ canning class, Home Economics, photo courtesy of University of Chicago Photographic Archive ~

Most domestic functions I learned from my grandmother who stayed home with me

while mom worked.  A single parent, mom struggled out in the corporate world

and I swear, if it wasn't for her sense of humor

I'm not sure how it all would have turned out.

I fall back on humor as an antidote to this day while the skills I picked up from grandma

had a somewhat more practical use [not that humor isn't practical, of course].

Mom couldn't even sew a button or hem a skirt,

but she wrote shorthand faster than the wind.

Grandma could darn socks, crochet lace edges on pillowcases and rewire a toaster,

yet you'd never find her leading a meeting or typing legal documents.

Interestingly enough,

of all the skills I remember about my grandma, I don't recall that she ever canned food.

Sort of odd, considering she concocted the most delicious candy from scratch

and baked up a storm ...

~ girls learning to preserve food ca. 1909, photo courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archives ~

I've often joked that I'm the last American woman of my *certain age* to remain

unknowledgeable in the arts of canning.  Somehow this particular practice escaped me.

Or perhaps I took off running

because I thought it was too much like chemistry!

Which I failed in school, by the way.

So it's not surprising that it's taken a simple, straightforward presentation of the subject

 to, at last, venture forward ...

Meet Bubbies, Classico and Mezzetta,

charming chaps who are my first foray into the   easy   art of canning.

Thanks be to India Flint, who has successfully

nudged me into one of my last remaining domestic unknowns.

Still, you may notice that the following recipes do not adhere to,

shall we say,

what you might expect from a "food" pantry

but are preserves of a very different kind ...

Bubbie's recipe:

* toss some iron bolts into the bottom of a jar

* bundle frozen black [dark purple] violas, madrone bark

and 4 rusty landscape pegs into a scrap of pre-wet

old linen shirt

* stuff madrone bark peelings around the edges

* sprinkle with aprox. 1 heaping teaspoon of fireplace ash

* fill with water; let sit, then top off to within 1/2 inch of lid

* close lid tightly

Classico recipe:

* bundle dry purple Norway leaves and metal bits inside pre-wet scrap of old cotton shirt

* repeat with cotton eyelet blouse front & stuff both into jar

* pack the edges with additional dry maple leaves

* fill jar with leftover dye bath from lobster mushrooms; let sit, then top off to within 1/2 inch of lid

* close lid tightly

Mezzetta recipe:

* Add 1/4 cup of year-old copper/vinegar mordant to jar

* bundle rose leaves & metal bolts inside of pre-wet 60/40 cotton/silk blouse

[note: rose leaves were frozen/defrosted/re-frozen before use]

* stuff remaining rose leaves around bundle

* fill with water; let sit, then top off to within 1/2 inch of lid

The rest of the process can be found in this little treasure of a book,

stuff steep + store

and for those who might ask,

I did not pre-mordant any of the cloth.

~ 4-H canning club members, photo courtesy of Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections ~

Now, to wait.

I may wait as long as six months before opening the first jar ...

textile archeology was not made in a day, as they say.

In the meantime, India has set up a virtual pantry OVER HERE.

You may wish to peek at all the interesting stuff accumulating on the shelves.

One of the plaques on the 4-H shelf above reads,
"Keep canning and canning will keep you."
Why yes, I think it just might ...