Puttin' Up

 I don't know what they call it where you live, but around here, when you are canning things for winter you are puttin' up.  As in, I'm going to put up these peaches.  I guess it comes from the fact that once you can them, you put them up on your shelves. Let's not even delve into why they call it canning and not jarring.

I don't need to put things up so that I have food for winter.  Compared to people that 'can' their harvest, I do very little puttin' up.

However,  I still put up things I know I will want during the colder months.  This apple butter is a good example.  I peeled apples yesterday until I thought I might cry.  I hate most apple butter because I find it too sweet and too loaded with spices, so, to have good apple butter, I have to make it myself. I want to serve it on the Thanksgiving table this year and the only was to take advantage of the fantastic apples I am getting right now, is to make it and put it up!

I also found the first cranberries of the season and just to be able to tick it off my list, I made my Thanksgiving cranberry relish and put it up to.  It's so satisfying to see them finished and ready to be placed on my shelves.

 I also make berry sauces and jam during berry season and can them.

 It's been a few years since I put up peaches, I thought I would this summer but I didn't; it's very easy to put this task off.  You talk about work! I always wish I had an army of little Polish women working with me during peach season.

I usually freeze my tomato sauce but I put up my pizza sauce.

I taught myself how to can.  I come from a long line of dead people so there was no one around to teach me how to do these things.  No grandmothers or mother, no aunts.  There were a couple aunts around but not really present, if you know what I mean. When I was little, I remember my mother canning grape jelly.  I really hated that stuff.  She added way too much sugar to it.  I remember she sealed the jars with paraffin. My brother and I dipped our baseball cards in it which made them better for flipping. I was too young to help her with the jelly but I sure remember playing with the wax.  She also canned the damson plums my father grew in our orchard.  It was at least 35 years from that time that I actually canned anything myself.  But, as is often the case, here I am 60 + years later, repeating history, though hopefully doing it a bit better.

In between the canning, I managed to make my friends some pao de qeijo.  I've created some monsters by introducing these into peoples lives.  Everyone is hooked on them and I am the only source for them.  Even the W's come running when I say...Pao de Quejo.  It's the only Portugese they speak.

I also made the friends, and my husband, Appalachian sweet breads.

These too are only sourced through me.  Most people don't come right out and ask me to make these things but a lot of them have mastered the art of hinting!