I remember a sunny summer afternoon playing in Grandma Walters back yard while she, mom, and grams all shaved the kernels off corn cobs. I wanted to badly to help. So Grandma gave me a corn cob and a knife and I butchered the poor thing but I helped. That is my first memory of canning. I can also remember sitting on the back steps of our house in Riverside shelling peas from our garden for mom to can. That garden was HUGE and in retrospect I am in awe at the bottles and bottles of food we had stored down in our basement and the work that went into that labor of love. So now I am carrying on that legacy and canning too.
This week I did 21 quarts of chicken breast (that's about 50 pounds... good thing it was on sale LOL). I also did 24 pints of strawberry jam and 14 quarts of Idaho spuds. This is all added to the bottles of carrots, peaches, and pears from last year.

What you see here is three rows of chicken, two rows of potatoes, and two rows of strawberry jam.
I am loving it! As prices rise at the grocery store it is such a comfort to know I can watch for the sales and stock up when the price is good. Thanks Grandma, Grams, and mom for teaching me this valuable skill and for giving me a legacy I can be proud of.
~Nikki