My childhood home didn’t feature any canning or much in the way of cooking at all. My mother was actually famous for her lack of kitchen skills. It was the room that “came with the house, sort of like an appendix”.

There was an aunt, however, who was an inspiration to me. Aunt Kaye Diane lived up in the Sierra Nevada mountains with her husband and two boys. They started in a one room cabin, with a wood stove and outhouse. Eventually, they built a large home with indoor plumbing and dug their own reservoir which they piped into their home for water “on demand”. They never replaced the old wood burning stove, her Aga, which she has been cooking on for almost 50 years now. They grew, caught, hunted or foraged for most of their food. She canned or dried all of the excess.

Last year we moved to a more rural area of Massachusetts. Everywhere I walked last fall I saw crab apples. I was transported to my childhood visits to their cabin. My kids and I harvested the tiny fruits by the bushel. We made jellies and spiced butter. The kids were very enthusiastic. We had more than enough to share with others.

Since then I’ve experimented with several other fruits and vegetables. Even better, I’ve introduced canning to the other nurses that I work with. We have a group that are now learning and canning together. They are all enjoying the feeling of getting in touch with their “roots” as much as they are the bounty of their labors.

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