It consumes me!

Can you guess what has consumed my life for the last few weeks?  Cucumbers, peppers, peaches, pears, tomatoes, strawberries, zucchini, squash, jelly, jam, freeze drying, canning.  That's been my life.

I have a love-hate relationship with preserving food.  I love having it in storage, I love knowing where my food comes from, I love the fresh taste of peaches all year long.  I love peaches.  I hate the hours and hours it takes, how my back and feet ache, how I disappear into the kitchen and feel like I'm chained to the sink.  But I do it every year.  It's a few stressful weeks and it is hard, but it's so nice to walk down to my storage room and see jars and jars of pickles, pears, peaches, jams and jellies.  I even tried a few new things this year.  I have never done pickles or relish, but I now have 10 jars of pickles and 3 jars of relish.  I also learned that peaches that are not ripe do not peel easily.  I can't wait to make spaghetti sauce in my crock pot, I got that tip last year after my most patient attempts still resulted in runny, slightly burned sauce.

So yeah, if you've been wondering where I have been this month, just check my kitchen.  My kids will tell you I never leave.