Precious

Do you can your own food? Or do you get canned food from someone else that lovingly spends hours slaving over a steaming stove preserving the season's freshest bounty to enjoy the year through? I just opened this jar of apricots that my mom canned last summer. They are perfectly apricotty- Clark ate half a jar before I made him stop and then he cried for more. These apricots are especially special because they are from my great-grandma's tree. My great-grandma passed away a few years ago and our family had been trying to sell her house. It was really old, but it was also falling apart, and finally had to be torn down. The whole property was razed, along with the apricot tree, a few months ago. So, these are the last of the last, and I'm savoring each one-- the ones I can pry out of my one year old's hands.

These tomatoes I canned with my friend last summer. The girls and I picked 17 pounds. That turned into about 7 quarts canned. This is the last jar, and we ate it up tonight. I was reading a preserving book lately. The author said that nothing could improve the flavor of her cooking more than home-preserved tomatoes, not even culinary school. I agree. If you have access to some roma tomatoes this summer, you should try canning your own. But make more than 7 jars-- you'll need them.