Preserving food to preserve a way of life

I seem to find myself blogging about my grandma a lot. She didn't raise me--I had two wonderful parents who did a mighty fine job at that, but she was instrumental in my growth and development as a person. She taught me so much that only she could teach me.

I remember sitting on her couch trying to stay up to watch the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live and doing foot massages. I would sit on one end of the couch and she on the other. We'd exchange foot massages, except she'd begin to doze off and snore. Then I'd conk out. Neither of us got to hear Dana Carvey inquire, "Could it be....Satan!?" very often. But those moments were tender and precious. 

She also taught me to can and preserve food. When I was a small child I remember my grandpa bringing home bags of fresh vegetables. And we'd all sit up shucking corn, snapping beans, slicing peaches while my grandma tended to the stove. Later in life it became I who brought the bushels, bags or boxes of produce. And she and I would stand at the sink or, later in her cancer journey, sit at the table slicing strawberries, blanching tomatoes, or chopping up the peaches. We'd talk about how her mother used to do the same thing. We spilled entire pots of prepared produce all over the floor. We'd have a glass explosion from time to time. We laughed. We cried. We sweated. We got frustrated. Be we always enjoyed the time together. The most wonderful part of this was in the hour or so after we had finished the process...pots cleaned, burners off, stove wiped down. We'd be sitting at the dining room table just chatting over our ice cold water or tea to cool ourselves off. And then, slowly but surely, "pop...doing...ding...pop..." the lids would begin to let us know our work was paying off in dividends: Our jars were sealing. And in those moments, we had successfully preserved more than just a crop of food; we had preserved a way of life for another generation. 

Whatever your activity is, please engage in activities which will preserve a way of life in the same way my grandmother and I did. Truth be told, I still have a jar of peach preserves from our last summer together. I can't bring myself to open it. Every time I see it in my cupboard, I am flooded with such wonderful memories. Yes, canning food most surely preserves a crop for future consumption, and also a way of life for future generations.