Jars of Gold

Last night, I attempted canning for the first time. Let me say now that, at the time, it sounded like a good idea to order a bushel of peaches. What I didn't realize, or somehow blocked out of my memory, was that peaches ripen quickly ... and pretty much at the same time so there's no procrastinating allowed.

So, somewhere around 4 p.m., I started blanching, peeling and quartering peaches. By 6 or so, I had 6 beautiful quart jars standing on my kitchen counter, just gleaming. After five minutes of cooling, I heard the first lid pop ... a sound I had almost forgotten about.

My mother is a canning feen. Memories from my childhood summers are smothered in the smells of peaches, strawberries, raspberries ... the smell of bean steam on the stove, the stickiness of peaches on the table, the cartons of corn lined up on the counter. Every week brought another type of vegetable or fruit into the kitchen in mass quantity. And there would be my mom, standing over the stove with steam shooting out of a kettle as she lowered glass jars into the canner.

In the evenings, when all of the cans were lined up on the counter, popping as they sealed, she'd stand there and say, "Come see ... aren't they pretty?"

I didn't get it then ... how a jar of produce could be pretty. But as I listened to my jars pop last night , I stood there thinking, "They look just like gold. Aren't they pretty?"

I guess it takes a few hours in the kitchen over a steaming kettle to understand how valuable a can of peaches can be.