Inspiring Me Today

Pickles!



When I was gifted a 20# box of just picked cucumbers from Jennifer and Temple via their CSA Tecolote Farms, well, canning happens.
With my Dad's really old canning kettle and tongs,
two recipes from Ashley English's book Canning and Preserving ,http://www.smallmeasure.com/
and dim recollections of the many jars I put up in the past, I set to work.
 The rhythm of wash, sterilize, pack, process came back easily.
It was a fun 2 days.
Inspiring to take a break from sewing up my stash for fall/winter art shows.
Reading yellowed index cars written in my Dad's  small, precise handwriting.
His own canning experiments recorded.
 Wondering what he was thinking when he preserved salsas, jalapenos, German dill pickles.
He was not one to share his thoughts. I think life as he experienced it drained the sharing and caring out of him.
 Infinitely sad for us who knew him, but so much sadder for him.
So I think about him as I use his canner, pausing frequently to look out the row of kitchen windows at the meadow and trees out back.
Wishing things had been better for him.
Letting the unhappy times go.
Keeping the good memories.
Canning with his kettle.