Oct 27, 2007 Posted in Magazine Articles, Preserving

Putting Up Peaches

 

Teton Home & Living | Autumn 2007

The torments of my childhood summers now deliver quiet pleasure to all of my seasons. As children, my brothers and I dreaded the inevitable annual regimens. They were announced by my parents, “Don’t make any plans for this weekend. We’re freezing corn.” Or beans or peas or asparagus. There was variety in the ultimata: making applesauce, tomato juice, tomato sauce, or canned tomatoes called “stewies”. Much of the picking of berries and vegetables was designated to the males. As many other chores were delegated as women’s work, I fumed as my brothers went off to play while I helped make jams and jellies or pickles or canned peaches or pears.

These were often boisterous activities with passels of aunts, uncles, cousins, one grandmother or another thrown into the mix. After all the work of picking, shucking, silking, blanching, cutting, bagging, boxing, labeling, transferring to the freezer, hauling cobs to the compost, cleaning the kettles and kitchen were finally accomplished, we’d have a feast of a picnic.

Even then I knew that our food was better. I preferred the taste and quality of our food at home, and couldn’t force myself to eat the slimy canned fruits and vegetables from our school cafeteria. Now I have concerns about pesticides in fresh foods and preservatives, stabilizers, additives of scents and colors in prepared foods. I always read ingredients on labels. I find it empowering to accommodate my own household from this small piece of land and the local farmers markets. It feels comforting on a fall day to do any of the preserving that I learned as an unwitting child. Canning peaches is a pleasure, not a chore. I love to see and smell the abundance of fresh produce in the kitchen, sparkling jars lined up on the counter. It’s fun to teach others and do collaborative projects and share the bounty. On a winter day the sight of a ruby jar of jam or crisp pickles on the table heightens the appeal of the meal. Placing the clean jar back on the shelf, anticipating its annual ritual of being filled again feels a connection to the past and the future.

Memories conjure the past. Grandmother’s steamy kitchen with huge pots bubbling on the stove and bustling activity was intimidating. Dark, earthy smelling basements with huge crocks and shelves in the darkened cobwebby corners laden with jars were mysterious places. Later, freezers were of my parents generation. The vast bounty of my dad’s huge garden was preserved for our winters. Our lives are different still. We can incorporate treasured aspects of the past to lighten our lives, but not weigh ourselves with the burden of relying solely on our larders and pantries to carry us through the year. Tools like dishwashers, food processors, blenders, mandolins and food dehydrators are fantastic labor-saving devices. Although busy summers are the time to acquire berries and other fruits, any may be sealed in zipper lock freezer bags, awaiting a quieter day for making jam or sauce.

I learned many kitchen skills in my youth, never knowing that our way wasn’t the way of all families. Sloane Andrews Bergien, the queen of fresh produce in our valley, loves fruits and vegetables, and consumes them in massive quantities. She worked one summer for Ashley Patterson who started the Jackson Hole Farmers Market, then bought the business. 2007 is the 10th summer that Bergien has run the seasonal market, moving an abundance of fresh produce through her tiny stand. She logs many miles on her truck each week visiting her favorite farmers in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

“In the world of produce, things turn quickly. I needed to preserve my produce before it spoiled,” Bergien shared. “I learned everything through the library. Canning is so easy and has a bad rap. I wish everyone would put up peaches.” Every summer she puts out printouts of easy recipes and finds it exhilarating to teach jam making to groups like the students at Pumpkin Patch Preschool using her own recipes. “Commercial jams use too much sugar,” she added with assurance.

Mountain Meadow Garden has become the retirement passion of Dick Shuptrine and his wife, Sandy. It was only a hobby for the decades they ran White Glove Professional Cleaning Service. “I think it’s in my genes. It’s sort of a calling from my childhood in Georgia. My dad and the doctor who lived next door competed with their pole beans and cantaloupes in their fields across a creek. When I was in the US Air Force at a base near Spokane I found out it wasn’t against regulations to have a little garden in my back yard. I started mine and then several other officers started their own,” Shuptrine shared. The Shuptrines have been faithful purveyors at the Farmers’ Market on the Town Square in Jackson since its inception six years ago. They display luscious tomatoes and vibrant greens, raspberries and sometimes a pie or two, if you get there early enough. Now a greenhouse makes possible a large crop of peppers and cucumbers, and extends their season to December for the family’s consumption. Dried tomatoes, raspberry jam and bread & butter pickles are among their favorite ways of saving what they grow. “I don’t sell garlic because I use so much, but this is a great climate for garlic. Everything has to be fenced from the deer, and it’s important to have a cat or dog to keep the chislers out,” he explained.

You don’t have to be a gardener to enjoy what summer brings. Apples and crabapples grow in our local environs. Jellies, apple butter and applesauce are among the delicious concoctions that may be created from them. Huckleberries and chokecherries grow in abundance in the forest and on the hillsides. It’s fun to go picking. Take a picnic and spend some time gathering. I keep the cleaned huckleberries in jars in the freezer and sprinkle them in muffins, pancake batter and fruit salads. Chokecherries make really tasty jelly or syrup. They are small with large pits so cooking the fruit and straining it leaves the flavorful juice. Recipes for just about all jams and jellies are included in packaged pectin.

Every garden is a victory. Each jewel we create for ourselves can enrich our lives or those of others, suiting individual priorities and styles. Even here in the harshest of climates for gardening we can be growers and gatherers and experience the joys of provisioning for ourselves to some extent. Whether we pick our own berries, fruits or vegetables or buy flats from Sloane, it’s easy to freeze them, can them or make jam. We can make wonderful homemade gifts, festively wrapped with accompanying recipes, from which learning might be inspired, in addition to providing enjoyment. For ourselves, knowing our winter evening’s pot of tea is brewed from herbs grown outside the door, dried in bunches, stored in jars, is somehow more satisfying than taking a bag from a cardboard box wrapped in plastic that was trucked a long distance to the local market. Watching perennial herbs like oregano, tarragon, thyme, sage, valerian, lemon balm, comfrey and mints of many varieties peek up through the melting snows of spring is a thrill. Utilizing fresh herbs throughout the summer and drying them in the autumn is a satisfying cycle that goes on and on. It’s not like work, but a gift to ourselves.

 

A Note About Safety

Making sure that products are of the highest quality is important. Cleanliness in all steps, sterilized jars and lids is vital. Clean hands, counters, and towels are a must. Use only fruit or vegetables that are free of blemishes, bruises or any spoiled parts. Make sure that the top edge of jars are without any chips. All jars must be properly sealed, sucked to a concave position and secured. If any container of food looks discolored, or smells odd or tastes wrong, then discard it. Always make decisions on the cautionary side. Follow directions given in a manual or recipe. Consult with a mentor who has experience, the local library or you county extension office if you are not sure.

 

Sources

Jackson Hole Farmers Market – June through September in the Movieworks Plaza. The small wooden building and tent hold a full array of seasonal produce brought by Sloane Andrews Bergien from her favorite farmers in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Farmers Market on the Square – For ten summer Saturday mornings on the Jackson Town Square from 8 AM to 11 AM vendors from a wide area bring produce, baked goods, flowers, mushrooms, prepared foods, organic meats and more.

Presbyterian Church Peaches – Every August a truckload of peaches is brought from Colorado. Orders may be placed and paid for through the church at 734-0388 in July. In 2007 frosts destroyed 80% of the peach crop when the trees were setting fruit so the annual event in Jackson was thwarted.

Driggs Farmers Market – Every Friday from early June to the end of September from 9 AM to 2 PM there is a Farmers’ Market on Main Street in Driggs, Idaho in front of the new Town Hall. Call Tye Tilt for information 208-354-2648.
 

Recipes

Chive Blossom Vinegar
Horseradish
Dill Pickles
Crisp Pickle Slices
Pickled Beets
Italian Hot Peppers
Peach Conserve
Crabapple Jelly
Apple or Crabapple Butter
Applesauce
Comfrey Salve