life in a red state 201Every year I think about buying a pressure canner and learning to use
it, so I could can our beans as beans, but I still haven’t. Squash, beans,
peas, okra, corn, and basil pesto are easy enough to steam- blanch and put
into the freezer in meal- sized bags. But since tomato products represent
about half the bulk of our stored garden produce, I’d rather have them on
the shelf than using up electricity to stay frozen. (We would also have to
buy a bigger freezer.) And besides, all those gorgeous, red- filled jars lining
the pantry shelf in September make me happy. They look like early valen-
tines, and they are, for a working mom. I rely on their convenience. I’m
not the world’s only mother, I’m sure, who frequently plans dinner in the
half-hour between work and dinnertime. Thawing takes time. If I think
ahead, I can dump bags of frozen or dried vegetables into the Crock- Pot
with a frozen block of our chicken or turkey stock, and have a great soup
by evening. But if I didn’t think ahead, a jar of spaghetti sauce, a box of
pasta, and a grate of cheese will save us. So will a pint of sweet- and-sour
sauce baked over chicken breasts, and a bowl of rice. I think of my can-
ning as fast food, paid for in time up front.
That price isn’t the drudgery that many people think. In high season I
give over a few Saturdays to canning with family or friends. A steamy can-
ning kitchen full of women discussing our stuff is not so different from
your average book group, except that we end up with jars of future meals.
Canning is not just for farmers and gardeners, either. Putting up summer
produce is a useful option for anyone who can buy local produce from
markets, as a way to get these vegetables into a year- round diet. It is also a
kindness to the farmers who will have to support their families in Decem-
ber on whatever they sell in August. They can’t put their unsold tomatoes
in the bank. Buying them now, in quantity, improves the odds of these
farmers returning with more next summer.
If canning seems like too much of a stretch, there are other ways to
save vegetables purchased in season, in bulk. Twenty pounds of tomatoes
will cook down into a pot of tomato sauce that fits into fi ve one- quart
freezer boxes, good for one family meal each. (Be warned, the fragrance
of your kitchen will cause innocent bystanders to want to marry you.) To-
matoes can even be frozen whole, individually on trays set in the freezer;
once they’ve hardened, you can dump them together into large bags