Visions From a Generation Ago

When I was a little girl, my mom would pack the 5 of us kids into the station wagon, drive to Arizona one day and then the very next day continue on that with that journey and drive down to Colonia Dublan, Mexico. My Dad was born there and, to this day, we still have lots and lots of family down there. That place is very special to me and our family.


One of my most fond memories of going to Mexico, were not the broken arms, stitches, tetanus shots, stepped on rusty nails, family reunions, or the fabulous thunderstorms that would inevitably knock out the power. But rather, seeing my Grandmother, Mom, and Flora (my aunts housekeeper) bottling peaches. My uncle, Darryl Wagner, owned huge peach orchards down in Mexico. My brothers would go pick peaches from these orchards. Within 24 hours, they were going straight from the orchard to the bottles.


I can vividly remember going down the stairs into the basement of my aunt's house and walking into the "cellar". In there was shelving that contained rows and rows and more rows of bottled peaches, apples, pears, and a whole plethora of other fruit. As I got older, I had hoped that I would learn how to bottle peaches and other fruit.


So, as if I didn't have enough going on with school, kids in school, and every other chore to do to keep the house running, I decided to tackle the process of canning fruit....again this year. Unlike last year, this year the fruit turned out ah-may-zingly well. I did approximately 76 lbs. of peaches 38 lbs. of apples and 38 lbs. of pears. In total, it came out to be 30 quarts of peaches, 14 quarts each of apples and pears, 2 1/2 quarts of peach freezer jam, 6 quarts of cooked peach jam, and, finally, 7 quarts each of pearsauce and applesauce.

(Apples & pears oh my!)

(The peels, & cores from the apples & pears)

There's no way that I could have canned all of this myself in a timely manner. So, my sister-in-law, Karina, was gracious enough to come and help me do the apples and pears. (A bribe of lunch at El Rey's in Globe didn't hurt either.) She's even patient enough (really, who isn't more patient than me in this world?) to let the ever-present, wanting-to-help-at-every-turn Owen, take a shot at working the gadget that does the coring, peeling, and slicing of the fruit.

(Proof that I really do this myself - I'm making the cooked peach jam here)

I'm never really sure why or how the fruit turns out looking so pretty when it is bottled and preserved (or, commonly called "put up"), but it really is, especially the peaches. It's almost a shame to open the bottles and use the fruit because it does look so pretty. Not to mention the work involved in preserving the fruit and bottling it. Countless hours on my feet, a few Advil and Tylenol for the backache, more than a few dishes done, dishwasher ran a couple few times to clean, sanitize and heat the bottles, just about all of my pots and pans out to accomplish this feat and the floors mopped and mopped because they are extremely sticky from all of the fruit juice dripping onto the floor.

(from this.......)

(to that......)

I always pictured myself doing exactly what my mom had done in Mexico while we were there to visit my Aunt and cousins. So, when I pictured myself being a "sahm", I KNEW that I wanted to learn how to bottle fruit. And now, I've done just that. As simple as a "dream" as this may be, it really is exactly what I had envisioned. It's strange, when I'm doing this, I feel as though I am "in my own element". I am comfortable doing this type of work and really enjoy doing it.


I am hopeful that Caroline will remember this and have the desire to do the same thing. It's not complicated, and is actually quite simple. Time consuming, yes. Difficult, no. Not to mention the money that is saved. Maybe she, too, will have the some of the same visions I did as a little girl and she'll bottle her own fruit to provide for her family all winter long.