We started gardening when our oldest was a baby and now she is 14! Since my children have all been small when I have been preserving food, I would usually wake up early in the morning and get it started, work on it more during nap time and then finish up after they went to bed.
Finally, a light bulb came on and I realized that many of my children were now old enough to be quite a bit of help in the food preserving process! Also, I would like us to work together as a family more and take the time to teach them some of these skills. Hence, this month's goal.
So, here we are, picking, washing, snipping, dicing, cooking and bottling all kinds of stuff. We froze kale for smoothies, made spaghetti sauce and chili sauce and vegetable soup. We bottled green beans and we made some fruit leather that was eaten all up within a few days! I gave a ton of tomatoes to my neighbor today and when the next batch gets ripe, I will try and do some salsa.
It was a ton of work, and we still aren't done, but I am so grateful for my children's help! We'll be glad we did it when the snow starts to fly. :)
4 comments:
My September project is to do better about preserving food from my garden, but I hadn't thought to include the kids as part of the goal. That, really, is most important. Way to inspire!
And Phil! What bounty and adorable smiles from the kids. When I realize what my kids can do and I stick to making them (Mrs. Boyack), I'm always blown away. Way to go Holli, you will be glad you have it once summer is gone and all the grocery store produce tastes milly. Impressed with the kale.
above, Um, that was me, commenting from James' chrome!
Some year I hope to have that much to harvest. Lots of good family bonding experience!
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