MEMORIES OF AUTUMN AND FOOD
by
What childhood memories do I have of Autumn I ask my self? Pulling back the years of my memories, I first thought of my Grandmother, who was as a busy bee when it came to preparing for the family’s long winter months ahead. As I child I would follow her around as she surveyed the storeroom. There in neat rows like soldiers were her vegetables, standing proudly in Ball jars with Kerr lids applied for sealing. They had under gone harvesting at the appropriate time, prepared (snapping, shelling and cutting) and then washed.
Canning consisted of placing the vegetable jars in a cold water canning pot with a lid and boiling for so minutes (I can’t remember now how long). My grandmother reminded me that this process killed the germs and kept the food from spoiling.
I spotted on the shelves; peas, beans, butter beans, corn, tomatoes, okra, and pickled peaches dotted with cloves.
Also, on the shelves were jars of honey with the honeycombs that tasted so good on a cold morning poured over a hot biscuits and butter. My grandmother made these in the wood stove oven for my breakfast. In one corned of the storeroom was a pottery jar filled with cabbage making saurkraut.
Later, we would look in the corncrib to check out the large white onions tied and hanging from the rafters and the peanuts stored for drying in a bin.
Oh, how wonderful those peanuts tasted after roasting in the oven on a cold night.
Such memories although faded, now remind me of how times have changed as I hurry to the grocery story.
Chinaberries and Other Memories of Alabama
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