The Tilsons

I have a small fear of canning tomatoes.  It comes from last year’s exploding midnight tomatoes. Recall how I called this experience a canning marathon!  Hah!  HAHAHA! Naive child, so young, so sheltered.  Anyway - to make a short story longer, the tomatoes were the final leg of a canning spree, I was tired, it was midnight, and I was following the book.  Suddenly, BAAM its midnight and there are tomates in the hood of my stove, on my wall and shattered glass and tomato gunk all over the inside of my canner. This is where I procured the fear of canning crushed tomatoes. Read the complete Post.

Movin to the CITY gonna eat a lot of peaches
Im movin to the CITY Im gonna eat me a lot of peaches
Im movin to the CITY Im gonna eat a lot of peaches
Movin to the CITY Im gonna eat a lot of peaches
Peaches come from a can they were put there by a FAM
In a KITCHEN
IN THE CITY, WITH THE TILSONS
GONNA EAT ME A LOT OF PEACHES

Presidents of the USA & guest writer- Lisa Tilson

That was our theme song while we stood (and sat) in the kitchen, Justin, Larry, Josh and I - blanching, peeling, pitting and squishing peaches at 10pm.  Justin - judging that the stress lines on my face weren’t disappearing any to soon- called Larry to see if he and Josh would come over and help us can.  They came over at around 9, and wow was it awesome to have some fresh energy in the house!  Larry is a bartender, and Josh works at the same place as bar-back; they are extremely efficient.  We had canned the peach quarters in syrup last night (I think we were up until 4am?  STUPID) and needed to move through the rest of the peaches for the tomatoes.

Read the complete Post.

Today we realized the magnitude of our decision to order such a gargantuan amount of food.  Food of this quantity needs jars, lids, screw bands, TIME, PATIENCE…and if you are going to can a crazy amount of food - like say 800 lbs, do yourself a favour and buy a propane tank, a large burner and the biggest pressure canner you can buy (ours actually fits 26 pints and 18 quarts).

I figured you all should have a leg up if you’ve made the same commitment we have.  Here is a post of all the helpful canning tips and hints we could think of, so that you could breeze through your canning experience instead of barricading yourself in the kitchen and screaming at the top of your lungs while your husband and roommate cower in the corner. Read the complete Post.

You know that wretched feeling you get when someone mentions stewed prunes? or Prune juice?  Or Prunes even?  The terrible thought of what we fondly call “plum bum”? Well - forget it all.  (Except maybe the plum bum)  Why?  Because not only are plums the easiest things to can, but they are the most amazing tasting canned fruit, next to canned cherries of course.

My recommendation is to buy them at their peak, but everyone knows that if you canned only at a fruits peak, you would have to get them in jars during their 10 minutes of peak glory, which would inevitably happen in the middle of the night, while you were letting the cat out on a trip to the bathroom, parched and groping for a glass in the cupboard. Read the complete Post.

*Due to a complete lack of energy, the “Fruitapoluza ‘08″ posts have been dated retrospectively.  We appologize for any blogging rules we may be breaking at this time and assume no responsibility for injuries incurred while attempting to “catch up” all at once.

The great canning adventure began with Justin and I poring over a freshly posted ad on Craigslist, stating that a woman from somewhere was going up to the Okanogan and could get fruit of all kinds for anyone who needed it (Peaches, Pears, Plumbs, Tomatos, Apples).  Being that our food outside was staying green, due to the global warming of Vancouver, we decided in a fit of insanity, to STOCK UP.

100 lbs of Plums
250 lbs of Tomatos
200 lbs of Peaches
200 lbs of Apples
150 lbs of Pears… or something like that. Read the complete Post.