The Tilsons

*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.

Pressing send, we were elated.  How lucky were we that we had found someone to bring back that much food for us to can. (Little did we know, over 200 people had also pressed send in the first 24 hours of the post being up.  Luckily we got in early!)

For some lucky reason, it never crossed our mind how long it would take, or how many jars it would take, or weather it would fit in the truck The only thing we knew was that it was less than a dollar/lb - and it was organic.

One week later - the show begins. Literally. Justin had gotten word from one of his friends working on the “100 mile challenge” needed some canners to go before a camera and do a 3 minute short of canning. The food arrived and we began.

The Cast:

Organic pears, tomatoes, plums, peaches… the apples are around here somewhere!

The Crew:

Here’s Justin with 800 or so lbs of fruit, honey and beaucoup de jars.  This is a little ways through, but while I’m breaking rules, I may as well break some more.

Here’s our first meeting:  Me, Matt (new roomie) and Byron (The “boy” next door).  I’ll admit that having himm and Justin cutting our plums in halves and pitting them, sitting together at the table… sort of had the look of some sort of sweatshop.  We won’t talk about the chains attached to their wheels.

The Techies: These guys are hardcore downtown Vancouver bar tenders.  They have a short attention span, but are extreemly focused while you’ve attracted it.  They squished up 2 boxes of peaches and all the tomatoes for the tomato sauce in a little under an hour and a half.  Amazing.

WELL now, shall we get into the hard labour?  Here we go!