It’s the time of year when plenty of work is put into the harvesting and preserving of all those delicious and beautiful vegetables that we have been patiently waiting for.

I have a bit of experience canning and freezing an abundance of vegetables over the years. I’ve been blessed to be able to provide for my family because of the things I learned from my mommy.

My mommy canned everything she could possibly get her hands on. She made sure that winter was prepared for.

There would be the early green beans, planted late April, early May. Then there would be the late green beans that were planted in July. So there was plenty of work to be done with all those green beans. Mommy’s favorite bean was the white half runner. When she picked those beans, all us children had a job to do. We would sit for hours and pull the strings from those beans and break them up, getting them ready to can. And believe me, mommy would always know somehow if there was a string left on the beans.

Some of the early green beans were usually strung up using a darning needle and strong thin cotton thread. We would break the beans just as we would to can, but these would dry out and become shuck beans. Mommy would hang them from nails across the porch where the sun would dry them out. After they dried real good, then she would remove them from the strings and put them in glass gallon jars to keep. Those shuck beans were some good eating.

The first meal of fresh green beans with new potatoes each season was so very good. There would be a big cast iron skillet with cornbread, green onions, and wilted lettuce with hot bacon grease poured over the lettuce and onions. My oh my, I can almost smell and taste those beans as I write this!

New potatoes, mommy called it graveling them. She would pull the soil back from the plant just enough to get some of the small potatoes that were growing. After getting the potatoes she wanted, she would make sure to cover the dirt back around the plant so the potatoes could continue to grow.

Daddy would build a fire outside, getting ready for the canning to begin. Mommy had a big wash tub that she would put those jars of beans in, filled with water to cover the jars. If I remember correctly, there would be thirty-six quarts to each tub. Once the water started boiling, it would need to boil constantly for four hours. Mommy would make sure the fire was kept burning.

Then there was the corn. There were two kinds. The first was corn to be eaten by the family. Shucking and removing the silks was a job within itself, but the reward was well worth it!

Then there was what Daddy called field corn. The field corn was for the farm animals and placed in a corn crib, usually near the barn. Getting the corn kernels off the cob for the chickens was rough on the hands. Believe me, I know. I’ve done it many times. However, the hogs and chickens sure loved it when they got their part.

Oh the memories, I could go on and on!

Bible Verse Of The Week

“She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praiseth her.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭31‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭

Gospel singer Kay Himes Knuckles has been sharing her music ministry in Eastern and Central Kentucky for more than 40 years.