Grandma Had a Larder
Grandma had a what? Now, we usually call them pantries, but not pantries like you’re thinking. Grandma’s pantry wasn’t stocked with fruit snacks and goldfish (guilty). Her larder was filled with cans of green beans for miles, tomatoes, and anything else you can think of that came from her garden.
Megan here—I don’t know if you have a grandma like mine, but these crazy days has me thinking of my childhood afternoons in her massive garden. She fed my grandpa, their 5 kids, and probably half her street! She’d let me help her pick zucchini, wash and snap her sink full of green beans until my thumbs hurt, and allowed me the privilege of going to the basement shelf and finding a glass jar of something for dinner. When she gave me my first ever cherry tomato, she said, “keep your mouth closed, or it’ll pop all over everything.”
You’ve probably heard of the 1940’s wartime Victory Gardens, when the government was encouraging everyone to plant their own food and “do their part.” At its peak in 1943, over two-thirds of U.S. households planted fruit and vegetable gardens, producing over 80 billion pounds of food, or 40% of the fresh produce eaten by U.S. residents that year (OPB.org). When the world war ended, so did the promotion of home gardening. Remember that Joel Salatin quote in our Farm57 Journal? (if you’re not subscribed to our emails yet, you can do that by clicking here, and get our family’s free journal & recipes). He said, “The first supermarket supposedly appeared on the American landscape in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? Dear folks, it was in the homes, gardens, local fields, and forests…it was in the backyard.”
This is our love for farming in a nutshell: to be good stewards of the Lord’s land to feed our family and community. I just spent yesterday afternoon re-pouring over my Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, reminding myself what I can preserve for us. And not in a panicked, “doomsday prepper” style, just in a responsible, enjoyable way: to not waste food, eat well, and spend time as a family. It’s always fun to try something new! Have you ever pulled summer’s fresh sweet corn from your freezer in January? It’s glorious.
Whether or not you’re one of our upcoming CSA members, we encourage you to dive back into the kitchen and learn to can some food like grandma did. Is it some work? Yes. Is it worth it? Totally. Last year, my spaghetti sauce wasn’t that great and I burst a jar of pickles during canning. No big deal! It’s fun to challenge yourself, and fun to be in the kitchen with the kids. Let THEM snap those green beans, ha! Don’t have a garden? It’s okay, learn to can before you dig up your backyard. Buy some produce from the store and experiment. One step at a time! Right now, that should qualify as a home-economics or science class, right?
Recently we’ve been given the gift of time. Time to pray, time to love (better), and time to learn. A verse I have on our kitchen sink window (so I stare at it while I’m washing dishes) is John 14:27, when Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Peace be with you.