Canning/Jarring?

I learned how to can today. Actually, it should be called jarring. We put up tomatoes and peaches in jars. Diane, my neighbor below me on the road, bought them at the farmer's market by her parents' house and she and Sherry, a neighbor from above the valley, taught me all the steps.

They said it goes a lot faster with three. I liked the tools Diane had, a jar lifter, a stabber type thing that has a magnet on one end, so you can reach into boiling water to pull the lid out.

Diane has super strong finger tips that could grab a lid from the hot water and could handle the hot peaches and tomatoes pretty well. She reminded me of the cooks I've worked with who could grab hot plates out of the oven and flip them to the counter without a hot pad. YIKES.

It was hot but we worked in the guest house which has thick, concrete block walls, so it was refreshingly cool to walk inside. The steam from all the boiling water felt kind of purifying for the skin.

The time went pretty quickly, almost five hours, and we laid up a nice store for winter. I only took home one jar of peaches since I was learning, but now I can ask them to help me if I decide to do more for our pantry.