Did you know there are actually 5 seasons in the year? Winter, Spring, Summer, Bottling Season, and Fall. For those of you who bottle fruit and veggies, you can really relate to this post. This year I have been bottling since July and it is finally over! Bottling season is such a love hate relationship for me. I love to be able to fill the bottles with food, but by the time it's over I wonder if I'll do it again next year. It consumes your life for months. You are at the will of your fruit or veggies. When they're ready to be bottled you put your life on hold for them. This past weekend my mom came up for a few doctor appointments and helped me finish my apples. It was wonderful to finally say I'M DONE! This weekend we bottled about 110 bottles of applesauce and 25 bottles of apple pie filling. It was quite the endeavor. The first night we stayed up until 4 am. The second night we were up until 2:30 am and the final day we worked from 9 am until about 6 pm. Then we were up until about midnight cleaning up the mess. I think I slept for about 5 hours total on all of those nights! So, besides my pumpkins (which can wait for a while), I am done bottling for the season. Josh is building shelves in our fruit room - that my mom and dad helped us with also - and when that is done I will be able to get a full tally of my bottling season. I'm sure it will surprise even me. So, with the end of bottling season comes much needed time to spend with the kiddos, clean my house, get ready for the holidays, catch up on my calling, and especially catch up on my sleep and sanity. If you have never bottled your own food, it is such a nice feeling to see what you have accomplished. I love the fact that I know how to preserve my own food and that I know what is in it. So, with no more apples in the basement calling my name, I can officially begin to blog. Hopefully updates will come more often now. After I clean my house today I will add updates about our kids and our life. But for now, I'm just glad to be done bottling!
My mom and I took some pictures in the middle of the night...me being silly.
My mom being a saint and helping. This is exactly how I felt too!
Hallelujah! This is the last apple to be bottled at my house this year!
(remember, we had been bottling for days with little sleep...we were delirious!)
6 comments:
good job on the apples. hope all the stickiness is gone!
love the background. good job on that too.
can't wait to read and see what you post EVERY day.
That is awesome! Good job! Thanks for inviting me to your blog. I am just so proud that I beat Cassy, Mel and Jessi, and crossed the finish line first! Ha! I can't wait for the post and PICTURES of all your bottling!!
yes... like JoAnn said... EVERY day.
Seriously... we need to have a day where you teach me how to bottle.
Do you know how many times I've seen that expression on your mother's face...it is pretty common for her to work herself to near death huh!? I love seeing your beautifully delirious faces, you look just the same, only bottling instead of running hurdles or high jumping or spiking a volleyball or elbowing in the middle, you have so much passion! I am still so impressed!
oh my gosh! I know what you mean, love hate relationship with it all. I had too many apricots this year! And most of my tree went to the polygamists! We need to swap fruit next year. I'm sick of apricots and peaches. apples look yummy!
Wow Cally! Will you teach me how to can as well? I did peaches for the first time this year but nearly as many as I wanted. I want to do way more next year. Including pears and tomatoes. You are my hero!
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