Traditions, Rituals, and Returning Home

 This is a guest post I wrote for the lovely Black Ink, White Paper group blog. If you want to know why I insist in coating my kitchen and everything in it with peach juice once a year, head on over to read the full post.

“Peaches come from a can,” photo by bcostin, used with permission under a creative commons license.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcostin/28109150/sizes/l/

Tomorrow I’m headed to our local farmers market to pick up a box of peaches. About 25 pounds worth. With any luck, all those peaches will get blanched, cooled, the skins slipped off, the pits removed, the fruit sliced, and put up in glass jars in a light sugar syrup.

I didn’t grow up preserving food or eating locally. I remember wonder-bread and Captain Crunch. Cans meant aluminum cans of terribly mushy green beans, cooked into submission. I’m not exactly sure how and when it happened (and it perplexes my family), but in my adult life, I’ve moved to eating next to no processed foods, having farm shares for vegetables, meat, and winter roots, and putting up for winter eating. (continued on Black Ink, White Paper)