My mother was an excellent cook, and her pies, cobblers, and apple dumplings were some of our favorites dishes she prepared. Sunday afternoons in the fall you could find her making simple fried pies for afternoon snacks, or whipping up a fresh peach or blackberry pie for summer afternoons. I can truthfully say though, I never saw her can or process anything! Growing up as a farm girl in southern Missouri (I’m pretty sure her family was who inspired the Ma and Pa Kettle movies!), she probably canned and helped preserve foods many a day. I never saw her make tomato sauce, can green beans, nor jelly of any kind. All jelly jars read Welch’s or Smucker’s in our house.
Not so in Pool Boy’s home. His mom made strawberry freezer jam and that’s all I remember having for meals. I loved the fresh strawberry taste, and Pool Boy continues making those freezer jams in our home, and Megan does the same in hers. No Welch’s or Smucker’s grace our refrigerator door shelves. In fact, Pool Boy is the canner in our house – salsa, tomato juice, lime green pickles, and apple butter are his canning essentials. Nora learned to eat those green lime pickles as a toddler. Since I know his grandparents also made strawberry freezer jams, that’s 4 generations and I would predict Megan’s daughters will do the same.
One of our new Online Exclusives products coming in March is all about homemade canning. I turned to the Homemade Sweetness Suite to design my card for one of the upcoming organized swaps in March during OnStage.
Stampin’ Up! pushes us out of our comfort zone when it comes to color combos. Here I used Misty Moonlight and Strawberry Slush, and I have to say that wouldn’t have been a go to combo at all for me. BUT when you start with one of Stampin’ Up!’s DSP packages, you see so many different color possibilities. With our 50 color choices, the combinations of color are endless.
This swap is one for fun folds, so you can tell from the picture above it’s a z-fold, but uses the two different DSP patterns for contrast. As to the white label, it’s also coming in March but with another stamp bundle. I’m always mixing and matching my stamping products!
Final Thoughts….
This year the peach harvest was exceptionally delicious, so Pool Boy and I put up quite a few pounds of frozen sliced peaches for peach crisps and such. He came across a recipe for peach peel/pit jelly, and decided to give it a try. Sounds weird, but basically you take all of the stuff you’d be composting and simmer in a water/sugar solution, strain it, and use the juices for the jelly. He wasn’t overly impressed with the jelly, but I love it! So, our refrigerator has an open jar of peach jelly and a container of freezer strawberry jam inside.
And neither of them say Welch’s or Smuckers. We will label them “homemade sweetness” and made with love.
Don’t forget – FREE SHIPPING began today and runs through Friday on qualifying orders of $75 or more!!! I used my coupon codes from January and loaded up with white card stock and adhesive refills, and made sure I qualified for the free shipping as well!
Have a great day doing whatever makes you happy, and God Bless!
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