Late Nights in the Kitchen

And so it begins, this season of harvesting and "puttin' up" food for the coming year.

I suppose, to be strictly accurate, tonight wasn't the first night of this for 2017, since I did have a strawberry-jam-making session a couple of weeks ago.  But this was the first night that I took produce, grown on our land, picked by Jeff and the kids under the hot sun, and shelled mostly by the kids this afternoon while listening to Adventures in Odyssey episodes, and prepared it for the freezer, staying up late to accomplish it.

I don't know what unwritten law of the universe demands that canning and freezing projects be finished in the wee hours of the morning, but for whatever reason, I never can seem to finish at a reasonable hour!  And so I stay up, not really a hardship for my night-owl nature, enjoying the cool air flowing in the open window, relishing the peace and quiet, listening to music on my Kindle (my choice of music this evening was my country station on Pandora which features songs by Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Sara Evans, the Dixie Chicks, and similar artists...it never fails to bring back a rush of memories--and make me feel a little old, too!), working busily with my hands to prepare food for the freezer or the cellar, while my mind whirls with thoughts, dreams, plans, and prayers.

The older I get, the more the year seems to revolve, not just around the official 12-month calendar system, but by other markers--the birthdays in our family, for example, or the special activities that pop up at the same time each year.  The measurement I'm most in tune with tonight is the food we grow, prepare, eat, and preserve.  The various foods arrive with regularity, and as we circle around the sun over the course of the year, we also circle through featured foods.

This may be the month of June, but it could also be known as the season of peas!