​Preserving fruit for the winter

Anyone coming into the porch at Pleasure Valley Farm during the early summer months might have wondered what we were hiding under the buffalo robes and heavy winter coats spread over something on the floor. It really was not a big secret; but they signalled an important episode in the work of preparing for winter.

As a girl, Mum picked wild raspberries in the bush on Lot 37, Concession 8. There were always family and friends busily joining in the picking. This is Eileen Elliott (right), probably sidetracked by some blackberries as she made her way to the bush.

On the Southline, Mum continued her custom of picking wild raspberries which ripened soon after the strawberries. She went either to Cameron’s bush across the road or up to the bush at the back of Grandpa’s 50-acre lot next to Lawrence Stewart’s. Her book tells us about an adventure with Cameron’s bull on one of her outings.

We kids were of some assistance on the mornings she went up to our 50 acres, although perhaps more berries went into our mouths than into the pails swinging from a belt around our waist.

Mum’s diary records that she picked berries in Cameron’s bush, Aug. 7, 1947, and preserved five quarts. She picked again on the 11th and 12th and added four quarts, one pint and then five more quarts for the winter supply.

In the afternoons, the wood stove was required to heat water to sterilize quart sealers into which the berries were poured, once any stray leaves or bugs were picked out. A sugar syrup was prepared, likely two cups of water to one cup of white sugar which we purchased in 100-pound bags ($8.75 on Sept. 17, 1948).

When the syrup boiled, the sealers, already three-quarters full of berries, would be filled to overflowing and a rubber ring, a glass top and a metal lid would be secured. Mum then set the full sealers into the baby bathtub or some other convenient large tub and poured boiling water, which had been heating on the same stove, around the jars until it reached the metal lids. ,Then buffalo robes and numerous heavy quilts and coats were added in order to maintain the heat.

In several days, we would be able to remove the coverings and wipe off the sealers full of their appetizing red fruit. We carried them down cellar to put on the shelves that Daddy had built along the west wall. They would join the cherries (July 17, 1948 - there were 31 quarts), peaches, plums, black currants and applesauce, all of which we enjoyed over the winter with tea biscuits, muffins or buns.

When I think back to all the canning and preserving Mum did, I wonder why she used this method only for raspberries.

October and December, 2021
Ruth Anne Hollands Robinson
Reference: Mum’s diaries