Like Bees to Honey. The Harvest Kitchen Sisters 1st Annual Canning Bee!

From the country...

the gals walking back to the garden to harvest the goods

Harvesting Basil

Two Harvest Kitchen Sister bums,

The set up.

An assortment of peppers

buckets and crates of wild apples.

This past Sunday was the Harvest Kitchen Sisters 1st annual canning bee! The event was held on the farm and the weather couldn't have been any better. The sun shone all day while we cooked and canned under the canopy of our silver maple tree. The day was spent chopping, picking, measuring, coring, milling,stirring and tasting. We also did a lot of gabbing, laughing, eating, and drinking tea. It is profound when women get together with a common goal, hands dirty while sharing stories. Aside from Millie Mae in the house, I am surrounded by men (big and little) so it was so refreshing to spend a breezy afternoon in the company of women and babies (Theo was the only little man- but I don't think he minded...).  Everyone parted with an amazing applesauce (which Amy and I picked early morning, racing around the back roads raiding apple trees), a jar of corn relish (which is sitting on the counter waiting to be delivered), zippy bags of basil for freezing, some roasted cherry tomatoes and some fresh black bean and corn salsa. What could be better then spending an afternoon in the company of fellow women preserving, sharing and going home with a bucketful of the harvest?

It was a good day....

photo credit: Meg Ward