Harvest time is quickly approaching and for some of us, it is here! If your family, like mine, enjoys fresh vegetables even into the winter months, this is a busy time for you. 
We have to do as the farmer says, “Make hay while the sun shines.” We have to be ready as the vegetables and fruits mature to make sure we prepare them so that they can be eaten all winter. I have been working with peas, butterbeans, squash, cucumbers and tomatoes for the past several weeks. Yes, it really is quite a bit of work involved, but when compared to the rewards of the end result, it is entirely worth the effort.
This is a very nostalgic time for me as I always remember the way my grandmother and mother would begin their summers preserving of vegetables and fruits for the winter months. When I was very young, my grandmother had no freezer, so everything that she preserved was either canned in quart Mason jars or dried outside.
I remember helping her peel apples, pears and peaches, cutting them into slender strips of fruit and then laying them on an old screen door held up by two sawhorses made of left over wood scraps. She would place them in a single layer and cover them with another piece of screen to protect them from insects. After several days, these little pieces of apples and pears would be layered into large glass jars and tightened with a fitted lid. Later she would make fried apple pies sprinkled with sugar from the dried fruit. They were delicious, and I can never reproduce that exact taste.
She always made lime pickles, which I have recreated with her passed-down recipe, always crunchy and sweet and so addicting. She canned tomatoes, squash, okra, peas, butterbeans, corn and adelicious soup mixture using all tof these vegetables. I would always visit during these canning and preserving times to help, standing on my little wooden box to reach the big black wood stove. Large and small Mason jars would line her countertops waiting for the filling of the bounty cooking on that old stove. My granddaddy would saunter in every now and then when the scrumptious smell drew him and would always stir the pot and taste to make sure the ingredients were just right. Her back little ante-room was where she kept her herbs drying. I would go back into that little room and just stand and inhale the wonderful smells. The scent of herbs always to this day reminds me so much of her.
They had a root cellar where the potatoes and root vegetables were kept. The vegetables were laid on the dirt floor on a layer of straw or hay and covered with more hay to keep them dry and edible. Now our lives are fitted with freezers, dehydrators and all the up-to-date gadgets we need for preserving our harvest. But, I still enjoy and use some of the old-time ways to keep mine ready for the winter ahead. It somehow just makes me feel attached to things and people I love.
Fried Apple Pies – Dough – 2 ½ cups SR flour, 2 T. sugar, ½ cup oil, ¾ cup buttermilk – Filling – 1 package dried apples, 1 cup sugar – Bring to a boil and reduce to low heat and simmer for about 1 hour. Let cool before filling dough. Prepare dough by sifting together flour and sugar and cut oil into mixture, add buttermilk and shape into a ball. Turn out onto a floured surface and roll thin. Cut out with a large biscuit cutter and fill with the apple filling, pressing edged closed with a fork. I fry mine in an iron skillet with vegetable oil three to four minutes on each side. Sprinkle with sugar. Some people, if you can believe it, use canned biscuit dough. I am sure it is good, too.
