Harvesting Family Fun From a Sucktastic Season

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September 24, 10:28 PM

by Elisa Wiebe, Denver Parenting Examiner

 

 

(You know, I share my house with several carnivorous creatures, including a giant cat and a greyhound -- you'd think they'd cut down on the invaders a little. Although I guess it's an improvement over my last house, in which we used to get infestations of skunks. Perhaps the lesson here is that I should adjust my taste in houseing from "old and full of character" to "new and impregnable.")

Anyway, one of the (very few) advatanages of this time of year is the harvest. I admit, I'm a huge sucker for food storage processes -- it takes me back to childhood memories of afternoons spent picking chokecherries, watching my grandmother can gallons of grape and tomato juice, and standing at the end of an assembly line and affixing a piece of tape to packages of venison to go in the deep freeze. So while I'm living a much less rural area these days, I still like to spend these depressing days canning tasty things.

This is one of those things that are easy to do with your kids, and has the advantages of teaching them life skills and giving them pleasant memories. Kids love to pick berries and grapes, and if you are brave enough to let them litterally stomp the fruit they'll love you forever (for the record, I am not so brave. But not everyone is a germophobe like me.) Jelly is also relatively easy to make, so your kids, even the little ones, can help out by measuring sugar and stiring.

My favorite thing to make is apple butter, and I found the best recipe here; it's simple and easy (although somewhat time consuming) and delicious.

Anyway, there are plenty of "you pick" farms in the area, so you can take your kids to pick to their hearts' content. Here is a list of orchards; and here is one of more general farms. Take the weekend to make jelly, juice, and memories with your kids. And don't forget to make pie and cobbler.

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