The Kitsilano Preservation Society

This weekend was one of those nice warm Vancouver weekends. I spent the weekend putting that warmth and that sunshine into jars. Of course it is crazy to do this on a hot day, but how else do you get the sunshine into the jars??

It was so wonderful to work with a friend all day long. We went through 30 kg of tomatoes, worked hand in hand while the kids were outside in the wading pool and the husbands were watching them. I don't usually spend that much time in the kitchen, Mark does almost all of the cooking around here, so this was a real treat.

La Pommarola - ingredients:

Tomatoes, white onion, a dash of salt and two basil leaves in each jar, sunshine, warmth, friendship

That would have been enough for one weekend: 26 litres of tomato sauce for two families!!

But, once you start canning, you can't stop. It becomes a compulsion. The thought of neatly aligned jars of yummy food on the counter to then put away in the cupboard for a rainy day...

And, the plums are ripe. All of them. 

So, we canned halved plums and made copious amounts of plum jam. 

Enough? No. Blackberries are ripe, too. And what's a lazy weekend breakfast without blackberry jam? See - you get it! 

Now, I'm pretty tired, hot and sweaty and really happy with our bounty. 

I guess this is why my friend calls me a "Pazza furiosa"!