I think that there are few things in life, that are as rewarding as looking into your pantry in the late fall and seeing rows and rows of jars filled with things that you have made, raised, or grown yourself.  Preserving food, or to coin a more southern phrase to “Put ’em up”, takes some dedication. There are a lot of late nights and early mornings that go into canning, drying, and freezing your harvest. There have been many nights where I have stayed up until 2am on a work night, because I was waiting for my apple jelly to gel, watching for my maple syrup to foam over, or counting the minutes until I could take my pressure canner off of the heat. There have been countless times I have thought to myself, as I consider all the equipment we have acquired, all the time we have invested, and all the sleep we have lost; “Is this really worth it?”.  We could save all the time and hassle if we just bought all our food from a grocery store like pretty much everyone else.

To answer that question all we have to do is open our freezer or check our pantry. The answer is on the shelves, there is such a satisfaction and pride that comes from looking at those shelves and knowing “We made that!”. I am a guy so I don’t have first hand experience in the analogy I am about to use to explain this feeling to those of you who have not started preserving yet. I will run this analogy by my wife before I publish this. I think canning and preserving are sort of like giving birth. When a woman is giving birth she is uncomfortable to say the least, she is in pain. The discomfort is all she can think about and focus on, but when the baby arrives within a few short minutes the pain, exhaustion, and discomfort quickly vanish and are replaced by happiness, pride, and thankfulness.

Now I know, that the discomfort and exhaustion we feel when we are trying to get everything “put up” in no way compare to childbirth, it isn’t even in the same stratosphere, but the rapid change in feelings, relates a little, I think. Everything seems like it ripens at once and the stress starts to build, on trying to not let things you have worked so hard for, go to waste. Late nights become everynight, as you try to stay the course of this years gardening adventure. All of the discomfort, stress, and fatigue are totally worth it when you realize the end result. As you stand and admire your labor the memory of the struggle melts away.

As a father who has witnessed four births, I have seen my wife, in excruciating pain in labor; and I have watched the memory of the pain fade away within a few minutes, as soon as she looked into the face of our precious child. The end result eclipsed everything leading up to it. I don’t mean to belittle childbirth in any fashion, but I think anyone who has canned in large volume, can enjoy my out of the box analogy.

-Daniel

(My wife did approve the analogy, although she did say I will probably offend some people. No offense intended.)