The Home Cook: Saving the Tastes of Summer

I've inherited a time consuming habit from my Mum and Grannie. Every summer when the peaches are ripe and fragrant and when the tomatoes are such a brilliant red and when a cornucopia of other produce is available at rock bottom prices, I have the urge to buy way too much and can it myself. Why do I do this you ask when commercially canned produce is so readily available and reasonably priced? Why sweat it out in the hottest days of summer in an even hotter kitchen? Well part of it stems from the immense satisfaction I get from pulling each jar from the canner and hearing it pop when it seals and going down to my food storage room and seeing all those colourful jars full of tasty things. But the real reason I can is because nothing beats the satisfaction of opening a jar of sunny, golden peaches in the middle of January and tasting the wonderful flavours of summer knowing that when summer returns that I'll do it all over again.