Canning With A Two Year Old

Our garden has been quite productive lately. This weekend are old former neighbors let us harvest pears from their tree...it's an annual tradition. So with just under a gallon of tomatoes coming in each day why not throw in 36 pounds of pears. We are extremely grateful and extremely busy.

Did I mention we have....
a two year old?
A two year old boy?
A two year old boy with red hair?
A two year old boy with red hair in love with tractors?



Alright, now that we've established that, let's start canning. Today we started with our first load of pears for the day. Pealing 12 pounds of pears can make you a little, um, tired. Especially when you've already done 12 pounds the day before including a full 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce. (I'm using this as a disclaimer for  the following events)

When you decide to sit at the kitchen table to peal your pears guess what happens....everyone wants to sit at the table with you...(I heart kids)...So what happens when the two year old of the group wants to invade personal space to see what's going on? Yep, you guessed it, drool in the fruit fresh prep bowl. So mommy goes to make a new batch of fruit fresh and get back to work.

I've explained my outdoor canning area. Well it can get complicated. You see you need to move what you've prepared inside..well to your outside canning area. This means for brief periods I am ...outside. So what happens when you walk outside with a two year old inside? Yep, you guessed it, he gets the butcher knife to play with. But don't worry he was fine..as for mommy? She's taking down her Mommy of The Year Award.

So back to the outdoor canning area. So now said two year old son is positioned strategically in the "canning area". So what happens when he goes to examine the propane tank intake cap? Yep, you guessed it, he drops into the operating stove with two burners blazing. Mommy was able to retrieve the cap with her handy tongs that she also used to hold her Mommy of The Year Award over the open flame.

So that's pretty much what it's like to can with a two year old...it's pretty simple really.