Sometimes You Get Your Inheritance Early

A couple weeks ago my brother Andy called to say that he had custody of the "family canning supplies" they were clearing out things and did I want it. I said yes and he dropped off a few boxes. We walked around them stacked in the living room for a while and then unpacked them to see what I had last week.

There's a big pressure canner and a small one (that might have been GramMary's); both of them have their instruction manuals, thank God. Dad's red bottle capper was inthere with a box of bottle caps, some of which have cork liners. There's a box of old Coke bottles, individually wrapped in old newspapers, in both the 6.5 and 12 oz. sizes. The cone ricer used to belong to my grandma Babe, it was in her full set of Mirro aluminum cookware, Mom says I don't know where the big old scale and wooden slicer are from, maybe the farm, they look familiar. The most surprising item is the box with four 2-quart Ball jars. I don't think I've ever seen jars that size. Gallon jars, yes, quarts, pints, even half-pints, sure, but half-gallon ones, never. I hope that they fit in the hot water bath kettle. They'd be great to can Durwood's homemade tomato juice in. Cross your fingers.

This entire treasure trove may be destined to belong to the Canning Women one day.