Welcome to Summer In A Jar.

I hope I’ll be able to welcome you personally in the very near future.  My name is Terrie Irish.  In addition to over thirty years of practical experience with home canning I have completed formal training in home food preservation.  I have worked the 60 hour week in a corporate environment and the daily commute; enjoyed the privilege of staying home when my children were young; pursued seasons where volunteering seemingly consumed any available free time; taught history through homeschooling cooperatives; sold cheese at the local gourmet store; experienced lean times and flush times, overworked times and the occasional respite.

Throughout the seasons I have been tempted (and sometimes succumbed to greater or lesser degrees) to find time in my schedule by “outsourcing” food preparation.  But I have always found the savings in time and convenience to never trump the costs.

Food is necessary.  Good food is flavorful, safe, nutritious and honest.  I think Great food is sacramental.  That humble bowl of soup and its companion of crusty bread; made by caring hands from ingredients grown in a safe, sustainable environment; rooted in that miracle of soil which grounds us all, becomes the celebrative feast that conveys our love for each other and the love of God for us all.

Preserving food, that missing link to year ’round local food, takes some work—not drudgery, but energizing work.  Knowing where your family’s food comes from and what it contains has, over the past decade, become critical.  It would be my pleasure to pass on to you what I have learned from a number of generations preceding me; the hows and whys of scratch cooking and food preservation.  It would be a privilege to welcome you to a growing community of learners who share their insight and wisdom and are working to reweave a “broken rope of knowledge”.

Come and join us at the table and enjoy, in the context of community,  the sustenance and celebration of great food.