In the can

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

They say you live and you learn. I hope I live long enough to see if that’s true. However, this weekend, I did learn how to can apricots, which actually contained a whole series of little lessons.

First, canning uses jars, not cans. They should call it “jarring.”

Second, who even knew that apricots grew in Reno? I didn’t recall ever seeing any before, but as soon as my girl’s tree went ripe, and we picked probably 15 pounds worth of fruit, suddenly everybody started bringing apricots around. They came ripe around the same time as the local cherries, so I’m guessing that, like cherries, they’re about a triennial fruit hereabouts.

Third, I always thought canning was a difficult, even dangerous, activity. Come on. I’m a dude. When the women in Nebraska started canning, generally speaking, we dudes found our ways to the pool hall. Turns out, it’s quite literally easy as pie. It’s analogous to how the womenfolk kicked us men out of kitchens at Thanksgiving then claimed it was hard to cook a turkey.

Finally, and here’s the takeaway for you other folks who will find inspiration to can some fruit with the thought that, if a dummy like myself can do it, anyone can. Canning is fruit, sugar, pectin, apply heat. You can buy a huge 25-quart aluminum pot at Marketon on Wells Avenue for about $17. The next cheapest we saw was around $70. And if you don’t have any fruit or vegetables you want to preserve for winter, this pot is big enough to soak both your feet in.

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It’s as though the light at the end of the tunnel is one of those little laser sights on a semi-automatic weapon. Have you voted in our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada reader’s poll yet? The poll is still open until Aug. 3. Simply go to our website, http://www.newsreview.com/reno/ballot/bestofreno12.