Just Peachy

For the past couple of years, we have made a point of canning fruit to have over the winter. Since Bert is such a fruit lover, it was especially imperative to do it this year. So Saturday morning, we went to the farmers' market and bought a bushel of peaches. We couldn't remember how many we bought other years and thought a bushel didn't look like too many. We decided we would wait until Sunday to can, as we had some other stuff going on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday morning we got a little bit later start than anticipated but no matter, we had no plans for the day. I washed jars while Keith started peeling peaches. Bert was happily playing by himself, and it didn't seem like too long before we were pulling processed jars out of the canner. We were getting there.

Then, on our fourth batch in the canner, I was about to lift the lid when I thought I smelled something burning. Just as I opened my mouth to ask Keith if he smelled it, there were a few loud pops and a bit of smoke as the stove shorted out. And that, my friends, was the end of our stove. Our old, double-oven-ed Frigidaire, which fit our kitchen. Which also baked completely unevenly and had wonky knobs, but no matter; it looked right in our kitchen.

As it popped, I ducked, leaving Keith to reach over the canner and turn the burners off. Then he ran downstairs and turned it off completely from the breaker box while I wondered what to do with a canner full of peaches. Luckily, my neighbor was home and wasn't using her stove so I waddled over with my loaded canner and put them on her stove.

Bert was upstairs napping by this point, and Keith and I were contemplating what to do with the rest of the peaches, and what to do about the stove. Without too much deliberation, we set the peaches aside and Keith headed off to Lowe's to pick out a new range. Within 2 hours, he was home with a new GE model, it was in place and we were back to canning. It happened so fast That I couldn't even get a photo without the canner on it.

The new range looks a little silly because the old one filled up that whole space, all the way to the refrigerator, and the new one is just a standard-sized one. We loved the old one, but knew it would get expensive to get anything new similar to it. So someday when the kitchen gets remodeled (that would be in the ten-year plan), maybe this stove will look normal. In the meantime, I might be able to talk Keith into building me a little cabinet with a wee bit of counter space on top to slid in that opening. Because my only disappointment with the new range is that I don't have a spot for my utensil crock.

This is the first major appliance we have ever purchased, and although I didn't need it to happen in the middle of canning, at least I didn't have time to hem and haw and fret over what we should get. Keith called me from Lowe's with a couple of questions and then picked one out and brought it home. Case closed.

So that's the story of how we canned 45 pints of peaches and got a new stove. I have seven lovely fresh peaches left and I just might try my new oven out on a peach pie.