The Hill People & Crazy Food Canning

Our international correspondant from New Zealand has pointed us to a webpage that tells the tale of some mountain folk and canning/preserving foodstuffs gone mad. The following info was found on the tristateneighbor.com website.

"This year they helped plant the garden. I increased the garden size to accommodate our goal of entering 500 jars of canned goods at the fair this year," Maurer said.

"Last winter we canned venison, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, chili sauce, tomato soup, turkey, catsup, barbecue sauce, fish, sweet potatoes, duck, butternut squash, pumpkins and potatoes. You might say that whatever we find, we can. The entries will help out the competition at the fair and it will give the boys a little bit of income," said Maurer.

"I had never canned jams and jellies so we tried that. This year we are going to add jalapeno pepper jelly and canned squirrel. The canned squirrel was Smokey's idea. We asked the Fair Board to add it to the list of acceptable items and they did," Maurer said.

"This is a hands-on experience for the boys. They help plant the crop, pick the crop and can the crop. They label, wipe jars off and go with me to enter at the fair. There is hardly anything that can't be canned. We may try canning cauliflower and broccoli this year also," she said.

Ok, the key issue above, incase you missed it is canned squirrel. Holy christ man. I like squirrels and I feed them in my yard. However, they are basically rats with bigger tails in my opinion. The lasy says "You might say that whatever we find, we can", which also troubles me as I can only wonder what she has told us about.