Last August, I assisted in this canning class down at the Charlottesville Cooking School. I’ve been canning for years and have taught a few friends, and always have people ask me where they can learn to can. I had suggested to my friend who owns the school that she should consider offering a canning class. To me, if you like knowing where your food comes from enough to grow your own food, you should know how to preserve it, right? So, she found this completely amazing woman to teach it and I got to help. I really did mean to keep in touch with Leni, but let’s face it, keeping in touch with anyone not on my everyday path of school and work can sometimes be a stretch. Honestly, even people ON that everyday path I have a hard time keeping up with. *sigh*. When I went to the 2 year anniversary party of the school last month, I ran into Leni again and she gave me her card and told me to get in touch with her. I finally did and spent the evening out at her house with a very lovely group of women discussing gardening and food and just life. I just feel so inspired now to work in the garden, to get serious about building more vegetable beds, about increasing the diversity of what I grow among a few other new projects. (Somehow convincing Pat to build me an outdoor oven after he paints the house and builds me a chicken coop.)