What's The Point of Jam Without Bread?

Yesterday Ryan and I had the opportunity to go to the Lindon Cannery to help can peaches. I have been to the cannery twice before in my life - but both were before Ryan and I were married. One was dry pack - which I don't remember what we were doing, and the other time was for none other than peaches!
We signed up for a 3.5 hour shift, which seemed pretty daunting, but the opportunity is worth it. When we first arrived, the lady at the sign in desk asked me if I was pregnant. For a split second I was afraid they were going to turn me away. Instead, she told me that the earlier shift had a pregnant girl who wasn't even showing yet (but told them she was pregnant) pass out while on the floor. She cautioned me to be very careful and that if I started feeling dizzy, lightheaded, or needed a drink or a break to just walk away. Grateful for the word of caution, we went out onto the floor to get our assignments. As I looked around I realized there really is no place that would be "good" to pass out. Nothing but hard floors, equipment, and platforms. Poor girl.

Ironically, Ryan and I were placed in the exact same spot that I was assigned years ago when I came with my mom. We were the head of the line, the ones at the front of the conveyor belt. Our job was to sort out the peaches as quick as we could, looking for ones too small or too squishy. Ryan was also in charge of controlling how fast them came down and stopping the system if the other stations were getting too behind. We had a few bumps along the way, but we worked out a nice system and had things moving at 100% capacity for the majority of the time.

For the most part the shift went by pretty fast. It is super loud in there, so conversation is limited. Several times I looked up to see Ryan practicing his fly fishing cast in between loads of peaches. I just laughed. At last I heard him yell, "30 more minutes!" Unfortunately at that point I felt it should have been well past that - but at least things were winding down. Thankfully I couldn't see the clock, so I wasn't watching it constantly. After what seemed like at least 10 minutes, Ryan yelled, "25 minutes!"

"Stop it!" I shouted back, laughing. "I don't want to know! It's making it worse!"

Another "10" minute interval went by and Ryan shouted,

"22 more minutes!"

"Ahhh! Stop!!!!" Those last 22 minutes were painfully long, but at long last our replacements came and we stumbled out the door.

Even though we were tired and hungry, being able to serve out there really is a neat experience. I strongly suggest taking the chance if you are ever offered the opportunity to serve there or somewhere like it. It is amazing to see the mass amounts of food that can be produced to help those in need. And it really would be impossible without the help of volunteers. I know that service is a vital part of things, and I frequently feel that I am not doing enough. But I often feel at a loss on things I could do or ways I could serve. So this was a wonderful chance for me to give of my time. (And it gave me a good appreciation for my job. I admire those that work on assembly lines. I don't think I could do it! It's hard work!)

Another perk of helping out there is that you are then able to buy a few products they have available. This time they had salsa, spaghetti sauce, strawberry jam and marionberry jam. Ryan decided he wanted to get the salsa, spaghetti sauce, and marionberry jam (which was described as something like a blackberry jam). I asked him if he really wanted to get a whole case of jam since he really doesn't eat it much. He responded simply,

"Well that's cause we don't ever have homemade bread."

It was not meant as a jab. Just a statement of truth. We both love homemade bread, but it's time consuming. And besides, I have never attempted homemade bread in my life. Meaning white or wheat bread. I can make banana bread and such, but anything involving the whole yeast, raising, punching down, raising, punching down again process is intimidating to me!

We bought the case of jam anyway with the hope that someday we would have bread worth eating it with.

Well today after church I decided to make some banana bread since I had 4 overly ripe bananas. One loaf was the intention, but 4 bananas was perfect for doubling the recipe. As the bread was baking in the oven, I decided to look in my recipe book and read the instructions for white bread and see what it would really take. (My coworker gave me a recipe of his mom's but I couldn't remember where I put it.) And just like that I decided to jump in. Ryan was going to be gone for hours between home teaching and care center assignments anyway, so it seemed like a good excuse.

I don't have an electric mixer, so I had to follow the "by hand" directions, which is tough by the way, and soon I had a good mound of dough which I left to rise - hoping that I got the yeast right and that it would work.

40 minutes later I came back to discover that it had doubled in size, just like it said, and I very enthusiastically punched it back down and divided into the two smaller pieces it called for.


I followed the next several steps and managed to get it in the oven shortly after Ryan came home. It said to cook it for 40-50 minutes, but I am pretty sure it had only been in there 20 by the time we checked on it and it was definitely done. Not sure if my oven just cooks really hot or what...

Anyway, doesn't it look good? The loaf on the right is a little short a squatty. It didn't fill out the way I thought it would - but oh well. I have years left ahead of my to practice my loaf shaping skills. It takes a lot of time, but the results are worth it.

I cannot express how proud of myself I am. First homemade bread ever! And it was good! It was a little dense, but not in a bad way. And like I said - I have lots of time to practice and try different recipes and techniques. So eat your heart out Ryan! Your little wife is turning into a homemaking queen!