Canning continuity

When we moved into these digs last year, our discoveries included a basement shelf lined with empty glass jars -- three dozen vintage Ball, Kerr and Atlas canning jars, hinting that the previous occupant was typical of her generation.

This afternoon I put up the season's first refrigerator pickles. And although I have plenty of my own jars, I went down to the basement and cast my eyes over the old ones, ultimately choosing a quart-size Ball "Perfect Mason" in blue glass.

It seemed fitting.

We're carrying on a tradition of preserving food grown on this modest patch of land, using a vessel first employed perhaps four decades ago.

If I have to explain why that feels just right, you wouldn't understand.