Everyone had a garden in our neighborhood. From my earliest memory I recall the massive plantings of our next door neighbor Herman Marx, who had come to the U.S. after the second World War, traveling from job to job on a motorcycle with a sidecar laden with his masonry tools. He had homing pigeons, too. Herman shared a lot of fresh veggies with us and often,when the timing was right, delicious canned delicacies, including jellies and jams.

Rudy Jacobucci and his brother Zoe were stone carvers from Italy. I worked with them a couple summers before leaving for college. The hot peppers they ate at lunch could bring tears to my eyes from across an open lot. I once asked Rudy if I could try a bite of one. He ate them with fresh homemade bread slathered in a rich coating of butter. It may have been the closest I ever came to death! Rudy ate them like candy. I was not right for a week.

My grandmother made her own soap and the most delicious apple butter. We had red and yellow delicious, transparent, northern spy, and Cortland in great stock, some of which we kept over along with potatoes and carrots in the fruit cellar.

Folks don’t seem to do as much canning these days, although Ball jars do show up at the grocery store for a short stint in the fall. Amy Stockford from Old Narrow Gauge Farm in Alna is a remarkable exception. Jams, jellies, pickles, relishes and syrups, hand crafted in small batches at the Farmstead Cannery, is  provide an extraordinary and wonderful reminder of Mother Earth’s gifts. Amy has the touch!

Amy did not set out to create these delicious foods from an early age. Quite the contrary. Growing up in the Topsham area did not create a burning desire for the kitchen. In fact, much of her energy was focused on sports with significant successes in soccer, swimming, softball and track. She was state champion triple jumper.

Now Amy is (in my opinion) champion of canning after the bug bit her during a stint as server and prep cook at Great Impasta in Brunswick. Twenty years later, I had the great good fortune of catching up with her at the Bath Farmers Market where she sells all her products every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon. She also sells wholesale to Sheepscot General store, Head Tide Oven, and the Birches Market in Wiscasset. She is looking to expand the wholesale business, but is quick to remind that she takes orders via email and has been known to make personal deliveries and even meets folks at the gas station or grocery store.

The Bath Farmers Market is at 61 Commercial St., two rights off the bridge going south. She can also be contacted through her website, oldnarrowgaugefarm.com. Trust me, Amy’s foods are amazing. You will not be disappointed. Her blueberry jam ... well, let me just say that one jar did not last the ride from Bath to home. All alone, one spoonful at a time, vaporized! I did pull off the road in Woolwich to consume!