I've enjoyed this thread so much. It brings back fond memories. My grandmother, raised in the rural South during the depression, was fanatic about canning and freezing vegetables. My wife does it now, but it's not because she HAS to like the fine women from my family did.
Of course, our backyard garden is really just some tomato plants, cucumbers, okra, and maybe a few beans. It certainly can't rival the scope of the gardens of my boyhood.
My grandmother also made Tomato Gravy. Which was home canned tomatoes mixed with a little bacon grease and water and salt and pepper and simmered in an iron skillet. Served over biscuits. My wife makes in now with her home canned tomatos, and it is a huge hit. It must be a Mississippi thing, because other Southerners I've met have never heard of it. It was a breakfast staple during my childhood.
You have got to try it. It can be made with storebought tomatoes, but home canned is much better. The biscuits must be made from scratch, but you don't seem to be a wop-biscuit kind of lady anyway.
Ha! I don't think I've ever heard that phrase outside the family - except for Jerry Clower or whoever came up with the phrase to begin with!