Volleyball Granny
Inactive
Originally posted on another blog site (by me)...part of my 'ministry' to the DGI's of this world:
Most of you know that I prep for hurricanes...or whatever may happen. That has saved my skin a number of times over the years--hurricanes, job loss, busy times--you never know what may happen.
My latest "thing" has been gardening (which I do haphazardly, at best). Preserving goes along with gardening...especially since I'm the only one eating tomatoes and there are 27 tomato plants in the garden! Relza has been helping me in the garden--watering, learning when to harvest--but, she won't eat tomatoes.
Sunday, I canned pickles and tomato soup. I only got four jars of Bread and Butter pickles and two jars of soup. (I had a lot more cucumbers, but we've been slicing them and taking them for lunch. It took about 10 tomatoes to make two jars of soup.) Monday, I bought a couple of pounds of cucumbers at one of those farms along Spring Cypress. I also bought green beans (I accidentally let mine go to seed) and new potatoes (I haven't checked my crop yet). I only bought the "homegrown" produce at the farm stand, but that's another story.*
Today, I plan to make more pickles. You can't beat home-made Bread and Butter pickles for potato salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad. (Now I remember why mom always kept one jar of pickles back for potato salad.)
If you notice, the items I've canned are in small packages. The main reason for that is storage. We've only had 3 or 4 serious hurricanes hit this area since I can remember. But, when they do hit, we are without electricity for days. Actually, weeks. Therefore, I'm canning in small packages so that I don't have to worry about refrigerating leftovers.
Since canning is a revisited world for me (and it's not exactly like riding a bike), I learned a couple of new things yesterday. The next time I can green beans, I need to cut them into 1" pieces--there will be less wasted jar space that way. Since I was using the presser cooker for the first time (for canning), there was a longer wait between batches than I expected. Next time, I'll know that I have time to prepare the next batch and fill the jars while the current batch is in the pressure cooker. That "bring to a boil, then let steam for 10 minutes before putting on the weight, then cool down until no steam escapes, then remove the weight, then wait 10 minutes after ALL the steam has escaped before opening" turns that "process for 20 minutes at 10lbs pressure" into at least an hour. I won't feel so rushed next time.
*Last Tuesday night, I watched the movie, FOOD, INC.--that really got me into wanting only homegrown veggies. Apart from the genetically modified seed, there are things in the way our food is produced that make Upton Sinclair's The Jungle look like child's play. Those of us who like to know what is in our food are really in trouble in today's market. In the new Genetically Modified world, potatoes have squid genes (to combat potato rot) and frog genes (to combat potato diseases). Cows are fed grain (and even cow body parts) instead of grass. (Yes, I know that it caused mad cow disease and people aren't supposed to do it. Do you really think they stopped?) Animals are bred in circumstances which make diseases run rampant and then are butchered...if the cow can't stand up to walk to the slaughter-house, they take her there on a fork-lift.
I guess that's enough about food...it's going to be hard to eat breakfast with those images in my mind. Maybe I'll just stick to coffee...
Most of you know that I prep for hurricanes...or whatever may happen. That has saved my skin a number of times over the years--hurricanes, job loss, busy times--you never know what may happen.
My latest "thing" has been gardening (which I do haphazardly, at best). Preserving goes along with gardening...especially since I'm the only one eating tomatoes and there are 27 tomato plants in the garden! Relza has been helping me in the garden--watering, learning when to harvest--but, she won't eat tomatoes.
Sunday, I canned pickles and tomato soup. I only got four jars of Bread and Butter pickles and two jars of soup. (I had a lot more cucumbers, but we've been slicing them and taking them for lunch. It took about 10 tomatoes to make two jars of soup.) Monday, I bought a couple of pounds of cucumbers at one of those farms along Spring Cypress. I also bought green beans (I accidentally let mine go to seed) and new potatoes (I haven't checked my crop yet). I only bought the "homegrown" produce at the farm stand, but that's another story.*
Today, I plan to make more pickles. You can't beat home-made Bread and Butter pickles for potato salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad. (Now I remember why mom always kept one jar of pickles back for potato salad.)
If you notice, the items I've canned are in small packages. The main reason for that is storage. We've only had 3 or 4 serious hurricanes hit this area since I can remember. But, when they do hit, we are without electricity for days. Actually, weeks. Therefore, I'm canning in small packages so that I don't have to worry about refrigerating leftovers.
Since canning is a revisited world for me (and it's not exactly like riding a bike), I learned a couple of new things yesterday. The next time I can green beans, I need to cut them into 1" pieces--there will be less wasted jar space that way. Since I was using the presser cooker for the first time (for canning), there was a longer wait between batches than I expected. Next time, I'll know that I have time to prepare the next batch and fill the jars while the current batch is in the pressure cooker. That "bring to a boil, then let steam for 10 minutes before putting on the weight, then cool down until no steam escapes, then remove the weight, then wait 10 minutes after ALL the steam has escaped before opening" turns that "process for 20 minutes at 10lbs pressure" into at least an hour. I won't feel so rushed next time.
*Last Tuesday night, I watched the movie, FOOD, INC.--that really got me into wanting only homegrown veggies. Apart from the genetically modified seed, there are things in the way our food is produced that make Upton Sinclair's The Jungle look like child's play. Those of us who like to know what is in our food are really in trouble in today's market. In the new Genetically Modified world, potatoes have squid genes (to combat potato rot) and frog genes (to combat potato diseases). Cows are fed grain (and even cow body parts) instead of grass. (Yes, I know that it caused mad cow disease and people aren't supposed to do it. Do you really think they stopped?) Animals are bred in circumstances which make diseases run rampant and then are butchered...if the cow can't stand up to walk to the slaughter-house, they take her there on a fork-lift.
I guess that's enough about food...it's going to be hard to eat breakfast with those images in my mind. Maybe I'll just stick to coffee...