Spent a few hours and put up some more stuff from the garden (and the July apples I got at the farmer’s market):
Three quarts of applesauce, two quarts of beans, five pints of just regular beets, and three half pints of peas. Like I said, shit year for peas, but I also ate about probably six half pint containers worth the last week or so.
If you are wondering why I am doing all this, it’s several fold. First, I got sick and tired of wasting stuff that I grew in the garden and then buying inferior products at the store six months later. I spend all this time nurturing seeds, planting them, watering the plants, dealing with insects, picking them, and then I either give it away or it goes bad. Didn’t make sense. So I made an initial capital investment of about 60 bucks to get a bunch of mason jars to compliment the ones I had around the house and could find at flea markets and the like, and now I am just going to do this more often.
Second, I think it tastes better, I know exactly what is in it.
Third, it’s a useful skill, and one I had let get away from me. Dad used to can everything when we were kids, and I always remember doing it. I’m getting the crock back from my sister and going to make some sauerkraut this summer, too. Homemade sauerkraut is always superior to anything you can get from the store.
Fourth, I like it. It’s fun to me. I like the whole aspect of going from start to finish- when I get the seeds in the mail in January to growing the seedlings to planting them in the garden to peeling and preparing them to finishing them off. Also, company is much more appreciative when you make dinner- it’s like a big deal for people to eat something that was grown in your own back yard.
Several years ago when I quit drinking I was worried what I was going to do with all the new free time I had. What I have discovered is I don’t have a ton of free time because I am doing all sorts of new and fun things. Like canning!
I also have realized that I am really at my most relaxed when I am doing something as simply or mundane as peeling apples, or shelling peas, or cleaning and cooking down berries. I just zone out and really only think about the task at hand. It’s nice. I mean, my mind still wanders- like, for example, while shelling my nine bazillionth pea I thought “anyone who has ever had to prep their own food would definitely pay a quarter more a can so that farmers and migrant workers can get paid more.”
The final thing I like is that this is something I can do for the rest of my life. I sometimes worry what I am going to do when I get older and more infirm. Need a bunch of hobbies I can do forever. This is one of them.
So that is that.
Cheryl Rofer
Homemade sauerkraut is the only way to go.
John Revolta
Dude. Spoilage.
.
.
.
.
Won’t be a problem anymore.
Quiltingfool
I’ve been retired for 3 years (8th grade science teacher) and I laugh when people ask me if I miss work or if I’m bored yet. Not a chance! I enjoy every day because I get to do things I love doing ALL DAY LONG! I spend most of my days designing and making quilts; now I need to sell a bunch of them before they take over the house (I do give many of them away – people seem to really like quilts). I’m glad I have a hobby that is soothing; after reading about all the horrifying things that are happening in our country and then feeling such overwhelming rage, I, like you, John, need to zone out too, just to retain my sanity and not go beserker! Oh, a small request – a picture of Steve, please?
Mary G
So Zen. Love how you are now, John
StringOnAStick
I love canning and 95% of what we eat here is made from scratch. I really developed some serious cooking skills by making a concerted effort, so now we rarely eat out because we know there’s satisfying and high quality for at home. It feels like a real accomplishment, and given how I was taught to cook as a kid, a bit of a miracle.
Sewing is a useful hobby too, Cole. From not botching taking up a hem all the way to custom tailoring or fabric art, there’s a lot of “zone out” peaceful fun to be had.
I hear golf is nice at all ages too.
jl
Thanks for a cheerful canning post. I miss canning days from when I was on the family farms.
Peter
@Cheryl Rofer: Agreed! And kimchi, and so many other fermented things.
Its been a great year for peas up here, though we sorely need rain for the corn and potatoes. I’m drying the rest of the peas for miso and soup all winter (and some for planting in the spring). The 2017 peaso (miso made from peas) is a marvel. I’m using it in nearly everything.
laura
Be Here Now. In the Garden, In the Kitchen, In the Company of Others.
The satisfaction from the sensual and gustatory pleasures of the table – and its sources is hard to top and so wonderful to share.
TaMara (HFG)
This is why I love to cook. And the start to finish thing. I just did some sourdough from starter and it was a good experiment.
Still don’t like canning.
Oh, and I may not be speaking to you…
PENELOPE
Hungry Joe
A couple of years ago I decided to try to make fermented veggies and found that it’s ridiculously easy. Nothing but a few cabbages (usually/mostly green), a mess o’ carrots, salt, a little ginger, a little garlic (optional … and we opt). Shred/chop, knead like hell until it’s juicy, plop into a huge jar with a tube in the lid for gas release, wait 10-12 days, and damned if it isn’t amazing. If you like that kind of stinky stuff. Which we do.
CaseyL
You’ve always been a foodie; how grand now that you can grow your own, cook it to your exact specifications, and be assured of the quality. It’s been fun seeing you get into food gardening, watching your back yard take shape.
My decktop veggies have inspired me to rethink post-retirement plans. I originally wanted to live somewhere “resort-y,” with beach and/or mountain trails. Now i think I’d be perfectly content with somewhere out of the city, with a yard large enough to do some serious food gardening. A lake or river nearby would be nice, too.
frosty
Great post! I love you Cole (in a decent manly way of course*)
* I don’t remember where this comes from but I’ve been using it all my life.
wmd
Sounds like you’re getting spiritual ala https://www.amazon.com/Chop-Wood-Carry-Water-Becoming/dp/1483441784
frosty
@StringOnAStick: I hear golf is nice at all ages too.
Sorry no. Why spend all my last days on something I’ll never be any good at? With thousands of people giving me advice? Ugh.
MomSense
There’s such a nice feeling of contentment from cooking, baking, canning. I love it when I actually have time on the weekends to do more than just throw some kind of meal together.
I haven’t gotten in to canning but I have a good tip for making vegetable stock and it’s really tasty with apple peels. I keep a large resealable type freezer bag in the freezer and every time I peel or chop vegetables I add the peels and stems, etc to the bag. When I’ve collected a good amount I take out a huge pot and slowly cook the vegetable scraps in water like you would any kind of stock. Strain and put in some jars for use right away. The stock with Apple peels is the tastiest. I bring it to my neighbors who are in their 80s and they actually drink it warm for breakfast. Of course you can make soup but you may not want the sweet apple peel version depending on the kind of soup.
Michael Allen
@frosty: I totally do not understand golfing at all. WTF was Obama doing golfing anyway? Besides it’s expensive and terrible ecologically. Maybe it was fun back when someone in Scotland invented it in natural grass/sand/water land by the ocean. Also, it’s not even exercise, particularly the way Trump does it.
Kattails
I sort of hate canning but absolutely love looking at all those gorgeous jars on the shelf when they’re done. I love hearing the lids pop when they cool and seal. So happy when I can grab something off the shelf or out of the freezer in winter (New England). I 100% gotcha, but sometimes have to battle the green-eyed monster of jealousy when reading your posts. Have not had any time to go picking for years. I might break down and go for the roadside elderberries, they make a fabulous Jelly but i’ve been worried about roadside pollutants. I did pick some red currants from my garden and have some kind of wine grape that looks to be very productive this year– I’ll do jam. Got the vines by using prunings from my local vineyard to prop up my peas one year; the cut ends rooted, much to my surprise.
And baking!!… reading baking recipes is my version of food porn.
Love all, I’m off to bed.
Kattails
@Michael Allen: spotted this after I hit send: So golf originated (in Scotland) on glacial outwash kettle-kame terrain, where there were raised bits of gravel left from streams running under the glaciers, and ponds from chunks of ice that slowly melted as they were buried in outwash. Every golf course on the planet is designed and built to re-create that specific topography. Fun factoid.
rikyrah
@Quiltingfool:
Do you have an Etsy site where you sell the quilts?
rikyrah
Everything looks so good, Cole????
Aleta
@Kattails: Interesting.
Repatriated
You eat what you can, and what you can’t, you can.
Ramalama
@MomSense: That’s a good idea with the apple peels. Hope to try that soon.
In Canada we have a football helmet sized bin for organic waste for the kitchen and a large bin that sits next to the garbage bin, the recycle bin. It’s still relatively new, the food waste receptacles, and a bit awkward. Like we haven’t choreographed the dance from cutting board to bin in a way we like but boy, we’ve cut down on how much food we let go to waste.
HeartlandLiberal
Want to thank John Cole for fond memories trigger by this, of shelling peas and hand churning milk to produce cream with my grandmothers back in the fifties, when I was a wee lad in Alabama. Made my eyes moist.
karensky
Lovely, just lovely, Cole. You are an inspiration.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
Canning, and growing food in general, fall into the category I call “post-apocalyptic skills.” What are you going to bring to the tribe when the EMP knocks out the comms grid for a decade and we’re all living in yurts? For me it’s woodworking, cooking, and the ability to get along peaceably with most folk.
I just realized this is mostly residue from having read The Stand forty years ago…
Shana
@StringOnAStick: So funny, I was going to make the same comment about sewing. I find it very relaxing now that my skills are better. I only rarely have frustrating fitting issues or the need to rip out seams. The time just disappears when I’m sewing.
Hubby is talking about retiring or seriously cutting back in the next year or so and we JUST had that conversation that he won’t get bored because there are so many things he enjoys doing but doesn’t have time for now. Of course, he’ll probably still have time to interfere in things around the house and annoy me.
TerryC
@Michael Allen: They all need to take up Frisbee (Disc) Golf. More fun, less time, less money, less environmental impact.