Jammin'

As you know, when things get rough (or I have a lot of produce), I start canning. I think this is because the process keeps me completely focused from beginning to end. I also end up with a product when I'm done...a local and/or organic product that has only a few ingredients in it, and it's good for you. There's a satisfying sense of accomplishment and completion to the whole thing. Since it's blackberry time, and I've had requests, here is the story on the flavored jams.

My great-grandmother had a chicken farm and a huge garden and canned enough every season to fill a room--a special canning pantry in her basement. It made a big impression on me as a kid. My mom made jam when I was small, but after I helped hull the berries, the kitchen was offlimits while she dealt with hot liquids. I learned to make strawberry jam on my own, as an adult, during May of 2000. I remember this time in detail because my mother-in-law was diagnosed with brain tumors. She and my father-in-law stayed with us in North Carolina while she had surgery at Duke U. My mother-in-law died in November 2000, in her early 50's. It was horrible.

I learned to make jam that May, and I picked strawberries and made 20+ jars of strawberry jam. Sometimes you need something productive to do when in reality, there's nothing else to do. On Saturday and Sunday, while I stressed about book issues, I did 16 jars of jam. 8 of Blackberry Brandy, and 8 of Plum Port. Here's roughly how I do it. If you are already a canning person, this will make sense!

I'm skipping the pictures...imagine the blackberry or plum version of this jar, please!:

I start with the Sure-Jell pectin for less sugar. In my part of the country, it's a little pink box. I've found it works best for me. Technically, you don't need pectin for some fruits, but I like to reduce the amount of sugar I use this way so that more fruit flavor and less "sweet" comes through. I use organic sugar though, never splenda or some other chemical. (I know what sugar does, the studies are conclusive, and I brush my teeth!) I make cooked fruit jam. This means that, unlike freezer jam, if the electricity goes out, my jam is still fine, sitting patiently on the basement pantry shelf for me. It's lots less messy than cleaning out my freezer...I've tried it both ways.

I do everything the Ball canning folks recommend: I boil the jars and lids, I pour boiling water over the tops. I mention all this because I don't want anyone to die of weird canning heebeegeebees...follow the rules for safe canning, please!

I make the fruit jam by following the exact recipe mentioned inside of the Sure-Jell cartoon, but here's the trick:

if you want to add an additional flavor, like lemon or brandy or port or whatever...

just before you finish making the jam, add this flavor at the very last minute. This is last thing you stir in before putting the jam into jars. For the 8 cup blackberry brandy or plum port jams, I use 1/3 cup of brandy/port, etc. and I stir it in right at the end. Most of the alcohol will evaporate right away, but since you're done cooking the jam, some of the flavor will remain.

There's nothing wrong with a plain fruit jam, but the alcohol makes it seem a bit more sophisticated. Other combos: peach bourbon, raspberry chambord, pear port or brandy....have fun! (do bear in mind that only one shot of the stuff, for tasting only, is advisable while canning. More than that can be dangerous for you with all that boiling water!)

If you want to use lemon or vanilla or some extracty thing like that, use less flavor but add it right at the end as well. If you cook these sorts of subtle flavors too much, you lose them, they can't stand up to boiling too long.

Once the jars are done, I pop them back in the canner for another 10 minute sealing boil. I almost never have a jar that doesn't seal with this process, and it makes the professor (a biologist, whose mother, may she rest in peace, used to work at the NYC department of health) feel reassured about our food safety.

I read a lot of cookbooks--I buy used and new books on canning, preserving, pickling, etc. whenever I see one that looks good. Once you really know how a canning recipe ticks and what is safe, you can alter it. (yup, I feel the same way about knitting patterns!) I also do pickles: dilly beans, dill pickles, cornichons, tomatoes and okra pickles. I make salsa, chutney, duck and plum sauce. Yes, it can get out of hand sometimes, but if it has enough sugar or vinegar in it and it doesn't smell bad? You should be ok...but boil the heck out of it all anyway!

Professor's sweater update: I am knitting the collar. Everything else is done. Professor himself is out of town at the moment, and it is July, so we'll have to wait a bit longer to know if this knit-a-thon is flattering on him.

Do let me know how your jam comes out!

"'Cause if you want the best jam, you got to make your own!" (Joanne and Michelle Shocked.)"

HOT and steamy

I said....Steamy. Yup. Has that got your attention yet? Bet you didn't think I was talking about what it's like when you're canning on a really hot day, errr week! Ahh, but if I mention blackberry brandy jam, apple-plum chutney (pictured here), real homemade Asian style plum sauce, and spiced homemade applesauce, and you're into food, that might just make you feel even more excited. At least, it does around here. Every summer I try to can the things we really enjoy eating. I do it because:
1) it saves money
2) it tastes really good, and you can't buy this in the store
3) it's about 90% locally grown and/or organic (spices and sugar are not local, cinnamon and sugar are just not grown here)
4) this is "fast food" for foodies
These are in no particular order, and I'd say, repeat #2 several times and you'll see why I do this! However, this summer, I've been busy and it's disrupted my usual canning schedule. Usually, I can about once a week in the summer. It takes no more than 1.5 or 2 hours, I listen to an audio book while I do it, and then I rest and do actual work that earns money later.

This year, I've been swamped with real, live, paying work. Yet, the blackberries and plums dared come into season anyway. darn cheek! I bought them at the farmer's market and thought, well, I'd make time. Then we bought some apples to cook with the plums. The orchard somehow had half-bushels of apples for a low price, and my husband, thinking bigger is better, dived in. That's a lot of fruit. I've only used half of it, and I've done something like 8 cups each of blackberry brandy jam, applesauce and plum sauce and 12 cups of the chutney so far this week. There are only two of us. Too. Much. Fruit. Still and all, I'm jonesin for peaches...

If you thought I was crazy before hearing about the canning, you may know for sure now. Like most folks in the USA, we've had hot weather this week, with no sign of it lifting for another couple of days. Even with the air conditioning on, the upstairs of our house hovers around 85. The outside temperature is in the mid-nineties, but with our lovely Kentucky humidity, we'll hit heat indexes over 100 most days this week. The combination of living in an old house and conserving energy means that we don't lower the 'mometer on the thermostat any lower than 78-80...instead, we sweat a little, and I just try to sit in the cool part of the downstairs (it is always cool there) to knit all this wool. We also try to dry clothes outside in this heat, and we walk when we can. We think about sustainability, conservation and global warming a little bit... if reading about it isn't enough, I'm married to a scientist and I have asthma that is worsened by pollutants that hang out in the air on hot, smoggy days. For me, this isn't just a political thing. Breathing. I like it, and it's hard this time of year.

I'm fueling my canning and knitting frenzy (did I mention knitting half a sweater jacket already this week?) with a lot of produce. My favorite salad has been in abundance and helps me think daily of the Middle East, which is on my mind a lot now. Favorite salad is Middle Eastern: cut up tomatoes and cucumbers very small. Mince in some green olives. Add good olive oil and lemon juice, salt and pepper. I was able to eat this directly from my own garden earlier this week:



Last, but not least, our guys Harry and Sally are alternately limp and panting, and then somehow boosted magically into adolescents with attitude by a small amount of cool air conditioning. Barking at passers-by, retaining housetraining skills (Sally says, "oops! I was excited, Mom, sorry about the couch, good thing it's scotch guarded") and reasonable behavior: strictly optional in temperatures above 90.
caption: What? It's so hot. What do you want now?

canning, decisions, and Lucy

Canning Update, anyone? (If you are from the UK, that's "bottling" to you! Glad we cleared that up, Mrs. J!) Since we last talked here, I've done the following:
15 cups of plum-apple chutney
6-7 cups of peach jam
8 cups of eggplant chutney
The professor and I talked, concluding that I like saving money, providing healthy good food for our household, and "stocking up" for winter...I am, as Deb mentioned in the comments, not just a planner but also a worrier. The professor's field season is in the summer, so we don't take big vacations. I find (and I know this sounds weird) canning to be a vacation in itself. I also like to cook (and eat). Canning is a discrete period of time when I need to concentrate wholly on this activity. My brain empties, my body tires, and when I'm done, I collapse on the couch to cool down and rest. It's a 2-3 hour vacation. And, as Diane mentioned, it just tastes better!

As Caroline said, my whole body calms down after a big decision. That means that my normal defenses (both emotional and physical) are down. I'm not feeling tiptop, and I've been a little sad...but not about the decision to move to Winnipeg. Just sad, and I think I know why.

In June of 2004, I lost my constant companion, my first dog, Lucy. Lucy was only seven when she got sick with a liver problem (cancer, we think) and eight when the vet convinced us it was time to put her down. During the year she was sick I did everything I could to keep her alive and happy. It's been four years since I said goodbye to Lucy, and while she was very ill, I still regret the decision to put her down--the day we did, she took a very slow walk around the block, barked at the door when the vet came, and looked at both the professor and me for one long moment while she died.

I got Lucy when she was about 3 months old, and I was 23. She was a lab mix, probably with shepherd or some kind of collie, and at her prime, she was about 75 lbs. She was a very bright dog...an amazing problem solver. If you dropped her leash by accident? She'd wait and carry the leash for you in her mouth until you could pick it up again. Once, she couldn't fit all the tennis balls in the yard in her mouth at once, so she picked up an empty plastic water bowl, carefully put 3 tennis balls in it, and carried the plastic container around. That's a smart girl.

Lucy was always by my side. She slept in my bed, rode shotgun in the car with me, and slept (and drooled) on me as I knitted. She loved snow. When we married the professor, well, that's how it was....WE married him. Lucy was his step-dog, and she took his commands (sit, stay, etc.) under advisement. If she didn't think he was saying the right thing? She ignored him. She was usually right!
I believe that all dogs are special, and after only a month of hysterical sadness, I adopted Harry from the shelter. He was a rambunctious and submissive puppy and kept me totally distracted and busy. However, there are people who say that while all dogs have personalities, some have very special ones and, let's face it, there are people and dogs with whom one has an intimate, tight bond. Lucy was just one of those special "people."

Lucy hated thunderstorms. She would shake the whole bed if she were in it during a bad one. Just after she died, in late June or early July 2004, there was a terrible storm. Although I'd never minded storms before Lucy, after she died, I just couldn't sleep through them. At 1 am, I sat at my Canadian Production wheel and I spun some very special fiber, some cashmere, as I cried for Lucy. (I wrote about this in an essay in the book KnitLit the Third. )

I've had that skein of cashmere ever since. Each time I picked it up, I was right back in the middle of that thunderstorm, missing my girl Lucy. Recently, the right project came along for that skein. The project is for my next book, book #2, and it's a sample I will get to keep. It's knitting up beautifully. This past weekend, we had a bad storm, and Harry's pet Sally, that other black dog who owns me now, cowered next to me on the couch as I tried to comfort her. I knit that cashmere. I missed Lucy something terrible.

The professor helped me find all these photos of Lucy (and me) to share with you. No photo shows anyone's soul, but maybe you can help me a bit in celebrating (and missing) Lucy's.

September happenings

We're slammed with produce in Manitoba in August.  In July, it's a little berry jam warm up, but then by the beginning of September, there may even be frost.  So, this year has been something of a canning frenzy.  I've been canning for sharing, so my shelves are full now.  Some of it is mundane: apple sauce, chutney, cucumber pickles...and some is a surprise.  My kids found these (extremely long in the tooth) okra in a neighbourhood schoolyard garden.  They'd never seen okra before! (haha, I have eaten so much okra during my time in Kentucky and North Carolina...) So, I quickly shoved it into a jar and soon we'll try some refrigerator pickles. 

Meanwhile, I continue to write at night and whenever I can fit it in.  Here's an opinion piece I wrote for the CBC-Manitoba website.

It's fair to say that Manitoba's back to school options have left me very stressed.  We have been offered a "go back to school in person with some safety protocols" or a "withdraw your children and homeschool them."  This isn't a fair choice--we pay for our children's public education and kids with challenges can only get special needs support in school here.  It's hard to find privately and expensive.  There's no remote schooling option.  While I used to teach and hold a Master's in Education, I know when I do not have the training to meet some of my kids' needs.  So, today we sent them back.  I've been doing a lot of cooking to comfort myself.

Stuffed grape leaves from a friend's grape arbor... and pie.  Lots of apple pie from apples we picked at a neighbour's house.

Also, the hundred year old house next door has been demolished and there is excavation taking place for a new house.  There was no architectural salvage done, the shaking has been affecting our house, and the noise and motion have worn me out.  This photo taken from our dining room window is cock-eyed, but it sort of represents how I feel.  (Yes, that digger was 18" from the window.  Maybe 2 feet.  No kidding.)  This just makes me sad.

It's noisy and dusty and dangerous to sit around outside...but this is what Sadie the dog was doing before the demolition hit.  It has made me realize how much the out of doors helped us all this summer...and now who knows how long we'll be unable to use our yard again.

In an attempt to brighten up the inside, I wove this rag mat for Sadie's water bowl.  Making things makes me feel better....and keeps the stress level down.  Perhaps that's why I've been canning, knitting, weaving, baking and more...at this frenetic pace.

Stay well!  Happy and healthy new year to all who are getting ready to celebrate 5781!

the next day

You know, it's funny. You make an enormous decision, and then nothing happens. You wake up the next day and the laundry still needs to be done, the dogs walked, the garden watered. However, my friends on the net (thank you, commenters!) and the folks on a special listserv, my family and friends all made a fuss over all this Winnipeg stuff, and we appreciate it. That fuss and the people who said, "We knew you'd choose the right thing!" have been such a support. Plus, you can't believe all the advice I'm getting when it comes to silk long underwear and serious winter coats. In brief? Down coats, with a winter rating of -35 to -50. Right. I'm on it.

The thing that remains is feeling relieved about the decision. Now I know I'm not moving by August--yes, this was part of the decision! The other job, in New York, started in August...-- I'm able to relax a bit. I'd been consciously holding off on things. Like ordering anything via mail order, trying not to buy anything, freeze or can anything, trying to get rid of things, and saving boxes. Now I have a little less than a year to make those choices and plans. Things got easier.

First things first. I canned 32 cups of blackberries. That's two gallons of blackberry brandy jam, blackberry peach jam, and plain old blackberry jam. The berries were free for the picking and while I picked too, the professor and our industrious scientist friend John picked a lot of berries. I also froze a couple of quarts of berries AND made a berry dessert...and the guys want to go out again to pick more. Sure. No problem. By the end of the winter, will we stil like blackberries?

We began to run out of jars, so we took a trip to Big Lots, a store that sells close outs and other odds and ends. I did this on the advice of my friend Deb, who mentioned the best fleece washing device ever was available there, masquerading as a cat litter box. Somehow, we always find lots of goodies when we go to this store. $110 later, we'd enjoyed their air conditioning, bought 2 dozen jam jars, several books, some groceries, the fleece washing set up and two sheep squeaky toys for the dogs.
I offered one squeaky sheep first to see if the dogs like it. They did...the sheep squeaky toy was left in a place of honor. On my pillow in bed. Obviously my dogs like fibery stuff, too, and think I deserve the best!

Then? Back to the canning. Apparently this was the week that local plums ripened, so I bought those, along with the first apples. This became about 15 jars of plum apple chutney. I have more plums--for canning plum sauce and a Friday night dessert of some kind. Last night, as I was cutting up plums, waiting for the bread to come out of the oven at almost midnight, I thought...is this a blog post?...although I did not have the heart to shoot photos at that time of night!

Why am I doing all this? Food prices are going up. I want to eat this amazing local fruit in winter. I love crusty bread but grain prices are going up, too. Since we'll be spending another winter here, I want to put up lots of good tasting stuff.

It might be a great time to learn to can if you haven't already, and if you know how? Rush to your garden or nearest farmer's market. Get going. The media acts like we can't control the rising food costs, but this is definitely one way to cut costs, right? And, face it, homemade just tastes so much better!

Oddly, all this canning, the chores, and bathing Harry the dog AGAIN (what did he roll in this time?) have calmed me down. I feel focused. I have a short term plan here in Kentucky, and a longer term plan. I'm that way...a planner.

Do you plan for winter like an ant or a grasshopper? Are you calmer when you know what lies ahead? And do you know what Harry keeps rolling in? How 'bout that silk long underwear? Let me know what you think in the comments. I may not be able to respond to every one of them, but I love hearing what you think, too!

jalapeno paranoia

Ahh, the mysteries of life....include jalapenos. Or rather, the little jar of homecanned jalapenos that the professor found in his mail box when he got back from his conference. It sat, in the biology department mail room, with no label, note, or tag. No way for us to figure out where it's from.

Now, we like to know where our food comes from. Not just our grocery store food, mind you, but our fresh food. Nearly every week, I pick up our vegetables, eggs and occasionally meat from a farm 5 miles down the road, and I harvest some herbs/veggies from our small garden. I get my milk (cream at the top, glass jar, grass-fed cows raised about 35 miles away) from the local butcher's shop in the winter time and from the farmer's market in the summer. I can fruit in season, and I share my jams, chutneys, pickles, and other delights with the professor's colleagues, and our friends.

In return, we sometimes are gifted with a dozen eggs (of all different colors) from a colleague's chickens, or that excess amount of cucumbers or tomatoes no one else in the department could face. Usually, we know who this is from...but the jalapenos were a mystery.

First, I emailed the four people who I suspected...and at least three said, "No, not me!' They agreed that maybe we shouldn't eat them just yet. After all, the professor's 70+ students had an exam coming up. Wouldn't want to risk any serious foodbourne illness!

Eventually, the professor came up with a funny email, sent it to the whole department, and surprise! we found out who had canned these beautifully colored jalapenos. (one of the fabulous models in Fiber Gathering, actually, and a staff member in the department) She's highly competent, so those jalapenos are probably A-OK to eat. That said...it brought up a whole interesting discussion.

If you made all your food locally, you'd know who produced your food. Or, as a friend who had an organic farm said, when watching me can, "You can like I do. What a relief...you've read the whole Ball jar canning guide, haven't you!? We can share now." It was jokingly said, but true. How do we know when that processed food is safe? Locally, we can ask: who home canned that produce, or raised that cattle? Do we trust that person? Globally, we must wonder, was this food, produced across the world by a stranger, processed in a hygenic fashion? Did the jar get boiled first? Did that anonymous cook wash her hands?

The most interesting part about this is that at home, I know exactly where most of my food comes from. I know the farmer who raised the lamb--which is now in butcher paper in my freezer. I've picked pears from his sheep pasture's trees, and I've discussed rain fall with the farm that grows my lettuce. However, when I go out to eat, when I travel, and in big cities, I just try to put my concerns out of my mind. Nine times out of ten, it's just fine. That tenth time (the time when my editor got sick from salmonella in the peanut scare a few months ago?) I'm glad I'm just a wee bit cautious about what I eat, even when away from home. Now, I eat all sorts of highly enjoyable, exotic (and maybe, rarely, risky) things. I love unpasteurized cheese, sushi, ceviche, and all the rest. Yet, those delicious foods were prepared by, well, strangers that I trust. Strangers who cared seriously about their food and its preparation.

Think I'm paranoid? says the professor, in his email. Well, tell that to the people who are after me!

(I'd stop those people and say, "So, have you washed your hands first? Was that jar sterilized? What was the vinegar solution you used with the peppers? How many minutes did you boil it after sealing in the canning bath?")
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I'm off to cook dinner for a guest the professor's bringing home...so, what are you eating for dinner? Where did it come from? Was it homemade? Do you trust its safety?

growing things

Lisa K. commented that "Growing things always blow my mind." I'm totally down with that. Things are productive around here, but I find hotel reservations, travel arrangements (for more October festivals-- Rhinebeck and SAFF) and even plans to meet up with family don't have a tangible feeling of accomplishment. Nor do trips to the pharmacy, grocery store, and health food store, all of which I had to do twice this week. No matter how much arranging I do, it's not much of a blog entry, either!

The Farmer's Market, the library, or the post office? Those errands always are enjoyable! The personal interactions are better at these places, and I'm getting something good or sending something good away, a physical sense of accomplishment! For several errands, it's less than 2 miles away...sometimes, if it's cool and there's not too much to carry, I walk, and that's lovely too. The produce - an heirloom tomato (Mr. Stripey or Pineapple) and the "pre-Salsa" ingredients, were grown by Chad, a student in the professor's department. Chad's family farm sells at the farmer's market and he knows who's coming to dinner at our house. He often slips in an extra treat based on which professor is eating here!

So, let's do some food talk, since all my knitting is stealth work for the book... Last night, our friend John (one of Chad's professors!) came over. We ate locally raised, free range chicken, roasted with salt, pepper, za'atar and olive oil. Inside the pan, I roasted potatoes and carrots. The drippings aren't good for you but they sure do taste good! For extra "seasoning", we had homemade salsa and plum/apple chutney. Side dishes included a Turkish eggplant and banana pepper salad, seasoned with garlic, lemon, salt, dill, red wine vinegar and olive oil, and a sliced fresh tomato salad with a few okra pickles.

I've accomplished a lot in the canning department. Here are dilly beans and okra pickles..I've fit in time for 10+ pints of pickled things this week, plus another 5 pints of salsa canned and a quart in the refrigerator. These treats are fabulous in the winter time; I can always have another guest at the table by going down to the basement and getting an extra jar or two. Unfortunately, I've practically worn out my canning pot and need to buy a new one now!

All the presents have been sent off to their new owners. Jan, here's your carpet warp, ready to travel to the Dakotas! Deb's ribbon and carpet warp is winging its way to Colorado, and Lisa's pink yarn? off to Idaho.

One of the funny things about living in an old house in a small town? Discovering all the flowers and architectural details we have in common with our neighbors. In a fit of energy this past weekend, I chopped down weeds until we could see our old spring house foundation, now a planter, in the backyard. I can now see these rain lilies from my office window. We have a big yard, with lots of interesting plantings, most of which we didn't do. Our neighbors have many of the same flowers, porch swings, and light fixtures. One can imagine that 50? or 100 years ago, someone shared their bulbs and cuttings with a neighbor. A truckload of swings or doors or fixtures arrived? Everyone bought the same ones. This is still true...we have the same chandelier (from Home Depot or Lowes?) as another spinner friend who lives a few blocks away. It looks great in her dining room. It's way too big for ours!

When a university town empties out for the summer, things slow down so I can pause on my walks with the dogs and see the details. I like to watch the gardens change and grow. The students' cars (and beer bottles) don't line the streets. It's a slow time, a quiet respite from the bustle we'll see in three weeks, and there's still time for those personal exchanges at the farmer's market and post office.

A new year

It is time to update the blog and keep up with all the things that are happening.  The professor and I (and twins) are visiting family for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  This is the first time we have managed a high holidays family visit in over 10 years!  It is the beginning of the school year, when professors start teaching (but the professor is not teaching this fall) and, well, the stars aligned and we flew east.  So far, the twins have seen lots of family, gone to a few playgrounds, ridden the DC Metro for the first time, and had several other big adventures.

I am taking a break with family and from trying to juggle everything in Winnipeg: toddlers, running our household and working whenever I can manage but had some things to share.

Learning to ask where our food is from just appeared in the Forward...this is a revision of what I originally wrote, but it is probably a kinder and gentler piece now!  Here's one of the photos I sent; a canning photo with more frills appeared with the piece, but this is what my apricot jam and saskatoon jams looked like this fall. (yes, I have managed some canning this summer, and I am so excited to have a full pantry again, I have not managed to can since 2010 so this is huge!)

A little while ago, this article about "helping hands" appeared in the Forward as well. I am so glad to get a chance to continue talking about the issues of helping new moms and new families--there has been a lot of quiet feedback from women of all ages about my two articles on this topic. More women struggle with these issues than you might imagine; our society needs to step up and help more! Finally, I am so pleased with recent interest in my new pattern, Slippy the cowl. It has been slowly beginning to sell, and I cannot wait to see knitters' versions as they appear on Ravelry and the blogosphere. All this seems like it is worth sharing as we begin 5774, the new year, and a brand new school year.

Lost: 1 worry bear, 1 week, 1 batch of jelly

This weekend, the CBC-Manitoba ran my piece, Bottling Sunshine:Canning teaches mom essential coping skills.    Aspects of that essay summarized this past few days.  To start, last weekend my crew had their first lemonade stand.  This required at least one grown-up on duty the whole time, as neither of my twins can pour a full pitcher of lemonade yet, nor make change.  (they just turned five, that's understandable!)  After I worked behind scene and made the lemonade and cut up the watermelon, I discovered that my lovely professor had been filling up the spare moments (there were a lot of them) by picking more Nanking cherries from our yard.

(We also then caught one of the twins eating the watermelon and then putting it back in the container for customers...but that is another story. :)

We pick these cherries every year from our yard.  The boys love to help.  Usually, I make them into a jam, but this year, I decided to try a jelly instead.  After an ill-fated trip to Canadian Tire to find a jelly strainer, I rigged one up with cheese cloth and a colander instead. (This piece of equipment is also called a chinois, but since that seemed terribly embarrassing --who came up with that name?! It's inherently problematic in our bilingual world... when I asked a customer service person for it--hint, she was Asian--I decided we wouldn't be calling it that anymore.  She was gracious about it, btw, as she also was frustrated that the store didn't have one.  Who comes up with these terms for kitchen tools?! Ahhh!)

By the time everyone was done picking, eating, and wearing cherry juice all over their shirts, faces and hands, we had what amounted to something like 14 quarts of cherries.  Yeah.  I know this quantity because I used the largest slow cooker to soften them, in two batches (by boiling, you can get rid of the pits more easily).  The first batch of jelly did not become jelly.  It became roughly 10 cups of cherry sauce.  Turns out our particular cherries are oddly acidic or low in pectin or something, so I re-canned them with more pectin.  It was a colossal pain to redo, but then I ended up with 9 cups of jelly...and a lot of pulp.

For the first time, I figured out how to successfully do fruit roll in our dehydrator.  It was pretty easy, actually.  Roughly 6 cups of chopped fruit/pulp, then you puree it in a blender, add honey or sweetener if you want (I did banana and honey because cherry pulp is sour!) and then you sort of paint it on parchment paper and pop it in the dehydrator.  It took 10 hours at 135F, cooking on our front porch while we slept.  Since the natural fruit roll that we usually buy is $7.50CDN a package, this struck me as a good idea.

Unfortunately?  Fortunately? I had to do more jelly the next day (all that extra picking!) so we ended up with 17 cups of jelly and two batches of fruit roll.  If I never see another cherry this year?  It will be too soon.  Getty Stewart's cookbook was a huge help, as always, in dealing with this quirky prairie fruit.  I think I am grateful for her cookbook every summer!

In other news, you may remember a certain twin's Worry Bear?  Alas, Worry bear #2--the first one pictured here--is MIA or perhaps, RIP.  The good news about the travelling day camp is that you go new and interesting places every day.  The bad news is that between the swimming pool, the parks, the hikes, other adventures and a certain pair of shallow pants' pockets, we lost this guy last week.  We did have Worry Bear #1 as back up, but he just wasn't adequate.  Not squishy enough, not comforting enough...something wasn't right.  The loss of #2 was a little traumatic.

Yup.  You guessed it, I also spent several hours knitting worry bear #3.  This one is out of Rowan Pure Wool dk, a superwash yarn, and I stuffed it with Cheviot wool, so at least it won't felt if it ends up in the washing machine and dryer...again.

My mom said I might as well memorize the pattern, which was funny, because I make it up as I go along.  No two worry bears are alike.  Hmm.  I wonder if anyone else needs a worry bear pattern?

I also produced three challahs, 1 loaf of spelt bread, 1 banana chocolate chip loaf, and numerous other things for meals and snacks last week.  This travelling camp makes people ravenous, and packing twin healthy lunches and snacks takes a lot of time.

All this foodie and textile production--doing and redoing (my life story right now)-- hopefully lines us up for a smoother time this week.  No canning scheduled right now, because there are 5 medical appointments/tests scheduled for two of us (me and one twin) this week.  Six if you count next Monday.  Luckily, the Professor will manage a twin appointment or two so I don't have to do them all.

So, nothing deeply meaningful is happening over here...I squeeze in work where I can...but at the same time, every bottle canned, every fruit roll, every new worry bear produced? In some ways, I am taking ahold of traditional age-old women's tasks, (with significant help from the Professor) and making them new and full of love for folks in my household.  I'd argue that I do it differently, in a more feminist construct, but the love is love--it's not gendered.  It's the same, every time, no matter what we call it.

pears all around

Having a nephew(or any small relative) in neo-natal intensive care (NICU) is a lot like being on a roller coaster but the ride doesn't end and you can't get off. Every day there is a new report. Sometimes, it is cautiously optimistic. Sometimes, it is not. Recently, there has been a fever, a lumbar puncture, (he didn't have pneumonia or meningitis) and tons of tests. There are physical therapists and speech therapists, which sounds ridiculous, but if an infant lacks the muscle tone to swallow, suck, and gag, that baby can't feed normally. Some doctors say encouraging things while others say scary things. We continue to hope for the best but it can be hard to focus on "the best" while also hearing things about feeding tubes, tubes that help the kid breathe, IVs, etc. This is some serious stuff over here.

In an effort to keep my life as normal as possible while I am still at home, we went out to dinner last week and bumped into my friend who keeps Romney sheep. Hey, he says, I've got 3 pear trees in my sheep pasture...want to come pick pears? Sure, I say. After all, I need to keep busy, and while my work is busy, I've been needing to be even busier than that. If I'm very busy, I don't worry as much.

We picked a lot of enormous Bartlett pears. So many pears that after we gave away 2 plastic shopping bags to one friend, another bag to a second friend, the entire box pictured above and another bag to a local food pantry? After all that? I made:

9 cups of pear/tomato chutney

8 cups of pear vanilla jam

7 pints of pear honey (gloopy stuff with pears, sugar, pineapple, and lime)

4 sandwich bags stuffed full of dried pears

I still have a small-ish box of, say, 6-10 lbs of pears left to bring with me to Virginia, since my almost 3 year old nephew (new baby's big brother) loves pears. I think one could say it's been a good year for fruit around here... and it's amazing how canning requires all my attention. I get whole blocks of 2 hours or so when I don't worry as much...and for this reason? I'm really grateful for all these pears.

the dyeing

Yup, dy(e)ing comes right after the cannons post! Thanks, by the way, for all your suggestions and sympathy regarding Sally the dog and the scary loud noises. The best idea came from my uncle, modified by the professor. Pointer-sized ear muffs that deaden the sound. When those are produced commercially, y'all just let me know! I'm sure Sally will love wearing them! (hah!)

I've also heard from loyal readers that on Macs, some fonts are harder to read than others. I will try to remember that, but sometimes I alternate fonts to give my eyes a rest since I look at Times Roman all day long. (it's standard for my work stuff.)
Another informal tutorial:
On to the dyeing. I dyed some yarn. First, I weighed it. I had 8 oz of Icelandic singles, and 8 oz of bulky weight Romney-cross singles. I was aiming here for uneven yarn. Handspun's texture can make it very nice to work with-and it's not perfect because it's not from a machine. I can make perfect, but I usually just buy that in machinemade yarn.

Next, I immersed my yarn in a soapy water mixture. I used an old canning pot for this, because I am saving some of my Gray Water for our garden in this pot, since we've had such a bad drought. When the pot is full, I dump it on the garden and start again.

Next, I popped the 8 oz skeins into the dye, which is technically for 1 lb of material. I wanted rich and dark colors. I boosted absorption with 1 cup of white vinegar in each dyebath.

While it simmered, I ate lunch. Yes, in the same little kitchen. Many dyeing manuals prohibit things like this, saying to watch out for poisons in dye, etc. This is entirely true. It is one of the reasons why I don't dye with the more poisonious mordants (copper sulfate, for instance) or things that might spill and contaminate anything else. I generally enjoy these little solid packets of dye that dissolve in water and produce strong color without fuss. I do not use the water from the dyeing for my garden! For entertainment of the foodies who don't dye handspun, I ate:
leftover pasta, zebra and oxheart tomatoes, cucumbers from the farmer's market, marinated artichoke hearts and kalamata olives, along with a topping of fancy tinned tuna and a sprinkling of olive oil and lime juice.

It was good.

Next, I checked my pots, and to my complete surprise, the garnet red yarn's dye water ran completely clear. (this doesn't always happen.)

The mahogany dye wasn't clear, but the yarn was about the right shade. I took out the skeins of yarn, rinsed them, and spun them in the spin-cycle of the washing machine before hanging them up to dry.

I saved the rest of the mahogany dye and threw in a couple ounces each of white Romney cross roving and white alpaca. The colors I got there were stunning, but the photo just doesn't show it. The roving came out a deep brownish mauve, and the alpaca is a pinkish mauve, like the color of a gray-pink blossom. As you can see in this photo, I just can't catch those mauves well with my camera--I tried. I even adjusted the colors, but didn't work out!

Counter clockwise from bottom left--alpaca, Romney roving, Mahogany Icelandic singles, and Garnet Romney singles.

As you can see, dyeing isn't rocket science. We have enough science going on here that I'm very casual about my dyeing. Yes, I have special pots and a special wooden spoon just for dyeing. I wear an old flannel shirt of the professor's as a smock so I don't spill on my clothes. I put down newspaper or magazines to cover the counters so I don't spill dye and mark up the kitchen permanently. Otherwise? It's a fun afternoon of experimentation with vibrant color and vinegar odors in the kitchen.

PS: The follow up news about hate in our neighborhood is this:Leaders dismayed by recent signs of hatred Stream of graffiti aimed at Hispanics, Bosnians highlights cultural tensions felt across America

I'd like to celebrate the start of 5768 (the Jewish New Year) with a big sign in our yard that says "Hate is NOT an American Value..." but even the sign would draw negative attention. Please, everybody? Love your neighbors...and remember, unless you're a full-blooded native American? Your family were immigrants once, too. I know I may be preaching to the choir here but Oy. This scary and unkind stuff makes me so sad.

Getting their goat...

Here's my newest piece on the CBC:
Getting their goat: Manitoba Hydro could save money, energy with grazing animals

Other good news:
--My friends in Houston, mentioned in the last post, are ok.  Their home didn't flood and they are helping others whose homes have flooded.  I expect everyone in that area of the US will have some hair-raising stories to tell the rest of us.  (Perhaps more people will catch on to climate change now?  That it is a real thing?!)

--We picked some apples locally..but there weren't a lot this year because we had some bad caterpillar problems in the spring that ate many apple trees' blossoms and leaves. Thank you, Aurora Pizzeria, for letting us raid the unpicked apple trees in your patio garden!)

Yesterday, we drove out to Plum Ridge Farm, which is near Teulon, Manitoba.  (about 20 minutes from Gimli)  We came home with a lot of apples, plums, and cucumbers.  To give you an idea of how much?  Well, I've canned 14 pints of pickles (dills and bread & butter) today, about 9 lbs of cukes, but there is still maybe more than 5 lbs left.  We gave away two large bags of apples this morning, some crab apples last night and we still have so many that there is no room in the fridge for it all!  We've made some apple chips and applesauce already.  Chutney, frozen apple slices, and jams will happen too, I hope.

--Putting up food means there is more "fast food" off the shelf when it's cold this winter.  It's easy to make apple crumble, applesauce or pie when the apples are washed, cut up, and ready to go from the freezer.

--It's been hard to do any canning at all with two little boys home, but they will be starting Grade 1 at a new school on Wednesday.  Whew!  Very exciting stuff, but also, I know some guys are sort of nervous, too.  (I get that--I never slept before the first day of school either!)

--In an odd twist, I am not teaching at the Manitoba Fibre Festival this year.  I'd been scheduled to do one workshop, but not enough students signed up.  (too many spinning classes scheduled at once, perhaps?)  Anyhow, it ends up being a relief, because the Professor (aka, the twins' dad) is going to be away that week, so now I can just hang out with my guys.  I love teaching, don't get me wrong, but sometimes things just work out to make things easier, and I cannot complain about that!  Hopefully there will be other times to teach in the future...down the road.

Our air has been a bit smoky from fires burning in Northern Manitoba, and today, we've dodged a few thunderstorms, but we're all remarkably busy and cheerful, considering.  I will miss the warmth of summer but I'm also ready for little boys to be in school again. :)

It's also a little brisk...is it time to make and wear knits again soon?

 Pictured:
The Spire Smock (in Saffron)
Gigadistal (in Variegated blue/periwinkle)
Ploughed Acre Socks 

good and bad

The Good?: My friend Nic made me this fabulous tote bag and sent it to me as a housewarming present, complete with spiced nuts, granola, and other goodies. The strap is made of a fabric that I'd purchased for her as a small treat! Winnipeg is a place where everyone tries to bring bags for shopping. In fact, one is frequently charged per plastic bag if you forget your own cloth ones. This quilted work of art is so gorgeous that I haven't been able to bring myself to use it for groceries yet. I'll break it in soon, Nic. I promise.

The gelato is still marvelous. (Gelato is Italian ice cream or sorbet.) It is very good. Check out that link to Eva's Gelato and coffee bar in one of my last posts if you're interested. As it's right around the corner from our house, it's likely to be our favorite. :)

In other news, I've been knitting a mitten as a swatch for trying out a new yarn. I've been spinning a bit in the evenings, (gray Romney/Border Leicester Cross blended with gray mohair) and at least one of my wheels is spinning more smoothly than ever with a bit of oil and the jostling of a long distance move!

I've been trimming our hedge, canning up pickles and jam (12 pints dilly beans and dill pickles, 5.5 cups of Nanking cherry (from our yard!) and raspberry jam.

The Bad?:
Despite several phone calls to the appropriate authorities and every effort to make our cardboard conform to the local recycling requirements, we're still the infamous newcomers with the enormous tower of cardboard in the back lane. This is after 3 separate recycling days have come and gone. I'd like to say that I've stopped unpacking because the pile is so high, but sadly, I've just stopped unpacking because it's gotten sunny, I've gotten tired, and well,with the futon and beds set up, unpacking is getting less appealing. I'm thinking of making curtains today instead...or taking a walk. It's hard to stay inside in this sunshine!

(perhaps when it snows, we can use the cardboard for extra insulation and warmth? It may still be here...)

on to vacation...

It is very clearly time for me to go on holiday. Have a rest. Get away for a bit. Why? Today I've walked two dogs, gotten fresh corn ready for the freezer, done some work stuff, unpacked 3 large packing boxes, dealt with a small meltdown with the spouse, done laundry for the trip, including dodging rain showers to hang it outside...and it's just past lunch time. I'm pretty tired...and I've been on hyperdrive for so long with this move that it's hard to remember what normal feels like. Normal is, well, so far away that I've forgotten it. I've been in Winnipeg just a month. I've been packing, unpacking, travelling and moving things for about 4 months. I'm beat.


A couple of days ago, when I wasn't canning dilly beans or pickled cabbage, I washed a lot of handspun yarn to set twist and fulled some handknit mittens. (the mittens are plain old white wool, not that interesting.) The yarn, however? You may remember, I had some yarn I felt I must spin before I left Kentucky. It was oddly irrational. Well, I found that box, and I just started plying. Several skeins later, all the CVM yarn is plied. There's still one skein of Shetland left to ply, but it's been a nice slow transition into spinning in my new house. Here's some of the yarn--it's roughly fingering to sport weight, a 2 ply. I'm excited about it.

I promised a photo of the yarn I got at the Knit Out (held once a year, at a local park) yarn swap. I hadn't expected to come home with a thing, but this hopped into my arms without me realizing it. It's interesting stuff. On left, 2 skeins of ecoknit organic sage green cotton--stuff I enjoy knitting with and would have bought myself! In the middle, there's a lot of pink. That is a yarn called Lambada, a 50% cotton, 50% Viscose mix. The knitter/crocheter who did this made 80! flowers before getting bored and giving up with the project. I'm thrilled with it, I expect I'll use all her work and incorporate those flowers into whatever I knit or crochet. The "Boogie" box in the back is nearly a full box of white Viscose tape. Ideal for curtains, in my opinon, or a slinky top. (If you know me, I'll likely go for the curtains. Slinky isn't really my style.)

Now, I don't usually buy viscose. It's not all that environmentally friendly, and I'll explain a lot more about that in Knit Green, which will be coming out in just a month! However, free, secondhand yarn of any variety needs to be used. It was calling out to me to be used...re-using and revisioning something discarded is better than, well, discarding it. So, it came home with me. By knitting this, I'm not contributing to the production of viscose, and I'm not financially supporting it. I am, however, supporting the notion of a friendly yarn swap, and this was one of the best I've been too. Just wish I'd been able to get open enough boxes of stash to contribute! Maybe next year.

You may have noticed that I've put links to a variety of bookshops on the right side of the blog. I was encouraged by the powers that be to show that I support all bookshops, everywhere, (of course. I obviously support all books...) rather than showing preference to only one retailer. It would be just fantastic if you were to wander over there to one of those links (any book store is fine, really...no judgement call just now) and order a copy of Knit Green so it can arrive at your house hot off the press. commercial pitch now over...

In the meanwhile, I'm doing my best to plan for my trip, in the midst of acquiring dog licenses, (not) acquiring driver's licenses --a story for another time, and doing all the other myriad details of handling life in a new country. I'm pretty tired. Like Sally the dog demonstrates--we're pretty focused around here, and we've got a lot to point at and do. Sally, our resident pointer mix, does most of the pointing.

I'm going to focus, with the best of intentions, on resting a little more. In that vein, you may not hear from me for a while. (internet access will likely be thin on the ground as well on my trip.) I'll be back here in September, ready to take on lots of new adventures. Until then, imagine I am lollygagging in the sunshine. Resting. Trying to kick back and...relax. I may have forgotten how.

Note: Harry and Sally demonstrate--complete with gray sheep toy--how to take a break. It apparently can be done, even with highstrung bird dogs!

See you in a bit.... Take care.

Summer knitting

Some people don't knit in the summertime.  Weird, huh?  I am of the opinion that there is no bad time for knitting, and further--I live in Winnipeg.  Winter is always coming.  My twins have outgrown nearly all their mitts, and we're a family that wears double layered mitts when it's cold.  In the last month, I've done 2 pairs of kid mittens and am on to #3.  (I'm aiming for a minimum of 4 pairs of kid mitts, but maybe more, we need back ups)

The ones pictured here are based on an old Penny Straker pattern I have altered significantly but used for over 20 years!  This project started around the time we travelled to Virginia in late June.  I am now working on a stranded pair of The hole inside mitts, in green and orange. (Stranded = warmer)  At home, the mitten project happens solely when we are listening to audio books before bedtime.  We're currently having a binge: the Henry Huggins Audio Collection.  It's something like 15 hours of listening, all doled out 20 minutes at a time before twins go to bed.

I also had a little grocery store experience (oops) where I spent more than I meant to--I was feeling relaxed in the air conditioning...it got out of control.  Little did I know that the store also was looking to give away a lot of Canadian blueberries for free, and I ended up with 8 lbs of blueberries, free upon (big) purchase.  So, lots of frozen fruit, 10 cups of jam, fruit salad and crumble later, we're making progress on that front, too.  Like a bear, I'm preparing for winter hibernation.

I'm swatching up a new design project: I want to see if I can come up with a sweater pattern done in strips or sections that are easy to carry around.  I am currently knitting a top down cardigan and I'm on the second sleeve.  That thing is so heavy and hot there is no way I will bring it anywhere!  Hence the strip idea.
After a lot of cooking, canning and cranking out a couple of articles, I felt the need to sit outside, and yesterday, I actually took one of my spinning wheels outdoors, sat on the back porch, drank some iced coffee, did some spinning and read (using my Ipad) at the same time.  It seemed remarkably indulgent and delicious.

If you're a summertime knitter like me, did you know that:
A) I also sell patterns on Loveknitting?

B) Loveknitting is having a BIG SUMMER SALE?
(I get nothing from telling you about the sale--nothing but the feeling that I am helping out friends, right?!)
Happy Summer!  (We're having a really fine weather, mosquito-free one here)
PS: Yarn choices...
White mitts: my handspun, unknown medium wool odds and ends
Blue mitts: Patons Wool Worsted and a strand of Kroy sock yarn (please don't felt these,my twin who felts mitts)
Brown Swatch: Lopi Einband, naturally colored brown, knit doubled