Can-Can

It’s the close of canning season, and I’ll spend the coming weekends combing my local Farmer’s Market for tomatoes and onions, sweet peppers and hot, all to cook up giant batches of tomato sauce and salsa to stash on my basement shelves for the coming year. This might seem an unusual pursuit—even a waste of time—when every grocery store offers jars of Prego for $2.00 on sale. It’s not half bad, either! However, I have a couple of reasons for investing my time in “putting up” summer’s bounty, the first of which is…

Sustainability

Spaghetti in December is a wonderful thing. With a loaf of crusty garlic bread, the saucy pasta dish is the ultimate in convenient comfort food. Every time I crack open a jar of Newman’s Own, though, I feel a pang of guilt for the perfectly usable glass jar I’ll be sending on its way to the local landfill after dinner. When I pour out a jar of home-canned sauce, on the other hand, I know that I’ll be loading it into the dishwasher to be used for next year’s produce. The only waste will be the tiny disc that seals it. How about chili? Here we have multiple cans made of strip-mined metals filled with diced tomatoes that I could have preserved myself fairly easily. Although recycling is a good option for those cans, reducing is a better one.

Another advantage is knowing that these yummy veggies came from local farmers . Besides all the advantages of small-scale farming, buying locally saves much in carbon emissions from cross-country shipping. If the item being shipped is not prepared sauce in jars but “fresh” tomatoes, I will be disappointed by their mealy texture and lack of flavor—secondary considerations to a business that naturally places emphasis on shipping endurance and shelf life, as Michael Pollan convincingly argues in his book In Defense of Food. And even though Smucker’s may be just as delicious, when I scoop out a dollop of homemade strawberry jam—made of strawberries from a local u-pick—I can’t help but smile as I think of my little nephew O’s face covered in red juice as he toddled among the rows of diminutive, abundant plants.

Which leads me to…

Connection

For all the persuasion of the practical considerations of canning, to me it just feels good. As I stir the steaming pot on the stove, I think of my Grandpa Earl in his overalls and white t-shirt, with his rectangular plot of tomatoes and peppers in the backyard and his rows upon rows of jars in the furnace room. I recall my Uncle Kenny’s enjoyment of my Damson plum jam the Saturday afternoon just weeks before he passed away, when he described to me the plum trees in Great-Grandma Kessner’s front yard in Concordia, and the jam she made from them, way back when. I even think of my dad teaching me to make my first dish, the inaptly-named egg-with-a-hole-in-the-middle (also known as eggs in baskets). In this way, I feel a sense of bittersweet continuity with my past as a daughter, niece and grand-daughter, as well as a human being with thousands of years of food preservation preceding me.

This summer, I taught Trevor to make peach jam. He is so proud of those golden-orange jars of peachy goodness.

Sweet.

Cabbage!

Cabbage, cabbage, cabbage...I've been getting pounds and pounds of it from the CSA. Trouble is, before this week I'd never in my life held a head of it in my hands for any reason. So, first on my very cabbage-filled agenda is cole slaw to take to the in-laws' for tonight's dinner. I'm using a recipe from my trusty old Betty Crocker cookbook. Next, I'll try canning some sauerkraut and chow-chow relish. I've never actually eaten either of these, but they sound crunchy and sour, so what's not to love? And for dinner one night this week, I plan to make "Golden Curried Cabbage, Chickpeas, and Couscous" (I usually base my recipe choices on alliterative value) from the fun cookbook Passionate Vegetarian, by a woman with the fantastic name of Crescent Dragonwagon.

My friend Allison told me last week about her favorite cabbage dish--fried cabbage. My first thought? EEWWW, gross! Turns out, this stuff is delicious! I like it so much, I've had it for lunch the past two days. Here's what I made from Allison's idea:

Fried Cabbage

1 strip bacon
butter
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 cup sliced vidalia onion
seasoned salt
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
freshly ground black pepper
1 egg

Fry the strip of bacon in a medium skillet. Let cool. Saute the cabbage and onion in the bacon grease over medium heat for 5 minutes, adding a little butter if necessary. Add the spices to taste and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes, or until tender and almost translucent. Add the egg and stir constantly for about 2 minutes, until egg is cooked.

Of course, this could be made vegetarian by omitting the bacon, or vegan by using a vegetable oil and omitting the egg.

Enjoy!

Yum

Homemade bread with homemade raspberry jam. Mmmm. I call it breakfast.

Bizness

Yesterday was a busy day! Running in the morning, strawberry picking with K & O in the afternoon, followed by a walk with Jimmy, a guitar lesson, AND tennis with bro K. Whew! Relaxation sounds good today, along with some jam-making.

Veg

Well, the CSA is forcing me to eat more veggies this year! I guess that was part of the plan. I have a refrigerator full of glorious herbage waiting for attention. I've especially enjoyed the multi-colored, farm-fresh eggs. They're as nice to look at as they are to eat.

Last weekend was our annual Memorial Day camping trip with the in-laws. We went to Bennett Spring for drunken charades and guitar-playing galore. Jimmy & I drove over to Ha-Ha Tonka--one of my favorite places, anywhere--for some hiking and a picnic Saturday. Some of the sights:




Back at camp, everyone napped and nephew O ate rocks. Hey, that's what camping's all about.

This weekend, I've taken up tennis. I've played AT tennis before, or anyway I've chased balls around and tried to hit them! Trevor's decided to go out for tennis this year, and he's been trying to get me to come play with him. So yesterday I did, and had a great time. We played three hot, sunburned hours with his friend T & my bro K. My kiddo was excessively pleased to beat his "old" momma almost every set. It was fun!

I also really enjoyed backing up my guitar teacher's grandpa's fiddle earlier this week. Playing music with other people is new, and scary, and wonderful. Anybody wanna play?

Garden Colors

This is a fun time at our new house. We moved last fall, so spring is bringing lots of surprises in the garden. A few of them so far...

Yes, one of these is a weed! A pretty one, though. We brought the columbine with us, but I've never seen it flower. I love it. So do the hummingbirds--hopefully we'll get some this year. This guy lives in our yard:

He loves to eat dandelions. Luckily for him, we have plenty!

This isn't from the garden, but Bristles is hard to resist. She's not sure what to think about those bubbles.

Birthday Blocks

Some blocks I made for nephew O:





I got the idea from a very creative website.

O turned one last Thursday, with the birthday shindig Friday night. We had a fun time, K & S--thanks!