Darienne

I will never again...oh yes I will...hold several bunches of wild grapes in my left hand while cutting just one more with scissors in my right hand...and...cut right into the index finger of my left hand with said scissors. I believe I mentioned proprioception already in another post this morning. So now I have a right hand recovering from surgery (and not as well as I would like for sure) and a finger in my left hand hurting because I tried to cut into it. Oh well, the blood is the same color as the grape juice pretty well. Just kidding...there's no blood in the grape jelly.

We went out and picked some more wild grapes last night. That's a week later than the first bunch. Wow! The grapes were all blue in the area we found. Almost no green ones. But then there are still completely green bunches in some places on the trail. I guess it's sort of like tomatoes ripening. I have two questions: 1. Our kitchen counters are 25 years old and not in very good condition any more. They are inexpensive Formica and we are faced with either pleasing ourselves and replacing them now in our final years on the farm and then having to replace them anyway to sell the farm...we can have little idea of how long we'll be able to cope...or just living with the increasingly not-loveliness of it all and then replacing them. We are pushing the end of our existence here...I guess. So....in the interim, the counters are currently getting splashed, dripped on, etc, with staining grape juices. I keep cleaning them off, using Comet to erase the stains, (that's Canadian Comet which still contains the ingredient now absent in the USA version). Should I just leave the stains until this foray is over and then do them once? Or will the stains set in over the next two weeks and not be removable? 2. I've never given away anything like jelly which is "preserved" and presumably not needing cold storage. I don't know anyone off this forum who does any more. And I'm terrified about poisoning someone. I'm not very proprioceptive and fear I'll somehow contaminate the process. How serious is it if someone eats jelly with 'bad things' in it? Can you die? I can't get a straight answer on Google yet. Thanks for the help. Darienne

Three sets of jars filled. And each set bringing a new small chaos to be dealt with as I struggle to learn a new skill. Thanks again, @teonzo. And yesterday Ed halved and peeled 5 pounds of cooking onions and I sent them through the food processor slicer (thanks, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome for having me learn all the incredible things my food processor will do that I always did by hand like a Luddite). I am always stunned by how small an amount is collected from how large an amount after the liquid is all gone. And now neighbors come to collect grapes and soon it will be apples we start working on. And then other neighbors will come and collect apples...ones who don't want to make grape jelly. And in the meantime, hordes of cherries...no I don't know what kind...are left for the birds. ps. I am of course not thanking teonzo for the chaos, but rather for the sound advice. The chaos is mine alone.

Wow! Thanks tremendously. With all the information about how to do this and that, I felt as if I were drowning in it, trying to pick one to follow, and now your post. I'm going to follow it. If I change later how I do it, well that's fine too. (That's what I always advise folks about changing their dogs' diets to raw. Don't drown in research and be stymied by the contradictions. Just pick one that sounds decent. Follow it. And then later...)

There's long range preserving and canning and pickling and so on...and then there's short range preserving of one's sanity when one's husband, who is a dear and does the grocery shopping now so as I can survive with a calm demeanor and bearable amounts of energy, comes home with 10 pounds of cooking onions, and 10 pounds of parsnips and 10 pounds of carrots and a huge cauliflower and a huge bunch of broccoli and four gigantic colored peppers and 4 ears of corn whilst one is already immersed, nay mired, in making wild grape jelly and apple cider, sauce and leather....AND...all the time one is recovering from a not very good hand repair (so far. We live in hope.). Ed is downstairs in his studio peeling and chopping and cutting and slicing while I deal with what comes upstairs in a variety of fashions.

I've heard contrary to the dishwasher sterilizing method...that it's just not hot enough for long enough. And then you'd have to trust that your dishwasher was still in its prime.

Sterilizing virgin wants to know: (Now I did sterilize my babies' milk bottles but that was more than 54 years ago) I've never made anything and sterilized it in a mason jar. Last year I made grape jelly and put all of it in the freezer. This year I have been gifted with many small mason jars and lids and more wild grapes than anyone could dream of (next we have to de-vine our land or be taken over by the wild grapes) and am determined to do the right thing by it and give much away. (If you live near east central Ontario, pm me and feel free to come and collect.) I've read about sterilizing jars and lids in water and in the oven. Which is the easiest and safest for an old novice klutz to use? Thanks for any advice.

I'm still gasping at the prices even before translating them into Canadian funds.

It's been over 3 hours. When do we find the answer to the mystery of Elsie and her husband?

We once drove through Las Vegas on the way to see my parents in San Diego. 1985 or so. It was 5:30 am...it was so hot that we simply drove all night. We stopped for gas and I was stunned to see slot machines in a gas bar being played at that hour. I'm sorry now that we didn't at least drive down the main streets and look at the hotels and casinos. Not my kind of place either.

You would have to wonder about the incredible waste. Coupling that to AnnaN's experience in the hospital recently. Think of the number of folks who could eat on the food just tossed out.

Thank you @Toliver. We both loved it.

Just found this long forgotten thread. So much fun to reread posts I put up so many years ago. A friend, in return for access to our incredible crop of wild grapes, gave me more tomatillos than I can imagine using in the rest of my life. They are husked, washed (with vinegar added...great idea), drying on two cookie sheets in the garage and then tomorrow they either go into the freezer or are roasted to use up to take up less room in our freezers which are on their way to fall fullness. Wait till the apples finish ripening in a couple of weeks. We have another bumper crop like two years ago. Oh, it's a busy fall season this year. Added: of course the tomatillos are destined for chile verde, my go-to recipe given to me years ago by the wonderful @andiesenji. I have the Poblanos...still available in one store only in our nearby city...and now will buy the jalapenos.

Our surfeit is a week or two away. Tasted a Mac yesterday...it's still got a way to go. And haven't tried to Spys. Don't have all that many of them anyway...the tree is dying I think. But then there are the other apple trees all over the farm. Right now we are working with the wild grapes. With the apples we make cider and sauce and dried slices mainly. It's a lot of work.

Where are the icons for 'terrifying', 'furious', 'appalled' and so on? Is there no end to this? Apparently not.

Sorry. I didn't bother to read it. Pumpkin spice is not any part of my life, except if I were to make a pumpkin pie. Our dogs have canned pumpkin every now and then but without spice of course.

Gosh, and if you read further, you'll find a defense of same. Twofer.

And I just saw a new one for today for Quebec. Seems like one of the best reasons for not eating prepared food.

Good point. Puts me in mind of a real Montreal bagel. Good for 24 hours and then forget it.

And we've had it that way twice, from two different sources, one source very well-to-do and what I would call fussy about their food, and while I love a good olive oil and basil and tomato...I still found the inclusion of that cheese less than delightful. Way less than delightful. Sorry, I guess I am just a Philistine at heart.

I don't understand. I've never claimed to be sophisticated in my choice of foods to eat...but I just don't get fresh Mozzarella (and I have tasted the 'best' also). Both Ed and I find it tasteless...as in having no taste at all. Is this unusual?

Of course, the coffee pot. We always take one with us. And coffee from home because we never know when we will arrive where. And motels have terrible coffee usually. And our own mugs. And a plug in cooler. But then we travel in a full-sized Ford window van with a platform which Ed built which sits high enough from the van floor to store full size Rubbermaid containers. Allows the dogs to look out the windows.

Don't eat shellfish of any kind. And I also don't eat steak or much red meat for that matter. My vegetarian Mother gave me a steak for supper almost every night of my life, broiled to shoe leather. That did it for me. The paediatrician refused to take care of me unless she fed me meat. Oh yes, did I eat meat. Until the day I got married...

Fascinating. Always something new to learn. Thanks.

I've never tasted a Key lime for real. I don't think we get them in Ontario...well, we don't get them in Peterborough for sure. The orange sounds promising also. Next thing I know, some eGer from Toronto is going to announce that they can buy Key Limes...