Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
"George Shirley" wrote in message
.. .

snippage of a wonderful story


I fall in the midrange (48) and I didn't have a mom who cooked. I grew up
with the aunties cooking mass quantities and putting up some. I was never
invited as they felt the kids had no place in the kitchen. Thank God for
Aunty Mary, my next door neighbor and friend's mom. She worked full time as
did her husband and they had a 50 acre garden in the Piedmont Sandhills of
NC. She would grow and can anything and any extra pair of hands was
appreciated. She taught me rudementary cooking and some basic craft skills
(my mom was crafty but had no patience to teach it). I remember being the
'littlest kid' I had the job of intestine holder when they butchered the
hogs (hold the the intestines while boiling water is rinsed thru them to
remove the poo so the intestines can then be washed and used as sausage
casings)......for this I got to later (after washing my hands of course)
help mix the sausage meat.

Moved on, went to college, got married, had 1 kidlet, and started wondering
just how to cook. Bought a few cookbooks, remembered some of the aunties
doing certain things with certain items. Had a few more kidlests and
started to really wonder how to save money. By this time, we lived in
Philly, so I started a little garden in my back yard (13'x24' and that
includes the paved area with a clothesline - older neighbors smiled when I
hung out clothes, new ones asked about why I didn't use a dryer). Grew
tomatoes and peppers. Ate them as soon as they came off the vine.

Moved north of Philly and put in a little garden, not much to write home
about, but the squirrels and deer appreciate my efforts. Eldest son in
scouts at time and an older woman was canning one day when I had to drop off
something for the scout unit. I was intrigued. She invited me in and the
rest was history. She took me to a couple of 'pick your own' orchards
(sadly, now housing developements) and I got to pick what I wanted to can.
Now I rely on farmers' markets, but at least they were grown at someone's
home.

Then I discovered or shall I say, was discovered by Barb, the Queen of all
canning, and the rest is history. She initiated me into how to really become
a Ribbon Whore. I started canning and putting things in fairs, and the rest
is history.

So to the originator, Betty, and the instigator, Barb, I tip my hat.

I have discovered a website called the Urban Homemaker. They sell canning
items, tell stories and give general advice. To the more religious of the
lot, they teach a premise called the Titus 2 woman, where the younger are
taught skills to care for the older when they need it (referenced to the
book of Titus in the Bible). They actually have a syllabus on how to teach
young girls (and I add boys to the list, as my boys can cook, my girls -
forget it) the homemaking arts, from cooking, to canning, to bread making,
to sewing, homecrafts, etc. I am trying to encourage my church's youth
group to look into buying the syllabus, and I would try to gather up some of
the more seasoned ladies who remember how to do this and teach it. If we
don't try to teach the next generation, they will be looking in the pantry
after we're gone and ask where the pickles went to......

-ginny


You stirred my memory Ginny. My great grandmother lived with us for a
few years when I was a wee laddie. She taught me to knit, crochet, and
tat lace. Skills I have since lost for lack of doing it more often.
Learned to cook at my Dad's knee and his mother's side, she ran small
cafe's as she was widowed at about age 50 and still had two kids at home.

I had forgotten about clothes lines. I welded some two inch pipe
together into "Tees", put them in the ground and cemented them then
strung galvanized wire on them, four strands. Miz Anne had a clothes
line, which by the way, was all her parents ever had or mine. We lived
in an 8X49 mobile home on a half acre we owned, gardened on the adjacent
land which belonged to my Dad, fished in his pond, hunted squirrels and
rabbits on the same land and made ends meet until I got a really good
job with benefits. It's amazing what we will do to improve our way in
life when we have too. Sounds like you grew up in about the same way but
twenty years later than we did. Good thing you found the folks to teach
you, including Barb. She's been a big help over the years for all of us.
I think I've been reading this newsgroup since about 1992 but don't
really remember anymore.

George

"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...


Green vegetables really suck when canned, they turn to mush, and
a lot of the urban gardens don't let you put in cane berry crops or other
fruit crops like fruit trees, so what you can get out of an urban garden
isn't that useful for canning. And eventually you get sick of eating
tomatoes or derivative foods. And unless you can and put up enough
food to last for the year, home preserving becomes just a seasonal
thing.

I canned some green beans in 2005 and 2006 because I wanted to enter them in
the county fair. I wouldn't go so far as to say they sucked, but canning
isn't the best way to preserve them.

I'll take exception to what you say about the produce from urban gardens not
being that useful for canning. Tomatoes can very nicely and, more
importantly, can be the base for killer home preserved salsa. Then there's
pickles -- not just cucumbers, but dilly beans. And zucchini (the hardest
part of growing which is getting rid of the ones you don't want to eat,
freeze or pickle -- I swear you can stand and watch the zucchini fruits get
larger).

Carrots and cauliflower pickle nicely, too. One year I cut zucchini and
carrots into stips the right size to stand up in half-pint jars, and pickled
them. I nestled in a clove of garlic and a sprig of oregano, on the outside
where you could see them. Made a very pretty presentation, and the pickles
were yummy, too.

Anny

"George Shirley" wrote in message
.. .
Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
"George Shirley" wrote in message
.. .

snippage of a wonderful story

I had forgotten about clothes lines.

(more big snip)

hey!! I have a clothes line! I actually have 2!!! I used to fill the
original one and then have to wait for everything to dry before I could pull
it all down and fill it back up again. So I begged for another. Now I have
2 that are as long as we could get clothes line rope for. Everything goes
on the clothes lines. I'm known as the Laundry Queen in my neighbourhood -
I have a neighbour who tries to get her laundry out before I do every
Saturday morning - it has become a competition - she'll never win. ;-)

My grandmother loves my clothes lines. She told me the story of how she
used to open the bathroom window on the second floor of the 2 story house my
Dad (and his 5 siblings) grew up in, to lean out to hang the day's laundry -
all year round. This after hand washing everything and putting through the
ringer. Her hands tell the truer story.

I cook and bake all the time and my family appreciates it when I do. I've
been a stay at home mom for 10 years, but am now back at work full time, so
the baking is suffering a bit. Most of this year's preserving is done for
2007 - I have a few things in the freezer that I put there "for when I have
the time".

Much of what I do is because it's what my Mom did. I think my 2 girls will
learn by example. At least I hope so, for Holly (my 8 year old) will never
find a strawberry kiwi jam as good as what she's used to

Kathi

"Anny Middon" wrote in message
t...
"Ted Mittelstaedt" wrote in message
...


Green vegetables really suck when canned, they turn to mush, and
a lot of the urban gardens don't let you put in cane berry crops or
other
fruit crops like fruit trees, so what you can get out of an urban garden
isn't that useful for canning. And eventually you get sick of eating
tomatoes or derivative foods. And unless you can and put up enough
food to last for the year, home preserving becomes just a seasonal
thing.

I canned some green beans in 2005 and 2006 because I wanted to enter them
in
the county fair. I wouldn't go so far as to say they sucked, but canning
isn't the best way to preserve them.

I'll take exception to what you say about the produce from urban gardens
not
being that useful for canning. Tomatoes can very nicely and, more
importantly, can be the base for killer home preserved salsa.

I don't think we would go through 40 jars of salsa in a year, is the
problem.

Spaghetti sauce, possibly.

Then there's
pickles -- not just cucumbers, but dilly beans. And zucchini (the hardest
part of growing which is getting rid of the ones you don't want to eat,
freeze or pickle -- I swear you can stand and watch the zucchini fruits
get
larger).


You have to like them. I don't, my wife does. I can, she doesen't. We
don't have home canned pickles here. ;-)

Carrots and cauliflower pickle nicely, too. One year I cut zucchini and
carrots into stips the right size to stand up in half-pint jars, and
pickled
them. I nestled in a clove of garlic and a sprig of oregano, on the
outside
where you could see them. Made a very pretty presentation, and the
pickles
were yummy, too.


The kids go through raw carrots like they are going out of style. They
wouldn't touch cauliflower, though. What about freezing carrots? Does
that work?

Ted

Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
"George Shirley" wrote in message
.. .

snippage of a wonderful story


I fall in the midrange (48) and I didn't have a mom who cooked. I
grew up with the aunties cooking mass quantities and putting up some.
I was never invited as they felt the kids had no place in the
kitchen. Thank God for Aunty Mary, my next door neighbor and
friend's mom. She worked full time as did her husband and they had a
50 acre garden in the Piedmont Sandhills of NC. She would grow and
can anything and any extra pair of hands was appreciated. She taught
me rudementary cooking and some basic craft skills (my mom was crafty
but had no patience to teach it). I remember being the 'littlest
kid' I had the job of intestine holder when they butchered the hogs
(hold the the intestines while boiling water is rinsed thru them to
remove the poo so the intestines can then be washed and used as
sausage casings)......for this I got to later (after washing my hands
of course) help mix the sausage meat.
Moved on, went to college, got married, had 1 kidlet, and started
wondering just how to cook. Bought a few cookbooks, remembered some
of the aunties doing certain things with certain items. Had a few
more kidlests and started to really wonder how to save money. By
this time, we lived in Philly, so I started a little garden in my
back yard (13'x24' and that includes the paved area with a
clothesline - older neighbors smiled when I hung out clothes, new
ones asked about why I didn't use a dryer). Grew tomatoes and
peppers. Ate them as soon as they came off the vine.
Moved north of Philly and put in a little garden, not much to write
home about, but the squirrels and deer appreciate my efforts. Eldest
son in scouts at time and an older woman was canning one day when I
had to drop off something for the scout unit. I was intrigued. She
invited me in and the rest was history. She took me to a couple of
'pick your own' orchards (sadly, now housing developements) and I got
to pick what I wanted to can. Now I rely on farmers' markets, but at
least they were grown at someone's home.

Then I discovered or shall I say, was discovered by Barb, the Queen
of all canning, and the rest is history. She initiated me into how to
really become a Ribbon Whore. I started canning and putting things
in fairs, and the rest is history.

So to the originator, Betty, and the instigator, Barb, I tip my hat.

I have discovered a website called the Urban Homemaker. They sell
canning items, tell stories and give general advice. To the more
religious of the lot, they teach a premise called the Titus 2 woman,
where the younger are taught skills to care for the older when they
need it (referenced to the book of Titus in the Bible). They
actually have a syllabus on how to teach young girls (and I add boys
to the list, as my boys can cook, my girls - forget it) the
homemaking arts, from cooking, to canning, to bread making, to
sewing, homecrafts, etc. I am trying to encourage my church's youth
group to look into buying the syllabus, and I would try to gather up
some of the more seasoned ladies who remember how to do this and
teach it. If we don't try to teach the next generation, they will
be looking in the pantry after we're gone and ask where the pickles
went to......

I am enjoying this thread so much))
Thank you Ginny

Kathi Jones wrote:
"George Shirley" wrote in message
.. .
Virginia Tadrzynski wrote:
"George Shirley" wrote in message
.. .

snippage of a wonderful story

I had forgotten about clothes lines.

(more big snip)

hey!! I have a clothes line! I actually have 2!!! I used to fill
the original one and then have to wait for everything to dry before I
could pull it all down and fill it back up again. So I begged for
another. Now I have 2 that are as long as we could get clothes line
rope for. Everything goes on the clothes lines. I'm known as the
Laundry Queen in my neighbourhood - I have a neighbour who tries to
get her laundry out before I do every Saturday morning - it has
become a competition - she'll never win. ;-)
My grandmother loves my clothes lines. She told me the story of how
she used to open the bathroom window on the second floor of the 2
story house my Dad (and his 5 siblings) grew up in, to lean out to
hang the day's laundry - all year round. This after hand washing
everything and putting through the ringer. Her hands tell the truer
story.
I cook and bake all the time and my family appreciates it when I do. I've
been a stay at home mom for 10 years, but am now back at work
full time, so the baking is suffering a bit. Most of this year's
preserving is done for 2007 - I have a few things in the freezer that
I put there "for when I have the time".

Much of what I do is because it's what my Mom did. I think my 2
girls will learn by example. At least I hope so, for Holly (my 8
year old) will never find a strawberry kiwi jam as good as what she's
used to

Wonderful Kathi))

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

The kids go through raw carrots like they are going out of style. They
wouldn't touch cauliflower, though. What about freezing carrots? Does
that work?

Not for eating raw. They get mealy and limpish when they thaw.

B/