If you missed buying the Special Edition blue jars last fall/winter,
you have another chance--this year they are green (and just as
expensive.) And pectin never went on sale here, ~$3 per package.

gloria p

gloria p wrote:
>
> If you missed buying the Special Edition blue jars last fall/winter,
> you have another chance--this year they are green (and just as
> expensive.) And pectin never went on sale here, ~$3 per package.

we saw some of those in passing at one of the
stores. they were not cheaper than regular jars
so we couldn't figure out why we'd get them.
i'm sure some folks get them for collecting
purposes or just for the color. i'd get them if
they were on sale for less than the jars we
usually get.

liquid pectin here is very expensive at the
local small market ($4-5/pkg of two 3oz pouches),
but if we go to the larger store it is much more
reasonable. i won't be using any until the
strawberries start to come in this summer (if we
have a good crop).

i haven't yet done enough with pectin to look
online or to make my own (from green apples or
crab apples). if i were really into making
jellies i'd be scouting that is for sure. at
prices where it is so much to put up things as
it costs to just buy them premade it is not a
good situation. i'm hoping with the recent
harvest that prices will return to more
reasonable. we had a pretty good apple crop
this year, so maybe the prices will fall... or
at least i can hope.

what have you been making?


songbird

On 1/24/2014 8:39 PM, songbird wrote:
> gloria p wrote:
>>
>> If you missed buying the Special Edition blue jars last fall/winter,
>> you have another chance--this year they are green (and just as
>> expensive.) And pectin never went on sale here, ~$3 per package.
>
> we saw some of those in passing at one of the
> stores. they were not cheaper than regular jars
> so we couldn't figure out why we'd get them.
> i'm sure some folks get them for collecting
> purposes or just for the color. i'd get them if
> they were on sale for less than the jars we
> usually get.
>
> liquid pectin here is very expensive at the
> local small market ($4-5/pkg of two 3oz pouches),
> but if we go to the larger store it is much more
> reasonable. i won't be using any until the
> strawberries start to come in this summer (if we
> have a good crop).
>
> i haven't yet done enough with pectin to look
> online or to make my own (from green apples or
> crab apples). if i were really into making
> jellies i'd be scouting that is for sure. at
> prices where it is so much to put up things as
> it costs to just buy them premade it is not a
> good situation. i'm hoping with the recent
> harvest that prices will return to more
> reasonable. we had a pretty good apple crop
> this year, so maybe the prices will fall... or
> at least i can hope.
>
> what have you been making?
>
>
> songbird
>
Here in SE Texas we've been trying to stay warm. Temps in the low
thirties, high twenties last two or three days. Ice, hail, and snow,
things that are just not what we are used to. Lots of car wrecks, people
stuck on over passes in a sliding vehicle, emergency response folks
working overtime and the two of us old people huddling over a warm dawg.

Supposed to start getting a mite warmer today. Now I know what people in
northern climes go through and I want no part of it. All the delicate
plants are snoozing under old sheets, blankets, plastic table clothes,
etc. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli doing well and the lettuce is
still good. Spring peas are gone in the cold. Got the kumquat tree
swathed in warm clothing, fig is hardy and will be okay as is the pear
tree. Y'all Yanqui's can have that cold stuff.

George

On Sat, 25 Jan 2014 07:48:21 -0600, George Shirley >
wrote:

>On 1/24/2014 8:39 PM, songbird wrote:
>> gloria p wrote:
>>>
>>> If you missed buying the Special Edition blue jars last fall/winter,
>>> you have another chance--this year they are green (and just as
>>> expensive.) And pectin never went on sale here, ~$3 per package.
>>
>> we saw some of those in passing at one of the
>> stores. they were not cheaper than regular jars
>> so we couldn't figure out why we'd get them.
>> i'm sure some folks get them for collecting
>> purposes or just for the color. i'd get them if
>> they were on sale for less than the jars we
>> usually get.
>>
>> liquid pectin here is very expensive at the
>> local small market ($4-5/pkg of two 3oz pouches),
>> but if we go to the larger store it is much more
>> reasonable. i won't be using any until the
>> strawberries start to come in this summer (if we
>> have a good crop).
>>
>> i haven't yet done enough with pectin to look
>> online or to make my own (from green apples or
>> crab apples). if i were really into making
>> jellies i'd be scouting that is for sure. at
>> prices where it is so much to put up things as
>> it costs to just buy them premade it is not a
>> good situation. i'm hoping with the recent
>> harvest that prices will return to more
>> reasonable. we had a pretty good apple crop
>> this year, so maybe the prices will fall... or
>> at least i can hope.
>>
>> what have you been making?
>>
>>
>> songbird
>>
>Here in SE Texas we've been trying to stay warm. Temps in the low
>thirties, high twenties last two or three days. Ice, hail, and snow,
>things that are just not what we are used to. Lots of car wrecks, people
>stuck on over passes in a sliding vehicle, emergency response folks
>working overtime and the two of us old people huddling over a warm dawg.
>
>Supposed to start getting a mite warmer today. Now I know what people in
>northern climes go through and I want no part of it. All the delicate
>plants are snoozing under old sheets, blankets, plastic table clothes,
>etc. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli doing well and the lettuce is
>still good. Spring peas are gone in the cold. Got the kumquat tree
>swathed in warm clothing, fig is hardy and will be okay as is the pear
>tree. Y'all Yanqui's can have that cold stuff.
>
>George

Here in Piedmont NC it is also very cold. We have had some -10°
morning temps and 30° in the afternoon. No nasty precipitation so
far. Getting to and from the water exercise class at 7:45am is not
fun. Good thing I enjoy the class.

Monday it got up to 54° and I got out and cleaned the dead material
out of the herb box. I also started 144 onion seeds in the
greenhouse. There are days when I think I will spend the day in the
greenhouse. As soon as the sun comes up it starts to warm up. Can
get up to 80+° in the afternoon.

I need to sort out my jars. Since I have been tossing stuff that is
old and we don't use, I have lots of empties. Guess I will set a
bunch aside for my son who is into gardening and preserving. I am
getting more realistic about what and how much to grow and preserve.
When we first moved here 10 years ago we grew everything we had not
had room for before. I swore that I only got out of the house twice
in August 2006 except to go to the grocery store. I think that was
the year I had 100 tomato plants and assorted other stuff.

Think I will see if any of the seed have sprouted.

--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

On Sat, 25 Jan 2014 07:48:21 -0600, George Shirley >
wrote:

>>
>Here in SE Texas we've been trying to stay warm. Temps in the low
>thirties, high twenties last two or three days. Ice, hail, and snow,
>things that are just not what we are used to. Lots of car wrecks, people
>stuck on over passes in a sliding vehicle, emergency response folks
>working overtime and the two of us old people huddling over a warm dawg.
>
>Supposed to start getting a mite warmer today. Now I know what people in
>northern climes go through and I want no part of it. All the delicate
>plants are snoozing under old sheets, blankets, plastic table clothes,
>etc. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli doing well and the lettuce is
>still good. Spring peas are gone in the cold. Got the kumquat tree
>swathed in warm clothing, fig is hardy and will be okay as is the pear
>tree. Y'all Yanqui's can have that cold stuff.
>
>George

We've had more than our fill up here too, George!
We live on a hilltop with an unobstructed view to the West for miles
and blizzard conditions this past Thursday and Friday left us with way
too much of the white stuff!
We use a wood stove as our main heat source, with a propane stove
backup.
I'm glad we got an early propane fill last week because if we'd needed
one now the driver would have a problem finding the tank.
I spent about 3-1/2 hours yesterday with the snowblower clearing the
laneway but didn't even attempt to clear a path to the 500 gallon
propane tank.
http://tinypic.com/r/2vsp6c7/5

Ross
Ross.
Southern Ontario, Canada

George Shirley wrote:
....
> Here in SE Texas we've been trying to stay warm. Temps in the low
> thirties, high twenties last two or three days. Ice, hail, and snow,
> things that are just not what we are used to. Lots of car wrecks, people
> stuck on over passes in a sliding vehicle, emergency response folks
> working overtime and the two of us old people huddling over a warm dawg.
>
> Supposed to start getting a mite warmer today. Now I know what people in
> northern climes go through and I want no part of it. All the delicate
> plants are snoozing under old sheets, blankets, plastic table clothes,
> etc. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli doing well and the lettuce is
> still good. Spring peas are gone in the cold. Got the kumquat tree
> swathed in warm clothing, fig is hardy and will be okay as is the pear
> tree. Y'all Yanqui's can have that cold stuff.

i'm pretty sure mid-westerners don't consider
ourselves yanks, but anyways... yes, keep warm and
i sure hope the trees/plants come through ok. remember
the phrase three-dog-night.

my few years of living in the south told me that
when the ice/snow came to stay off the roads. i
knew how to drive, but pretty much everyone else
didn't.

this has not been a wimpy winter like the past
few. temperatures running 20-30F below average.
blankets and a comfy roost are nice to have. the
sun, when it peeks out once in a while, is very
welcome too.


songbird

On 1/26/2014 12:54 PM, Ross@home wrote:
> On Sat, 25 Jan 2014 07:48:21 -0600, George Shirley >
> wrote:
>
>>>
>> Here in SE Texas we've been trying to stay warm. Temps in the low
>> thirties, high twenties last two or three days. Ice, hail, and snow,
>> things that are just not what we are used to. Lots of car wrecks, people
>> stuck on over passes in a sliding vehicle, emergency response folks
>> working overtime and the two of us old people huddling over a warm dawg.
>>
>> Supposed to start getting a mite warmer today. Now I know what people in
>> northern climes go through and I want no part of it. All the delicate
>> plants are snoozing under old sheets, blankets, plastic table clothes,
>> etc. Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli doing well and the lettuce is
>> still good. Spring peas are gone in the cold. Got the kumquat tree
>> swathed in warm clothing, fig is hardy and will be okay as is the pear
>> tree. Y'all Yanqui's can have that cold stuff.
>>
>> George
>
> We've had more than our fill up here too, George!
> We live on a hilltop with an unobstructed view to the West for miles
> and blizzard conditions this past Thursday and Friday left us with way
> too much of the white stuff!
> We use a wood stove as our main heat source, with a propane stove
> backup.
> I'm glad we got an early propane fill last week because if we'd needed
> one now the driver would have a problem finding the tank.
> I spent about 3-1/2 hours yesterday with the snowblower clearing the
> laneway but didn't even attempt to clear a path to the 500 gallon
> propane tank.
> http://tinypic.com/r/2vsp6c7/5
>
> Ross
> Ross.
> Southern Ontario, Canada
>
When I was a boy we had 1000 gallon butane tank in the backyard to cook
with and to heat the house with space heaters. Some years later it was
switched to propane and, finally, the natural gas provider hooked us up
off the natural gas pipeline that ran just behind our ten-acre plat.
Several years later they ran natural gas throughout the neighborhood
that grew up from turning 400 acres of rice field into a suburb.

We used roast walnuts and pecans on the frame of the old gas heaters
that were in each room of that old house. Drove by the other day and our
family houses were still standing, my parents, my grandmother's house,
my sisters house and our old house, all standing still. We started
building there in 1949 and the house Miz Anne and I built in 1965 was
still going strong. Everything modern now, no deep water wells or gas
tanks, several hundred houses in that area that, once upon a time, was
mostly farmland and tree farms, most of that was pine. At least my kids
got a taste of that rural life before they grew up and moved on.

I got enough snow and ice to last me when I was stationed on the US East
Coast in the late fifties, not to mention flights to Iceland, Thule, and
parts of northern Canada. I even went through an Arctic survival course
in Alaska, enjoyed it at the time but would not like to do it again.
It's good to hear from you Ross, stay warm.

George

On 2014-01-23 16:53:34 +0000, gloria p said:

> If you missed buying the Special Edition blue jars last fall/winter,
> you have another chance--this year they are green (and just as
> expensive.) And pectin never went on sale here, ~$3 per package.
>
> gloria p

End of season, those blue ones could be had for about $7/case of 12.
Buying them online is, I think, crazy.

--
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

On 2014-01-25 02:39:39 +0000, songbird said:
>
> what have you been making?

Spaghetti sauce. And eating it for supper tonight. Not processed. '-)
>
>
> songbird


--
--
Barb
www.barbschaller.com, last update April 2013

Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>songbird said:
>>
>> what have you been making?
>
> Spaghetti sauce. And eating it for supper tonight. Not processed. '-)

sounds yummy! we're due for some of that here.
gallons of it. scary good. often we freeze some
for a few rounds later.


songbird