I've been following the Weather Channel coverage of the weather in the Carribean. My mantra is "I love Oregon." Yes, we have bad weather. Yes, someday we may get hit with "The Big One." (earthquake or reawakened volcano). But, this threat is measured in decades or centuries. Three hurricanes in almost as many weeks? Sorry, warm winters are not worth it in this child's book.
Talked about canning last time. Gravensteins may make good sauce but, I found out one fall that they are not a good choice for say, apple butter. Gravensteins are very juicy and you add apple cider to the butter while it's cooking. Then you have to cook it down. I spent the better part of a day cooking that batch of juice down. It was awfully good though.
Our house in Oakridge had an old fasioned laundry sink. Double sink, I think is was cement and it had a built in washboard. Our washer was an open tub with a wringer. You filled the sinks with water and processed the laundry from sink to sink. My grandmother could pop buttons with the best of them and dad joked that she could shrink a house if she put her mind to it. You can imagine what happened to his "woolies" if we weren't careful. Anyway these sinks were great for canning. I poked a lot of cucumbers for pickles and shucked a lot of corn into those sinks.
Anyway, all those goodies came in handy during the winter. Loggers missed a lot of time in the winter because of the weather. I didn't know until much later but some years my folks had about $50.00 left in December after the bills were paid at the first of the month. We still had a lot of fun at Christmas. We made a lot of stuff. If we could just get everybody together for the Holiday was worth a lot. Maybe worth the most. :-)
Talked about canning last time. Gravensteins may make good sauce but, I found out one fall that they are not a good choice for say, apple butter. Gravensteins are very juicy and you add apple cider to the butter while it's cooking. Then you have to cook it down. I spent the better part of a day cooking that batch of juice down. It was awfully good though.
Our house in Oakridge had an old fasioned laundry sink. Double sink, I think is was cement and it had a built in washboard. Our washer was an open tub with a wringer. You filled the sinks with water and processed the laundry from sink to sink. My grandmother could pop buttons with the best of them and dad joked that she could shrink a house if she put her mind to it. You can imagine what happened to his "woolies" if we weren't careful. Anyway these sinks were great for canning. I poked a lot of cucumbers for pickles and shucked a lot of corn into those sinks.
Anyway, all those goodies came in handy during the winter. Loggers missed a lot of time in the winter because of the weather. I didn't know until much later but some years my folks had about $50.00 left in December after the bills were paid at the first of the month. We still had a lot of fun at Christmas. We made a lot of stuff. If we could just get everybody together for the Holiday was worth a lot. Maybe worth the most. :-)
2 comments:
My sister's daughter-in-law (the one that lives in my folks' old house) does a lot of canning, and she is quite good at it. Makes decent pickles, and good pickled beans. I have never canned a damn thing in my life. Made and froze a couple batches of apple sauce in my time, but canning just seems like too much HASSLE. Lisa :-]
Sounds like a great home. :-) ---Robbie
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