Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Sunday harvest…..
Having a pretty lazy Sunday at home – though I did manage an hour of work in the garden this morning where I pulled up some beets, a 5-pound cabbage, a fennel bulb, some beans and 2 cucumbers. This in addition to the half-dozen squash I’ve picked this week.
Show-off. More crochet.
I’m baking zucchini cake and chocolate-zucchini loaf at the moment in a desperate attempt to use up some of the plentiful summer squash that has come out of our back garden. (Tomorrow I’m going to have to find a use for my giant cabbage that is over-due for picking). While waiting for the baking to come out of the oven I had time to post this latest crochet project – a hat and scarf set for fall!
This is my first crocheted hat, and the scarf was an addition because I had a lot of the green yarn leftover. Merino wool and silk blend – it’s really soft and the hat adheres very well.I wasn’t sure if this was a look I could pull off but really, it’s turned out very cute and I can hardly wait to don it with a pair of jeans and my black fall jacket.
Canning report for 2011
Thanks to B’s willingness to count jars, for once we have an accurate record of all that we canned this year – a hell of a lot! Now that it’s all away in the basement I can breathe a sigh of relief that the big work is done for another year.
So the haul? Here’s what we got going on:
Cherries – 9 quarts
Strawberry-Rhubarb jam – 7 half-pints
Cherry Pie filling – 13 pints
Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie filling – 5 pints
Pickled Red Cabbage – 5 half-pints
Tomatoes – 30 quarts
Tomato salsa – 18 half-pints
Roasted Roma Tomatoes – 9 pints
Dill Pickles – 12 pints + 7 quarts
Pickled Beans – 12 pints
Pickled Jalapenos – 3 half-pints
Peach salsa – 7 pints + 2 half-pints
Brandied Apricot-Cherry sauce – 7 half-pints + 2 pints
Victoria sauce – 6 half-pints
Apricots – 20 pints
Tomato sauce – 4 quarts + 8 pints
Corn selish – 6 pints + 2 half-pints
Apple-Maple jam – 7 half-pints
Apple Pie filling – 2 quarts + 3 pints
Pickled Beets – 3 quarts + 25 pints
Mincemeat – 3 quarts + 3 pints
Peach-Apple jam – 15 half-pints
Zucchini relish – 12 half-pints
If you think that sounds kindof insane – I tend to agree – but some of that is for trading and some is for giving away so I have no worries about getting through it. It was a hell of a lot of work, however, and I’m not sure I want to do as much next year (150 pounds of tomatoes!). Having said that, it’s gratifying to have so much food to put away for winter.
Next project…..
On my way to meet friends for post-work drinks yesterday – after picking up my new student transit pass (!) – I happened through DressSew and found this lovely jacquard for only $7 per metre. The photo does not do this piece justice as it is very subtly shaded and stamped with light floral outlines that give it a remarkable variegated shimmer. Being a mid-weight fabric, it calls out to be turned into outerwear and since I own no autumn jackets beyond my (somewhat ratty) jean jacket, I afforded myself 3 metres and this Burda lined jacket pattern. I haven’t bought the lining yet, but I’m partial to finding something in green rather than the expected black.
Before I get onto this, however, I’ve got a plaid jumper all cut out and waiting to be sewn. I’m aiming to work on it a little tonight and finish on the weekend so I can get on to other autumn wear.
Visions of future schools
He said that all the new universities would consist of only one small room. It would work this way. At the beginning of each semester the entire student body—which would have to number at least five hundred thousand in order to give the computers enough to do—would assemble in a large open space in front of a TV camera. They would be televised and put on videotape. In a separate operation the instructors would also be videotaped, individually. Then two TV sets would be placed in the single room which represented the university. The room would be in a small blockhouse at the edge of a thirty-six-lane freeway; this proximity would help facilitate transmission of electronic equipment. Oh, there might be some banners on the wall and maybe a plaque or two, but aside from these the only things in the room would be the TV sets. At nine o’clock in the morning of the first day of classes, a computer would turn on the two television sets, which would be facing each other. The videotape of the students would then watch the videotape of the instructors. Eventually the system could be refined so that there would be only one university in the whole country.
-Don DeLillo, Americana
Red Cedar 