i was going to have my slice of incidental intelligence today be about the things that are getting lost- at least in my world-- like how to can preserves for the winter and how to make jelly.
my paternal grandmother was a good cook-- her chicken and gravy was real before there was monosodiumgultamate to make your mouth water... she fed 5 kids-off a farm- sent them to school in a pony cart---and " did up" preserves to get thru the winter-- no supermarket full then... i suspect my mother became such a good cook to outdo her mother-in-law's constant presence in the kitchen. my father had a "farm equipment" business -- tractors and such-- very often/constantly/ farmers paid him in bushels of produce-- which meant mother had to deal - it was wartime- you didn't waste anything. and we had a "victory garden"- we ate well.
you also didn't have a freezer-- so mother hired a "box" in newburgh's commercial freezer company.. we peeled and she boiled and packaged corn, peas and lima beans in little white sears roebuck bags which we then took to the commercial freezer about 4 miles away where we put on someone's old overcoat to go in and find our box and leave-- or retrieve these bags. i must have been very little because the coats were huge.
more fun was the relish and jam production which she kept in our preserve closet-in the cellar all neatly labeled/with the date. lotsa strawberry jam and some blackrasberry-- that we had picked... there were carrots and potatoes in sand too.
this is going somewhere.. be patient....
when my 2 sisters and i broke up my parents house-- we picked things to keep--- i chose to keep mother recipie file- and back when i was raising kids, i used it-- and ...believe it or not... i canned and froze much the same way.
then i learned that restaurants did all that for you , and gave the file to my daughter gwen.. who-- being the intelectual that she is decided to make jam--followed all the written directions-- and it tasted wonderful, but pectin or not... the consistancy was more like syrup..-- luckily i remembered "something my mother said" about needing a huge pot so the simmering jam was only an inch or so deep to give it plenty of room to bubble.. that fixed teh syrupy jam problem....
it is those kind of bits of incidental intelligrnce that is not going from this generation to the next...
they figure they don't need it to feed themselves????
but they might...
as a new englander i worry....--- i know there are very few bridges over the Hudson River between me and the source of my lima beans...
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everybody tells me janine stories i never get to hear-- now...i find they are ON FACEBOOK...----her "day 4 of my vacation " IS A story of rescuing horses and donkeys out of the slaughter pens in nj and penna, she has been writing - as i do- the normal things that happen to people like us.... like chasing a wild donkey around when you have no rope so your bra becomes the rope. training wanda to remain motionless in a laundry basket as she gets into motels that don't have sheets with 1000 thread count... i guess you get to it by facebook and then janine jacques and " day 4.. "..Things just happen to her... so she wrote about htem.
ALSO HER REFERENCE TO "PARROTT EQUINE VET" --IS BRIAN-- THE VET I CALL ON TO SAVE US WITH EQUINES...
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I STILL DON'T KONW WHAT PART OF THIS RESCUE STORY IS ABOUT TO LANDHERE--SOMEHOW SHE FOUND A HOME FOR THEMOM WITH THE BABY WITH DEFORMED LEGS.. I THINK.. SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE ARE GETTING.. LET ME TELLHER VERY CLEARLY... THERE ARE ONES NOT LEAVING... LIKE MAUDE AND POCKETS... I AM A ILTTLE WORRIED ABOUT WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO WITH BUDDY-- A FREIND OF HERS HAS HIM AND IS SUPPOSED TO BE HALTER BREAKING HIM SO WE CAN TAKE HIM IN TH E PICKUP TO PEASE AS A GREETER.. I HAVE SEEN NO PROGRESS.
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STAY TUNED..
