Friday, August 17, 2007

Pickle Problems....

So my dearest M-in-L let me know a couple of days ago that pickle canning season is here, and emailed me the recipe. She also emailed me the recipe for canning peaches. Yum Yum! This made me very excited, because not only do I feel bad about raiding her pickles & peaches every time I see her and rationing myself (and other J), but I really want to can. I think it's a very valuable skill that most people in my generation (and my m-in-l's) have forgotten. So if I want to learn to be more self-sufficient, then canning has to be at the top!

Anyways.... so I went to go get pickles last night. First of all, I only have 1 big pot with a lid (besides my canner)- and this is a problem with big batches of things. So after work I went to get one from a second hand store, but the 3 stores I went to had NONE! I was frazzled by that, because I thought a big pot would be the least of my worries. No, it was just the start. So that took about an hour of my time.... and I finally get up to Safeway, but they didn't have pickling cucumbers! Nor did they have Freestone peaches! I was pissed! So I called Save-on-Foods, and yes, they had what I was looking for- and to boot, they're on sale! Hurray! Problem solved.

Except getting home. As I said, I take the bus. Save-on-Foods is 2 buses away, and if I'm lugging 20 pounds of pickles and peaches (each) the bus is not an option. So I called to see how much a cab would be.... and it's $20! What! That is just not cost effective.

Needless to say, I didn't do the canning I wanted to last night. And by the time I got home after work it was after 7. *tear* And I don't really have time this weekend, seeing as that it's the last weekend before we move... and I haven't started packing... ooops. (Also another problem is getting moving boxes when I don't have a car!)

Ugh. I'm not very happy about all this.

But I will have pickles and peaches somehow. And hopefully they're not from m-in-l's cellar.

4 comments:

Karenee said...

LOL DH gets this magazine that you'd probably love. "Backwoods Home" (It's really funny because he breaks out in hives spending time in the country. Total city guy.) Anyhow... he read an article on canning (see, I'm on topic here!) and says, "Why don't YOU ever can?"

Now, little does he know it's on the list of accomplishments I'd LOVE to master, but until I manage the ordinary stuff it's not happening. *grin*

Yay for you! If you get it down pat before the kids come along, you'll probably still do it once they arrive.

{{{hugs}}} on the frustrating shopping. May it turn out well after all.

Jen said...

haha, thanks Karen! Yea, I definitely want to master some homemaker skills pre-kids, so maybe I'll be prepared. Maybe. But probably not.

And I think all may turn out well, because Joel has offered to pick up the cukes on his way home (he works over by Save-on-Foods, which has the cukes). Hopefully! :D

momdonna said...

yeah for canning season, boo hoo on the mess it makes. I think i'm going to do tomatoes this year. I'm out and grandma doesn't have time to do them since they are tearing apart the house. Let me know how your pickles work out.

Valerie Comer said...

Yay for pickles and peaches. You're well on your way hon (two phone calls later :P)