The Damsel in Dis Dress
Posted in Uncategorized, preserving on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 07:23 pm GMT -6
Get ready for a SERIOUSLY old-school skill. When you make jam or jelly, you need something to make it jell. Most folks use commercial pectin–a product extracted from fruit–usually powdered (although liquid pectin is available). But. BUT. What if it was doomsday and there was no pectin in the stores? WHAT WOULD WE DO????? The [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, preserving on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 06:41 pm GMT -6
Freezing raspberries is as easy as kindergarten. The Damsel would like to gently insist that you flash freeze your raspberry treasure. Do it this way: 1. Wash the berries. This means put them into a strainer and rinse well with cold water. 2. Let them drain a bit. 3. Spread them out in a single [...]
Posted in preserving on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 09:42 am GMT -6
There’s been a whole lotta grape pickin’ going on at the Damsel’s place. This is a funny picture, because it looks like the Damsel is tightly clutching a bunch of grapes, about to yank them off the vine. That would be a silly way to pick grapes because of smashage and droppage. Rather, she is [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, preserving on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 11:23 am GMT -6
The Damsel doesn’t understand why, but the people at her cottage are pickled-beet crazy. Big, little, young, old, they all love them. What can this mean? The only thing the Damsel likes about beets is that they are sort of purple. Even so, she pickles the little devils for the rest of the weirdos in [...]
Posted in preserving on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 06:58 pm GMT -6
Remember the Damsel asked y’all to give a shoutout to her brother-in-law, who is taking cancer treatments? She’s happy to let you know he’s finished with those and is doing well. He mailed the Damsel a big, heavy box. To her surprise, inside was two GINORMOUS sunflower heads. He’d grown them himself. She pictured they’d [...]
Posted in preserving on Monday, October 12th, 2009 11:14 am GMT -6
The Damsel is having one of those weeks. Sprog #3 is getting ready to leave for a church mission, so things are hectic at the cottage by the mountains. The Damsel considered proclaiming it an Old School holiday, but then her darling sister came to the rescue with another brilliant guest post: I’ve been a [...]
Posted in preserving on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 12:34 pm GMT -6
Today’s lesson is easy as kindergarten. If you have a lot of peppers in your garden, or even have an extra you bought at the store, you can freeze them as easy as pepper pie. The Damsel wondered if this basket might be a “peck” of unpickled peppers. A little research reveals: peck (pk) a [...]
Posted in preserving on Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 07:30 pm GMT -6
Guess you can tell what time of year it is here at the Damsel’s cottage, with all the preserving, etc. posts. The end of summer, the harvest season. So what about freezing tomatoes? Does that work? It actually works quite well, the main drawback being limited freezer space. And, of course, the possibility that your [...]
Posted in preserving on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 02:04 pm GMT -6
Drying tomatoes is a Damsel-approved method of preserving tomatoes for eating later. She likes doing it because: No slaving over hot stoves, as opposed to canning. No peeling. Takes up way, way less storage space. The end product is very versatile. To dry tomatoes, you need only tomatoes and a heat source. Yes, you can [...]
Posted in preserving on Friday, August 21st, 2009 08:53 pm GMT -6
The Damsel made her first batch of salsa for the year today. There’ll be more. The Damsel would like to inform you that canning salsa isn’t tricky. The skill level is similar to boiling water. But it ain’t for sissies, either. It takes a while. There’s a good bit of working on your feet, and [...]
