Winter doldrums...Jelly and Jam making time at my house

[aftermidnight]

You guys are a hoot, I can't remember when I've laughed this much, careful now it doesn't take much to lead me astray. @Nyboy DS#2 has 10 acres just outside Victoria in Metchosin, he's retired Navy but works each winter up north on the ice roads that service the diamond mines.

The 49th goes through the little town of Ladysmith or is said to, just 10 minutes south of us by car.
We used to go across the border quite often, mostly to go out to dinner with friends in Seattle but now you need a passport to get into the states and neither DH or I have one, so those days are gone forever, the urge to leave home has become less and less over the last few years.
Annette

 

[digitS']

You must live very close to Nanaimo!

Almost straight across the inlet was where my grandfather's family (and MaryGold's) lived, having moved from eastern Canada. Somewhere north of Vancouver "on the way towards Garibaldi Park" but where, I don't know.

He and my grandmother moved waay south from here to Bluebird Canyon in Laguna Beach. Back in BC, he lived in his advanced years in Hope ... but most of us do .

Annette, since we now have 10 more minutes of daylight than on the solstice, you must be pining for sunlight.

Just to point out, since it is leap year we get an extra day of winter!!!

Of course, this was vetoed by the Canadian government.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Hey! I was born several degrees south of the 40th parallel, in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Mom had Cousin MaryGold who lived in Victoria. My grandfather was Canadian so maybe we could get you thru immigration ...

By the way @thistlebloom , Victoria is south of 49°.

Steve

Thank you, you're right.

Victoria's latitude is 48.4284...
My towns latitude is 47.9461... Pretty much in the same boat.

 

[aftermidnight]

@digitS' , your sleuthing powers have found me out Nanaimo it is, south Nanaimo to be precise. I was born here and spent most of my life here.

 

[baymule]

@aftermidnight I hereby formally adopt you and make you a gen-yoo-wine REDNECK!!!

And to make it even better, I hereby make you an honorary TEXAN!!
Life just doesn't get any better than this.

if you suddenly get an uncontrollable urge to s... p... e... a.... k... s...l...o...w...l...y...... then the southerner just showed up in yoo......

 

[aftermidnight]

Just made my second batch of strawberry jam, got the berries about month ago at a farm down island, wouldn't you know it I ended up laid up once again but I did manage to get them washed and cut up and in the freezer in correct amounts for single batches of jam. So today I finally got around to making the jam. We love freezer raspberry jam, still have enough for another year in the freezer so called daughter to come and pick our raspberries as we don't need them this year. I still have bags of raspberries in the freezer so I think I'll make syrup with those. The only thing is, Hubby doesn't like freezer strawberry jam so I make the cooked version but then once cool I put it in freezer containers and freeze it, you'd be surprised how much longer it keeps that just made fresh taste by freezing it. Another thing checked off my things to do, not allowed to do much of anything for another month so the weeds are getting higher, and higher, and higher.
Beans are looking good tho, very thankful of the rain we've had, haven't had to drag the hose around more than once or twice. It seems although engulfed in weeds everything is coming along just fine, fingers crossed.
Annette

 

[baymule]

@aftermidnight everybody makes a big deal out of weeds. Some keep their gardens cleaner than their house. Some mow the rows to cut the weeds down-and everything in between. So what if you have to part the weeds to find your produce, if you have produce to pick then you have a successful garden.

Aren't jams and jellies delicious? My husband and I picked wild plums on a fencerow. I made jelly and it is sooooo good!

 

[Ridgerunner]

That's my task tomorrow, see how much jam and jelly I can make. I've got strawberries, blueberries, mulberries, dandelions, and blackberries in the freezer and the wife is gone so I have the kitchen to myself. The strawberries are a definite, I want to get that made. I haven't decided on the others. Probably mulberry. The tree is still producing so if it doesn't set I can pick more. And probably the dandelion jelly to see if it sets. I use Bay's recipe for the dandelion jelly and you know how things from Texan can be.

About a month and a half ago my garden was really clean. Then I left for a week to see my grandkids and as soon as I got back it stayed wet for a week so I couldn't do anything. And berries got ripe and needed to be picked. And beets, carrots, chard, and kale needed to be canned or frozen. And some cockerels needed to go in the freezer (I did six today). And grass needed to be cut. I haven't caught back up yet. I spent two hours after supper tonight pulling grass taller than the black eyes peas out of them. I got them clean but now the peas are laying down. The grass was holding them up. They should be OK though, they usually lay down on the job. They are bush and I don't trellis them.

It is what it is. I'll never get some of it clean the rest of this year.

 

[aftermidnight]

Well I got it done, collected up all the bags of frozen raspberries and made raspberry syrup today, by the time I had finished I had a dutch oven full of really yummy syrup, once it cooled I put in in small containers and froze it, I expect half of it will eventually make it over to my daughter. She's coming over every couple of days to pick raspberries as we don't need them for ourselves this year.
Digging around in the freezer DH unearthed a huge bag of tomatoes from last fall so it looks like I'll be making a big pot of spaghetti sauce tomorrow, this will go in the freezer too. With everything else I'll be adding to it I should get 5 or 6 container of sauce.
I'd love to get hold of some peaches later on, love, love, love, home canned peaches but can't abide canned peaches from the store, what the hell happened to those over the years. They used to be pretty good but now when you open a can you get these hard slimy things. Cream corn is about the only canned veggie I buy and lately even that is disappointing, full of cob not very appetizing. I'm sure glad I can still grow a few veggies and what I don't we buy from a little farm not far from us.
Bought a cantaloupe from the supermarket yesterday, it looked and felt ripe but when I cut into it the flesh was as hard as a rock and tasteless. I have a couple of plants in but if we don't have a warm enough summer they won't amount to anything. Enough whining for now.
Annette

 

[Nyboy]

Same thing with cantaloupe happen last night. It looked so good when cut, yet had no taste and was rock hard