The Fruits of our Labor and a Good Use of Space
The sun has finally come out and with it a nice soft breeze; a perfect day to hang clothes up on the line, which is just what I have done. More leaves were moved from under the big maple out front to the berry patch–this time the rosehips and the raspberries. If this nice weather holds out tomorrow I’ll work on the blackberry patch and the cranberries. Then that will be just about done, which will be fine with me. By this time of year I am ready to slow down a bit with a good book and a cup of tea.
There’s a pot of chili on the stove, which consists of boiled red kidney beans stirred in with a jar of beef bone stock, a jar of chili base (bone stock, hot and sweet peppers, celery, tomatoes, and chili powder) and a jar of canned ground beef. All this will simmer away the afternoon while I work on other projects (such as writing this) and be ready for supper sometime after five. Which works out well, because apparently Hannah is gracing us with a performance at her school tonight. So, we have to have her there by six. That should be no problem at all with dinner done around five–another reason I love the Fall/Winter months–you get to enjoy all the fruit of that Spring/Summer labor.
For example, today I ate a blueberry muffin. Did I have to get up before the birds this morning to acquire said blueberries? No. I did that in July. Now, I just have to open the freezer and there they are. Splendid.
Not that I don’t go shopping. I do. I did. Just yesterday, in fact.
And the store I went to is all filled to the brim with good things for Thanksgiving. There are boxes of ready-to-make stuffing mixes, jelled cranberries, and canned pumpkins. And, of course, turkeys, all lined up as frozen as can be. I’ve been told the cost of turkeys is outlandish this year. I don’t know. I didn’t check.
There were lots of people with their carts filled to the brim of all the possibilities. You know, the just in cases. Just in case they run out of turkeys. Just in case there is no jellied cranberry slices. Just in case you have to live without the frizzled onions on your green bean casserole. I suppose that is one of the beautiful things about this kind of life. What isn’t in the store doesn’t affect you much. Now, I’m not saying there wouldn’t be adjustments. The tacos would be lacking sour cream for a bit, but isn’t that where substitutions come in? Who knows, maybe we’d find something we like even better than sour cream. Unlikely, but possible.
One of my friends told me they were preparing for this whole ‘wheat shortage thing’ by stocking their freezer with loaves of bread. I didn’t say anything. What’s the point? Someone that dependent on others would just look at you strange. But here. Let me go over what I should have said:
- There are more things made with wheat than just bread. 2. Bread takes up a lot of real estate in your freezer–I mean, how much could you possibly fit in there–enough for a month? 3. What if the power goes out–what’s happening to all that bread? and 4. Have you ever thought of maybe, I don’t know, buying wheat, you know, in case of a wheat shortage? It takes up a lot less room than prepared bread, and you don’t have to freeze it and you could make your own bread and lots of other things that have wheat in them, AND (here’s where I get a bit crazy) since, technically, wheat is a seed, you could plant that wheat and grow more, you know, if you needed to.
But no. I said none of that. Like I said, I’ve had one too many people look at me strange to risk it again. But as for me and my family? Yes. We bought the wheat (Which will come in mighty handy should I decide to make some rolls to go with that chili tonight).
