On 5/1/2014 11:00 AM, bluechick wrote:
> Hello, everyone!
>
> I have been a long-time lurker but haven't posted on usenet in ages. I
> feel like I know many of you, having read your helpful posts for such
> a long time.
Welcome, always glad to see a lurker come out of the shadows and post.
>
> I've been preserving since 1981, watched it being done even before
> that, and was lucky enough to marry into a family with lots of canning
> experience. Like anything, one has to keep up with the times and
> study new techniques which I've been doing all along.

We were luckier than you, of course we're probably a lot older too. We
both started canning at about 8 years of age, that would be the late
forties and have kept it up through nearly 54 years of marriage. Alas,
our children are to busy with careers to do any preserving other than
freezing a few things. We are now teaching one of our grandsons how to
grow and preserve his own food. Was by there yesterday and he has a
grand idea to quadruple his raised bed gardens and to start more gardens
along his back fence. With two active boys I hope he is lucky with that.
>
> We moved to our new home almost two years ago, with several acres for
> gardens and orchards. We brought several scions of our huge Celeste
> fig (I still miss "Mama Fig") and our entire grove of blueberries to
> the new place. We added a couple of LSU Purples to our Celestes. Most
> of the fruit trees were unscathed in the last freak cold snap in
> February that took us down to 11 deg. F. A few of the Celestes and
> one LSU were frozen to the ground but re-sprouted from the bottom. All
> of our planted blueberries (almost every type of rabbiteye you can
> think of) made it just fine and some are loaded with berries. The
> rest are loaded with blooms. The dwarf container blueberries,
> Jellybean and Peach Sorbet, are new to us and live on the deck.
> They're loaded with berries and I look forward to seeing how they
> taste. Sure are cute! They overwintered in the house with our citrus
> trees (Meyer Lemons, Hamlin & Washington oranges, and a key lime).
> I've already used the Meyers in a few pies and have frozen some zest -
> we'll see how it holds up. I hope we'll have enough this year to make
> jam exclusively from our own berries.

It will be two years in December that we have been in this new house,
your property got bigger, ours got much smaller. Our previous place was
a large house on nearly 14,000 square feet; this one is a large house on
6500 square feet. I reckon it is enough to keep two people in their
mid-seventies busy though. I do miss all our fruit trees we had in
Louisiana. Here we have a small Celeste, planted last year, has baby
figs on it now; a Meiwa kumquat tree that is about four feet tall and
gave us probably a quart of kumquats last fall. This spring it got frost
bit so will be awhile before fruit shows up. Same thing happened to the
Tennousi pear tree in the front yard, bloomed, got a late frost, no fruit.

We have raised beds that equal four feet wide by 32 feet long. I'm
hoping to add another four by sixteen this fall, makes the mowing turn
into a weed eater job. In addition we have 66 feet by two feet running
along two fence lines with a mix of vegetables, herbs, and flowers in
those two. We also have colorful veggies growing in a flower bed out
front, mostly Swiss chard and bright colored kale and four Barbados
dwarf cherry plants. If the Homeowners Assn would allow it I would plant
fruit trees all in the front of the house.
>
> We are fortunate to have hundreds of blackberry and dewberry plants
> all over the property and all are in full bloom (George, I am envious
> that blackberry season is already upon you there!) We planted some
> this year in an area protected from deer - Kiowi and a thornless
> variety called Arapaho. The best jelly I ever made was with last
> year's blackberries and dewberries with a wee bit of Chambord thrown
> in. Barb, are you around? That one was inspired by one of your
> recipes. People were fighting for it, as well as some Blueberry
> Orange Preserves with a splash of Grand Marnier. Can't buy that at
> the grocery store!
Alas, both types are small and seedy this spring, not enough rain.
Stopped along a local road this morning on the way to the library and
scanned about four acres of mixed dewberry and blackberry, to small, to
seedy. Two ladies with a small boy were picking some and told us they
had to hunt to find good berries. No rain in sight now for at least
another week. I just checked the canning pantry and we only have eleven
pints of blackberry jam and jelly left. It's off to the berry farm soon.
>
> We've planted tomatoes in the veggie garden already and some stuff in
> the herb garden and hope that we have as wonderful a bounty as we did
> last year. We have many quarts of last year's tomatoes in the pantry
> and lots of dried herbs I was able to dehydrate.
>
> We worked hard last year to make raised beds for everything (we live
> in central Alabama; if you dig down more than 3 inches you'll hit
> rock) but it makes the results that much sweeter. Preserving your own
> veggies and fruits is so satisfying, isn't it? With all the rain
> we've had this weird spring, I hope we'll have good luck this year.
Huh, would swap our clay for your rocks, the clay is impenetrable, water
runs off the grass, which has about an inch of sand on top of the clay.
We have to dig holes four feet deep and across to set out fruit trees
and then amend the soil with vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. During
a heavy rain we worry about the trees floating out. There is five feet
of compacted clay and sand under our property. It does get us out of
paying the gubmint for flood insurance.
>
> Sorry to have written a book but I thought it best to get the intros
> and background out of the way. I hope traffic picks up in this
> newsgroup now that the growing and preserving season is at hand for
> some of us, just starting for others and is on the horizon for the
> rest. Let's hope wintery weather is TRULY out of the forecast for
> awhile.
>
It certainly is here although last night it got down to 48F and hasn't
risen about 70 yet this afternoon. Writing a book is a good intro. I
don't expect the newsgroup to grow much, not many young people are
interested in doing the things we enjoy. I'm getting ready to post a
note on the HOA website offering to teach home gardening and preserving,
in hopes of getting more converts. Keep letting us know what is
happening. I think I've been on this newsgroup since about 1990 and have
watched it lose people all that time.

George