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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

THE NEITHER HERE NOR THERE MONTH

April is a long month up here on the the tip of a peninsula.  It isn't truly spring but it isn't really winter.  It's a neither here nor there month.  Too cold and windy to go out and dig in the garden, but the blue, blue skies tease us and we have a bit of wanderlust.  Indoors we are waiting impatiently for the day when we can retire the heavy insulated draperies and rehang the crisp white Cape Cods.  What a difference that will make when once again the rooms are filled with sunlight.

When we were out, I noticed the white trilliums on the edge of the forest.  They are always a good indication that the elusive morel mushroom is lurking about.  When I was a child, mushroom picking was part of our family's spring  ritual.  The entire family went; parents, grandparents, children and even babies. My grandfather was the best hunter.  He said he could smell them, which I could never figure out, since the smelled just like plain old dirt to me.  At the end of the day, we would have several grocery sacks full.  When I see how expensive they are in the store, all I can think of is the thousands of dollars worth we picked in my childhood.  Once home with our bounty, my mother would fry them in butter and we would have them on toast for dinner.  The rest were frozen for use throughout the year.  Even as a child, there was great satisfaction in knowing that you had contributed in a small way to our family's  budget.

Now days, I buy my mushrooms from the mushroom farm.  They always have nice sackfuls for a good price.  We dehydrate them and pack in those vacuum packed packages.  Dehydrating and drying is something I plan to do more this year.  And less canning.  The peppers that I diced and dried are still better than any of the fresh peppers I can purchase at the grocers.  And the tomatoes taste just like they did fresh.  Plus the dried ones take up a lot less space.  A whole bushel full condensed down to a few canning jars.

Taking stock of the pantry is one of the April activities here at Sweet Briar Cottage.  There are some things that I've discovered are useless to can, like asparagus.  Asparagus is just one of those things that is to be enjoyed while in season.  Ditto for rhubarb.  A rhubarb pie in December just doesn't taste right.  Rhubarb and asparagus belong to the spring.  There are some things that I cannot can enough of.  Spaghetti sauce never lasts until we can make more, no matter how much I can.  And I've discovered that the chili that I experimented with when I was trying to use up the last of the peppers and tomatoes was a big hit.  I can it in pint sized jars and my husband loves it for a snack in the evening.  Why not?  With all it's tomatoes and peppers, it's a lot healthier then chips and dip. 

So that's it for the month of April here at our little abode.  Not much new to report.  I've been knitting lots of socks, using up my yarn stash, but they are just plain old socks and not really anything remarkable.  Everyone will be receiving a pair this Christmas.  Or maybe a couple pairs!  Next month brings gardening, and repainting the porch.  I'm thinking about doing a splatter pattern on the decking.  Always looking forward to what lies around the bend!

26 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed reading this today Jane...the socks - wonderful gift in my opinion :)
    m.

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    1. Well the at the pace I'm knitting them, I'll probably have enough to send to all my dear blogging friends come December, Maria! They are knitting up quickly since I have the pattern memorized. Hope you are have the nicest of days today!

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  2. Hi Jane. I love the changeable feel of April. Its weather is always so unpredictable and I find that fun. I have always loved wild weather. We have been rushing into the garden between downpours of rain to dig and plant but today its like November so we are staying firmly indoors. lily. xxx

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    1. Hi Lily! I guess that is a positive way to look at April. Right now it feels like a too long winter here. That's the problem with reading all my southern friends blogs. Their pictures of things blooming and sun shining makes us yearn for warmer weather too. But I guess we can always comfort ourselves with the knowledge that when they are melting from the heat, we'll have a nice cool breeze! And warmer weather will come eventually.

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  3. Hi Jane,

    How wonderful to meet a fellow Michigander! Although I am in the other penninsula (Central MI., between houghton Lk. & Clare). I have enjoyed reading your blog today and invite you over to http://theheartandhome.blogspot.com/

    ~Peace & Blessings In Jesus~
    Lisa

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    1. Hi Lisa! I'll certainly pop over for a visit. I know the area you are from very well. As a matter of fact the other day we were discussing the wonderful Doherty Hotel in Clare. We used to live in Midland and on special occasions we would go there for some.

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  4. We freeze everything around here--I've been thinking about doing more canning this year, lol! And dehydrating, although I haven't been too happy with the dried things I've tried so far. A friend told me I would never have success with my inexpensive little round dehydrator, that I needed one fo the bigger, "mac-daddy" ones to do well--but they are $400! I wondered if laying things out in the sun between layers of cheesecloth would work just as well, like they did in the Little House books.

    I have frozen tomatoes that I need to do something with, I've been thinking about thawing them and cooking them down and making spaghetti sauce, just to free up some freezer space.

    Glad to see that you care up and about!
    Charlene

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    1. Hi Charlene! I have an Excaliber dehydrator. It cost around $200 but it was well worth it for me, since I use it almost non-stop during the summer. For things that don't have a lot of moisture, like herbs, I put them in the bottom of my broiler pan and put them inside the car on a sunny day. Worked for peas too. The tomatoes I dry are a type grown for drying called Principe Borghese. Squeeze out all the juice and cut them into halve. They dry beautifully. Probably any thicker skinned smallish tomato would work. And they make dandy snacks too! We can never have enough spaghetti sauce around here! If I had to chose one food to eat for the rest of my life, that would be it.

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  5. Buttered mushrooms on toast? For some reason, that sounds like a strange dish to me, though I'm sure if your mother made it, it was quite delightful. I just don't know if I would like that too much. :)

    I've never done any canning or dehydrating. I live in Suburbia Land on a small (more like miniscule) plot of land, so this doesn't give one much room to do anything. I guess I've just lived in the city too long to know any better, sigh. :(

    I LOVE spaghetti! Do you have a sauce recipe that you would be willing to share with us? I've been looking for a good homemade sauce recipe. Maybe you can surprise me with one? :)

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    1. Ha Mara! What a different type of life I lead. Have to say that morel mushrooms are not my favorite. Much prefer the ordinary ones you can get in the grocery store. Growing up in the "peasant class", we ate a lot of wild foods. Venison and fish also. I will never understand what people see in smoked salmon. That was something that we ate only when we were really broke, As salmon were plentiful and anyone could catch one. We smoked them to make it palatable. I always think of salmon as scraping the bottom of the barrel, foodwise.

      The spaghetti sauce recipe I use is this: http://hopeandthrift.blogspot.com/2011/08/bounty-of-earth.html


      It's definitely not thrifty, unless you have a garden. But oh so good. Even my son's friend Matt that comes from a big Italian family of great cooks, says it is the best.

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  6. April in your part of the country sounds much like April in Vermont where we lived for many years. The urge to garden is awake, but it is foolish to indulge until the weather really warms.
    I'm doing a reassessment of our gardening/canning needs. I can see that we don't need the supply of canned things that were necessary when our children were at home. Also here, gardening gets going earlier and there is a longer season of fresh food.
    I think all hand-knitted goods are extra-ordinary as knitting is not one of my skills, so photos of your socks wouldn't go amiss.

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    1. I'm trying to figure out the canning needs too. Now that we don't eat meat, we don't have need for ketchup and pickles for burgers anymore. For some reason I always feel compelled to can everything I can get my hands on, just in case the economy goes crazy. But then there it sits on the shelves. I've given up trying unusual things in the garden and have gone back to just the basics, like tomatoes, peppers, onions, peas, beans and potatoes. We always grow too many cabbages,but they look so pretty all in a row. I have a dream of one day having the perfect Farmer MacGregor garden. So far by mid-summer I surrender that perfect vision.

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  7. ¸.º°❤
    °º✿ Olá, amiga!

    BOM FIM DE SEMANA!

    ¸.•°`
    °º✿ Beijinhos.
    º° ✿ ✿ Brasil

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    1. Olá Inez! É um pouco tarde para desejar um bom fim de semana, mas eu espero que você esteja tendo um lindo domingo!

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  8. I agree about Asparagus and Rhubarb belonging to the spring, I love enjoying seasonal produce. I love trillium flowers, I first learned about them at Outdoor school camp, and have always loved spotting them in the woods. We used to have them pop up at the edge of our little patch of woods, and I just think they are such a special little plant. Mushroom hunting sounds so interesting, I love mushrooms, but have always been afraid of gathering them, it is wonderful that the tradition was passed down to you. Drying produce sounds like such a great idea, I almost purchased a dehydrator last summer, but it wasn't in the budget, I would love to save up for one, dried food would be much easier for me to store than canned goods. Hope you are having a nice weekend!

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    1. Well you can do a lot of drying and dehydrating my car way or you can do it in the oven with the setting on very low, April. That's how we used to dry mushrooms before we got our dehydrator. I know what you mean about being afraid of picking mushrooms. I once picked a bunch of what I thought were Morels but my husband said they were false Morels. I often wonder how many bad mushrooms we must have eaten as a child. I don't remember anyone being too careful. Must have built up a resistance to them!

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  9. Plain old socks are my favorite! I hate to have a lot of texture on my feet.

    Anyway, we're having a weird April for our area. In March we were having 80 degree days, but we're now having nights as low as the 40's. In fact, it is cool today and I'm snuggled in under an afghan.

    I'd love to know more about what you dry. I won't be able to can anything this summer because I can't imagine having daughter handle all that, but the dehydrator is a different story.

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    1. I'll have to make a post on it Shara. Thanks for the suggestion! We dry everything from herbs to vegetables. Even corn, which makes a tasty snack! It's certainly been a cool spring here! Yesterday I had a fire while I watched the ball game. That's just wrong!

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  10. April zoet, geeft vaak een witte hoed = April sweet, sometimes give a white hat. So says a Dutch proverb. April is a month where it could freeze and thaw. We spent a week warm weather. the rest a lot of rain. Fruitful weather. There has been plowed, sown ...

    I love mushrooms!

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    1. A good proverb, Jedidja! Today we awoke to heavy frost. I'm trying to remind myself that it is beautiful. And it was way back in September!

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  11. Our teaser spring unfolded into the real thing this past week. JOY! Enjoy the planning stages... before you know it you will be up to your elbows in dirt! I can't help thinking of what a lucky family you have. Hand knit socks all around? And maybe twice? Wow.

    Blessings, Debbie

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    1. Joy, indeed! Hopefully some of that warmth with reach us. I need to keep repeating the mantra that well be thankful for this cool weather come August. Around here you better pick a winter coat that you love because you'll be wearing it for eight months! At least we can be thankful for the fact that we no longer need the winter boots. Ha!

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  12. Dearest Jane,

    You're making me drool, talking about mushrooms, asparagus, and rhubarb pie! We've had a ton of rain today and last night, so I'm thinking there will be mushrooms popping up all over the place (surely this will be the year we find morels!).

    I agree that drying is easier and better than canning, except for maybe applesauce. :)

    Love,

    Marqueta

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    1. Wish we lived close enough to share with you, Marqueta! Among other reasons. One rhubarb plant is enough, but because they always come in threes we have an abundance. And Ran planted so many asparagus plants, we can supply the entire neighborhood. We have the strangest little mushrooms popping up around here. I wish I was more knowledgeable about them. Been frightened of mushrooms ever since I picked a bunch of what I thought were morels and Ran informed me they were false morels and poisonous. BTW, thank you for the cute little button! Did you see it on the sidebar?

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  13. Hi Jane! It is so nice to hear that you are feeling better and knitting up a storm. Those fresh mushrooms sound heavenly! The family and I have been gone all week for a little vacation in Atlanta and got home late Saturday night. We sure had a lot of fun. We went to see the musical Les Miserable at the Fox Theater and spent a day at the Botantical gardens, and basically just relaxed. It was fun and refreshing to enjoy the sights of the big city for a few days, but I am glad to be back to my country home. :) I hope you have a great day ahead! Delisa ;)

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  14. Hi Delisa! I'm glad to hear that you were having a nice little vacation. Happy first day of May!

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