Is this it for 2022?

It may only be mid-August, but my canning season only has one more round to go. Yesterday I processed twenty-five pounds of pears, which equates to twenty-three pints on the shelf. In a few weeks, I want to make applesauce and then I'm finished with big projects for this summer. Anything else I decide to do will be a small batch and not for longer-term storage in the pantry such as soups to be consumed this winter. 

Twenty-three pints of pears is a lot of pears. We enjoy them but not every day. I think it will be three years until I need to process pears again. We could simply buy canned pears, but our home canned pears don't have any additives or preservatives with names we can't pronounce, and that's important to us. 

I learned another lesson yesterday, too. I need to break down a big job into two days. I started peeling at 9:00 AM or so, and didn't take the last batch out of the canner until almost 5:00 PM. That's a long day spent on one's feet, but very worth the effort. Needless to say, I have more modest plans for today. 

This session used the last of the regular mouth pint jars I have on hand. I'm not sure if I want to get more or not. I have a Presto 23-quart canner and can stack pints when pressure canning. I've found that the wide-mouth pints are just a hair shorter and stack better. I may be better off transitioning to those when buying pints. The availability of either type of jar will probably be the deciding factor, though.  

I will also note that all twenty-three jars sealed. I've heard/seen a lot of people on YouTube complaining about Ball lids this summer. So many of the home food preservationists have jumped on the Forjars bandwagon, and why not? Forjars is sponsoring a lot of those channels, which means they're getting some advertising money from them. Unlike some, I was able to create a nice stockpile of Ball lids at the end of the 2021 canning season, so those need to be used first. I'm willing to give Forjars a try as my stash dwindles, but it won't be with sponsorship. 

Also of note, putting the rings on the jars "finger tight" doesn't work with water bath canning. The rings need to be a bit snugger. Getting that worked out may be another reason my seals are good. Putting the rings on just finger tight with the water bath method can mean the lid isn't tight enough to keep water out and that ruins the headspace in the jar and creates seal failure. We live and we learn.

It's time to get the pear jars washed, labeled, and on the shelf. I do enjoy looking at the part of my pantry that is all filled Mason jars, but being able to make a meal from what I've preserved is even better. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, canned pears, home food preservation, pantry prep, preservative-free, a writer's life, country living, rural lifestyle, modern homestead, retirement, 

Scary things - a blank June calendar

The spousal unit and I share a Google calendar entitled, "What's For Dinner." Supposedly, it's to be used by both of us but he never seems to add anything. I use it to loosely plan meals so I can grocery shop more efficiently. Now that I'm retired, it's even more important to 1) have a plan and 2) stick to the plan. I'm far from destitute, but wasting money and food isn't something anyone should embrace. 

So here we are at June 1, 2022, and there is nothing on the WFD calendar. No hints. No suggestions. No clues as to what the man will eat or wants to eat. 

Damn it.

I'm going to take this as a carte blanche to start to eat the way I want to eat for the next month. 

Oh, yeah. It's going to get scary - for HIM. 

For me  - it's a chance to dive deep into the pantry and rotate some stock. I'm going to start with the oldest items in the freezer and go from there. This may actually be fun! What better way to kick off my retirement than spending time assessing the items in my pantry? 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, meal planning, simple country pleasures, What's For Dinner, calendars, organization, pantry prep, rural lifestyle, marriage, retirement, panty planning, organization

The first rose of 2022

Life has taken on a surreal feel. With only four more working days left at the day job, I can't decide if I'm excited or dreading the loss of so much structure in my life. As someone who has been gainfully employed for fifty years, I may have been brainwashed, or at the very least brain-trained, to believe regimented days are a good thing.

Nope. That's not it. I simply want the next four days over and done with so I can finally, finally, finally move on and get on with "retirement." I have a set of lists, you see.

There's a list, actually a spreadsheet, for outside work, inside work, tractor work, gardening work, pantry work, equipment maintenance, and items to improve the humans in the house. I do so love a good spreadsheet when the cells get filled in with the color of completion! 

But there's one thing I can't put on a spreadsheet: remembering to take the time to slow down and enjoy the fruits of all my labor. 

Yesterday, late afternoon, the sky darkened and a front swept through bringing rain showers. The spousal unit and I had gone in different directions puttering at small tasks, and the rain sent us inside to the television. I glanced out the front window and noticed the season's first rose was blooming. How wonderful! 

The sunshine reappeared while the rain continued to fall. I love when that happens! Spring's green world glows! I snatched my phone and stepped outside to record a short video to share with whoever is interested but to mostly have to look at any time I remind myself it's time to stop and enjoy the roses. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway) 

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, simple country pleasures, roses, gardening, pantry prep, greenhouses, rain, retirement, to-do list, spreadsheets, country living, rural lifestyle, a writer's life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVS9UTXQWzo