Tag: wildfires

Of course this is a day seared into my memory. For me, it was a different time on a different side of the country. My most vivid memories of that day were the photos of people that jumped off of the World Trade Center rather than risk getting burned (or as it turns out, lost to the collapse of the building). It also kind of makes me sick that this has turned into nineteen years of never ending and never winnable war. Isn’t that the very thing that caused the attacks in the first place?

Despite how tragic that was, there are many around that are engulfed in a new September tragedy. My own brother’s town has been evacuated and is in grave danger of burning. Speaking with him yesterday, he is planning for total loss. Literally no information is coming out of the area at this time as what appears to be the worst wildfires in Oregon’s recorded history.

I am safe, but the smoke is at the toxic level.

Being that this is harvest time, it is the absolute worst time to be picking crops or do anything outside. I guess that the silver lining is that since staying indoors is the safest option, preserving is a no brainer activity to pass the time with the radio (and TV) on monitoring the situation. I donned my N95 mask to harvest what little I had to get started this season.

For me, I don’t plant cherry tomatoes anymore. I find the return on investment of time and space to be lacking. But, they have a mind of their own and if they grow without my input, I let them. This year I had some volunteer plants.

The question in my mind is what to do with these types of tomatoes. There is only so many salads you are going to eat. I have made tomato pie before, it is not a wild hit at my house. I think the best use for them is to dehydrate them. I will cut the green off and slice them in half and dehydrate them for twelve hours or so. I usually store them in the freezer and then they can be added to salad over the year or added to pesto type sauce.

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I previously mentioned my dad’s garden. He gave me eight giant beets. This is another plant that gets lukewarm reception at my house. When I have grown them, the kids will eat one slice of a beet (by force). My wife will eat one serving and I eat them for days. We usually have a jar of pickled beets in the refrigerator, although I don’t think that they are very good, so I decided to make my own.

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This is a Ball recipe that I have not tried. It seems like a bread and butter type recipe with mustard seed, cinnamon, allspice and clove. I made a double recipe because it used all the beets so we should have pickles for at least a year to come and likely more than that.

I have apples on the tree that need to be picked. They are destined for applesauce as we usually eat 6-12 quarts a year. That is going to require more time outside, so I am holding off for the moment. I also have a big bag of jalapenos I bought at the farmers market with the intent of canning as well. We eat the heck out of those over the year too.

I like preserving and welcome the manual labor of the situation. I usually listen to podcasts of football games but not this year. It is news all the way.