The Tilsons

Last year I canned beet pickles and peaches on the same weekend with my mom, which was insane; by 11pm we were into the Irish Cream to spare each other from each other. This year I decided it would be a good idea to can tomatoes and pears on the same weekend. Not only that, but make two different kinds of pears (canned quarters and pear butter) and two different kinds of tomatoes (tomato sauce and canned tomato quarters), by myself for the most part (thank you Justin for stepping in when it got tough) This all not taking into consideration that I woke up a bit sick on Friday, with some strange neck pain (resistance to canning?), that Justin had fat that had to be made into soap this weekend and that we had dinner invites coming, that we prepared dinner for unwittingly on the wrong night.

So, the tomatoes. They were ripe first, so as per the recipe I sorted thirty pounds of the ripest ones out to be blanched, peeled, cored, cooked and strained into puré. Little did I know, that I would be 2 quarts short of what the recipe called for when I measured after this long process. As the rest of the tomatoes were not ripe enough to be done, I pillaged our garden for 15 more pounds of tomatoes, and started again. Finally, after another round, enough puré was in the pot to be made into sauce and canned.

Then pears. Pears are slightly more work because their skins don’t just fall off like peaches or tomatoes. You actually have to hand peel them! So, I sorted about 3/4 of the pears out to be washed, peeled, quartered and canned. That whole process went rather well, albeit long, especially after the tomatoe sauce.  The pear butter went well also, however, the butter takes a long, long time to thicken, drawing out the day, into the evening and then long into the night.

Next, the canned tomatoes. Beth came over sunday evening and we prepared them together, just as I did with the tomatoe sauce tomatoes. That was my first mistake. Apparently one is only supposed to pepare one quarts tomatoes at a time, this resulted in the tomates going bad in the fridge overnight because I was too tired and frustrated with my third mistake to finish. My second mistake was not having an up to date canning book. I found out fairly late in the game that instead of being processed for 40 mins like my mom used to in the 80’s, one is supposed to process them for 85 mins! I learned this just in time. My third mistake was that my mom’s, or possibly my grammas old jars stuck out of the water a wee bit. I figured that would be fine, being that my mom had canned with them, but no, after about 70 mins in the hot bath, the tops exploded right off and sprayed tomatoe sauce all over my walls, blowing the lid clear off of the pot!  At that point, it was midnight, I decided that a fourth mistake was too much, so I wrapped things up and hit the hay.  (Only to wake up in the morning to find that some of my pre prepared tomates had molded in the night)

Take it from me, two foods in one weekend is not a good idea if you want to do it right and have any patience left for anything. On the other hand, I am really happy with having it all done and in the pantry. To help for the next round, I have bought Bernardin’s latest edition of proper canning methods, hopefully I won’t have to learn the hard way all the time.

I also strongly recomend, that if you are canning by yourself, have an audiobook plugged in. Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer was my book of choice for this canning project, it was very inspiring and kept my mind off of the back pain!

Today I made the trip out to Victoria to get my beautiful, gently used spinning wheel… and not only that, but an umbrella swift, a comb, a nitty-noddy, hand carders and a spare bobbin! I was so lucky to find Carol’s add on Craigslist, I would would have spent a lot longer collecting these things if it hadn’t of been for her. Now to give it a try!

The past week has brought many opportunities for knitting: the vancouver knitting meetup, my grandma’s stash of patterns and needles, my new spinning class and the prospect of buying a spinning wheel.

I began going to the Vancouver Knitting Meetup to meet other women doing what I like to do, and I have been pleasantly surprised at the welcoming, warm energy I found at the meetings. There are many different skill levels, and someone is always willing to help out if one (aka me) is stuck. It inspires me to try new patterns and different kinds of fibers when I see the challenging projects the other women have chosen to take on.

And just in time! My mom and I went through my grandmas craft supplies and found tons of patterns that all seem to be coming back in style (except for maybe the matching mens sweater and dog sweaters…) I find it fascinating to look through books from as long ago as 1945 and find advertisements that speak to the durability of hand knit things vs that of store bought things. It all makes sense really! Its too bad that most people have never seen a quality hand made garment, let alone owned one. With the pattern books, I inherited a huge size 35 needle, with which I knitted this scarf for my niece’s birthday on Sunday.

Last in the queue this week was spinning. I went to my first class on sunday, where I used a spinning wheel for the first time, and made my first (very uneven) ball of yarn! I have fallen in love the fiber art of spinning! So, of course I need a wheel to practice on, because once per week is just not going to cut it! I consulted my fave, craigslist, and found a beautiful, gently used Ashton Traditional Wheel for a fraction of the retail cost. I pick it up on Monday!

We purchased the sun oven on the left a couple of months ago but haven’t had a cloud-free enough weekend to warrant pulling it out of the closet. We both had some skepticism if it would get hot enough in our northern latitude but were willing to risk the $300 in case it lived up to the claims on Sun Oven’s website. We set a goal to reduce our home electricity consumption by 15% this year and the sun oven seemed like it could be an effective way to contribute to realizing the goal.

We purchased a small, Bradner Farms organic chicken which Lisa dressed with freshly harvested herbs, potatoes and carrots from the garden. The oven heated up to 300°F rather quickly under the 1PM sun. After opening the glass door and putting the black pot containing our dinner, the temperature gauge dropped to 250 °F. A few minutes and a minor adjustment later, lining the oven up with the sun’s location in the sky, the temperature rose back up towards but not quite reaching 300°F.

The roast chicken recipe from Sun Oven’s website suggests 3 - 4 hours for cooking time. As the temperature was holding steady between 280°F & 290°F, I erred on the side of caution and left the bird in for a full four hours even though it was quite small. To keep the oven aligned with the sun and the temperature inside the oven steady, I had to make a minor adjustment every half an hour.

Numerous people stopped by to see what the strange looking contraption was sitting atop of the garden compost bin. Most were pleasantly surprised to learn there was a whole chicken roasting away inside. Part of the fun of being in the garden is connecting with people who are passing through. It is always uplifting to be able to send folks away with a few fresh strawberries or some new ideas to try out. Around 5PM, I opened the oven and checked the chicken’s internal temperature which was 181°F, indicating that it was time to eat! Lisa tugged on a leg which fell off effortlessly. It was done!

This was the moistest chicken either of us have ever tried! It was simmering in an inch of its own juices and was perfectly cooked all the way through. The potatoes, only a few days out of the ground were heavenly and our wee carrots, tender and sweet! The meal was a resounding success and we both have renewed optimism for passive cooking under the sun.

Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon have popularized eating local and are credited with the 100 Mile Diet phenomena currently sweeping through North America. Having spent an entire year eating food that was grown within 100 miles of their home on the West Coast, they have created a quiet movement that is sweeping through Canada and the US. They deserve much credit for their commitment, perseverance and desire to educate the masses about our industrialized agriculture system. If you like reading, you can check out their book: The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating

As our harvest is coming in with varying degrees of success, we are planting our winter crops and planning next year’s season. We have been inspired by the bounty that we have been able to cultivate and forage within our immediate neighborhood and would like to build on James and Alisa’s success. It’s time to raise the bar with a new challenge: The One Mile Diet: A Lifetime of Extremely Local Eating. This isn’t something that can be done cold turkey and we may never reach the goal in entirely but it is the direction we choose to direct our life’s energy for the foreseeable future. It will be a process of incremental improvement, innovation, community involvement and lots of time in the garden! Stay Tuned!