When I'm feelin' a little down in the dumps, wondering why things are so god damned difficult, and why money is so damn tight...I'm not gonna lie...I sit around and mope. Yeah. That's right. And I sit there wondering why me...why me?
Oh the economy....she's not getting any better, boss. She's really sucky. And ya know what? We're in it for the long haul. And i could piss on and be miserable about it. I could let it reflect on my self esteem. I could. I could. Yeah, I COULD. And okay...okay...I do...yes...fine...okay...I do.
And as I cook my 70 cent bag o' black beans in the crock pot with 20 cents worth of rice, making up a total of, like, 1230 calories for 90 cents....yes...yes...yes I have it all figured out...as I cook it, I have quart jars on the boil.
You know it's true. I do. Those quart jars are sterilizin' like crazy.
I'm gonna can some tomatoes, dammit.
I am. As I write this I'm blanching the organic, heirloom Japanese black trifele tomatoes from my garden
And not you, nor the gov'ment, nor BP, nor Virgin music, nor the bass player of Metallica is going to get in my fucking way, goddammit.
I'm gonna can the ever loving fuck out of these tomatoes.
You just try to stop me.
I grew these tomatoes. Grew them in my garden. There's, like, 80 tomatoes, waiting to be canned.
And for $20, I can can another damn bushel of tomatoes if i get them from the Farmer's market. And I'll tell you another thing, I'll tell yo right god damn what...I can get a half bushel of beets for $5 if I play my cards right and can the ever lovin' piss out of them, too. And beans, and fuckin' apples...and...
Yeah, you heard me right...APPLES.
Seconds, man...soon it's gonna be apple season and you can get a half bushel of apples for $4 and can those mofos into applesauce, you know they can...and a half bushel is friggin' huge, like 4 cubic feet of food.
And I grew some watermelons and we pickled and canned the shit out of those. Organic. Hoity -- check. Toity -- check.
Lemme break it down for ya.
When feeling pretty hopeless about the way of things...about how forthcoming money isn't....about how maybe it really is ME to blame and not this stupid economy...
When feeling the squeeze...i feel some solace in returning to the basics.
Food.
Preserving food for the long winter ahead.
Those seasons, man...they ebb and tide. The summer, it's going to give way to fall and winter. And there's wood to chop for warmth, and food to store away so in the darkest times of the winter there's something to turn to. Something we can control. Something nourishing.
Here's some early theraputic canning efforts:
I find great comfort in returning to basics.