There’s something happening here
What is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it’s time to stop, children, what’s
that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
For What It’s Worth by Stephen Stills
It’s not
good.
Media’s
unrelenting onslaught of “reality” TV programming and the fascination du jour with vampires, zombies, comic-book
superheroes, and bow-wielding young ladies—they’re all bad enough. Throw in the
insularity caused by machine-filtered quotidian human interactions, the NRA’s
rantings that what this country really needs is a citizenry armed to the teeth
and prepared to stand its ground (can you say “George Zimmerman”?), and a
baleful sense of one’s rightful place at the center of the universe being
denied, and what do you get? Mayhem. This time at a movie theatre.
A
character in an episode of the BBC series “Lewis” says, “All fantasy is
infantile until it turns sinister, which it does if you don’t outgrow it.
Arrested development is a dangerous thing. Nasty and dangerous.”
Even Al Franken—not someone I
usually turn to for bon mots of
wisdom—said, “When anything goes, everything goes.”
 |
The Right Honourable Edmund Burke |
A student of history, I have
long maintained that the United States is but the latest in a long line of
reruns of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. The demise of integrity in our
leaders; the overweening thirst for money and power at the uppermost echelons; the contracting
of the middle class; and the mob's slack-jawed, insatiable, prurient hunger for
spectacle echoes that of ancient Rome around 385 AD. “Barbarians”
overran the citadel in 421. Right about now, I can’t wait for our comeuppance:
in fact, I’m thinking it might be a good idea to learn some rudimentary
Chinese.
For what it’s worth, it took us
several hundred years less to blow through our nation’s time at the global center
stage than Rome did. Let’s hear it for the lickety-split lifestyle.
*****
No, I haven’t moved into a
survivalist camp yet. It wouldn’t be a good fit anyway because I’m afraid of
guns, and the people who love them. What did ol’ Charlton Heston say? “Guns
don’t kill people; people do”? Yeah, that may be so, but I imagine it’s a lot
harder to kill somebody with a knife or Aunt Millie’s brass candlestick or your
bare hands than with a bullet. Seems like the former methods require some thought, however
skewed. Not to mention that up-close-and-personal contact. Sorry, cowboys.
 | ||||
| (Click on picture to read caption) |
It can’t be denied that we live
in a worrisome era. Last night, PBS started promoting Ken Burns’ latest
documentary, “The Dust Bowl” (airing in September on your local PBS station:
talk about must-see TV!). What with so much of the country’s farmland suffering
severe drought, all those acres of genetically modified crops sown in
chemical-drenched soils withering away, I wonder if we aren’t setting up for
another one.
Really, it’s not good.
 |
| Tomatoes galore! |
In reaction to this spate of
scary news, I turn to my garden for solace. Nothing unusual with that, of course.
Toadflax Farm is producing away—no home-grown tomato shortage chez Fitz this year! I spend so much
time cosseting the front yard, the remodeling of the rear garden has received
short shrift. The plants wait in their pots on the south side for me to get
around to putting them in the ground. I’ve taken to using the north side to
traverse between front and back to avoid the guilt pangs the sight of them
engenders. Between the heat and other projects, time is at such a premium these
days.
It’s those “other projects” that
are the actual subject of this post, now that I’ve vented (some of) my spleen.
 |
| Water-bath canner & equipment |
People who know me express
astonishment at the latest bizarre turn my personality is manifesting. Long famous
for avoiding kitchen-related activities of any sort, I am currently obsessively
turning out canned and frozen jams, salsas, pickles and sauces. I scour the grocery
ads for locally grown produce and haul bags of it home to process with my new
water-bath canner and Victorio food strainer. I’m also baking bread again,
after a 30-year hiatus. Merciful heavens, what happened?
I think it may a control thing.
I don’t want to ingest genetically
modified organisms any more. Monsanto and the industrial-ag boys’ lobby has
pressed long and hard to not have their Frankenfood ingredients labeled as such
on the processed things they predominate in. What? You didn’t know that for the
past decade or so your breakfast cereal contains GMO corn and that the sweetness in your sodas
and cookies comes from genetically engineered high fructose corn syrup? And if that four-pound bag of sugar
doesn’t say “pure cane sugar” prominently on the package, it’s likely from GMO beets? Even your
tofu’s not safe—commercial soybeans have been GMO for a long while now. (Need
to know more? Go to LabelGMO’s website, linked
here, and click on “Just the Science” on the left menu.)
 |
| Homemade freezer jams |
Anyway, I’m taking active steps
to reduce my exposure. Preserving food, I’ve learned, doesn’t have to be the
horrible ordeal I remember from childhood. (See “Raising Cain… and Beds.”) Jams can be made by stirring together crushed fruit, sugar
and instant pectin for three minutes, decanting into jars and popping in the
freezer. Who knew? Small-batch water-bath canning isn’t such an ordeal either,
I’ve learned: Having the right tools (especially air-conditioning) makes all
the difference.
 |
| Pickles, pickles, pickles! |
There’s a picture of my home-grown
salsa above, and here are the bread-and-butter
pickles I put up yesterday afternoon.
 | ||||||
| Ball's instant pectin & mixes |
These endeavors were streamlined
by the Ball Company’s line of salsa and pickle mixes, which I don't consider cheating. (But then, I wouldn't.)
 |
| The labor-saving Victorio strainer |
Today—maybe tomorrow—will see
the inaugural run of the strainer as I teach myself how to put up spaghetti
sauce without the necessity of first peeling, coring and seeding 30 pounds of
tomatoes. I am soooo psyched.
 |
| Kitchen DIY guides |
Intrigued? Check out these
books: Ball’s Complete Book of Home
Preserving, edited by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine; and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The
Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. The latter was a
real eye-opener for one who invested the time and energy of youth baking her
own breads for a year or so, back in the day before children and regular gainful
employment put the kibosh on lazy days spent proofing yeast and kneading. I plan to suggest to Tim
we make the six-hour drive to the Asheville Food and Wine Fest in late August
for the sole purpose of obtaining a stash of locally sourced and milled Carolina
Grown flours.
In case you’re interested just how far I plan to immerse
myself in self-sufficiency, I’ve also signed up for weaving lessons. I want to
learn how to make my own denim. It’s gonna be a trip.
Oh, and I’m seriously considering
returning to weekly yoga classes too. It’s like a very healthy sickness.
Thanks for dropping by. Ommm…
Kathy
