A Day In The Life

This last weekend, I helped my friend clear out her mother's garage. It was cluttered and disgusting and there was rat poop everywhere. A lot of the items in there just needed to go to the dump and there were quite a few items that needed to go to Goodwill and there were quite a few items that could still be used but weren't being that they were stored in a rat infested garage. 

My friend and her mother were kind enough to let me have any canning jars I could find and there were a good 20-30 usable canning jars; including a bunch of vintage baling wire glass topped ones.

 Now, I know it is silly to get all gushy about old canning jars, but they are gorgeous! Most a lovely blue and most without chips on the rim.  I see them very overpriced in antique stores on a regular basis and it always makes my bits hurt that they are considered collector's items and not used, like they should be.

I found sizes from half pints to half gallons and all will come in handy as harvest season comes up on us. I still have a few that need to be washed in a strong bleach/soap solution, but the rest are all clean and fit perfectly in paper ream boxes from work.  I am not one of those people that keep what I do not use, so they will all come in handy.

The vintage mason jars use a food safe rubber gasket to seal whatever is inside and you do have to be more diligent about getting the seal just right, but they work as well. The newer jars stack better, seal more consistently and are not as neat to look at, in my opinion.  But it is good to have a mix of bother kinds so that you have a couple of pretty jars in the front and the rest stored behind it in the newer jars.

My beans are coming up gang busters. I planted Scarlet Runners, Dow Gauk Chinese Yard Long Beans and a Burgundy Bush bean that I cannot remember the name to, but it has burgundy in it somewhere...

Carrots are popping up, French Breakfast radishes, I planted some spinach seeds I have had for a couple of years to see if any were still viable and some seem to be sprouting so I did a second sowing to stagger them. The purple broccoli my friend, Sandy, from Urban Land Army gave me are coming back from an attack by the chickens. 

This upcoming weekend, May 5th and 6th, is the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale. There will be workshops and smart garden type peoples there to answer any questions you might have and I will be volunteering a few hours on Saturday morning so I hope to see you all there. Their Vegetable List is AWESOME this year, although it is always pretty awesome since they try for new varieties every year. 

This years I have the Calypso pickling cukes, Love Lies Bleeding Amaranth, Costata Romanesca Zucchini and the San Marzano Tomato on my list, although I am sure I will spend more than I intend. Like I do every year.

I have a very grumpy broody Welsumer chicken who is currently plotting her revenge against me. I keep kicking her out of her nesting box and stealing her eggs, so I am chicken enemy number one.  All the birds are laying consistently and I am getting anywhere from 50 to 56 eggs a week. They are DELICIOUS!

I better get them put away while I am thinking about them...