Done!

Bllllrrrrrgggghhhhh sums up nicely how my brain feels right now. With a month of finals and final projects, back to back weekend field trips and 48 hours in New Haven between exams, I'm just happy I can still form sentences. Mostly.

Such a good semester though! And a great year. It's crazy to me how much I managed to squeeze into my head in the past nine months. I know most of the trees I see walking around town, depending on the street, which I love. And by love I mean LOVE. I'm proud of myself getting in with the USDA peeps and making friends with the Ecology lab to suss out what-all they do exactly. I started a vegetable garden finally for the first time ever. I can make an educated guess about why my chard leaves are turning purplish. Now I'm looking forward to what will hopefully be a somewhat laid back summer to try to sort it all out.

I'm getting cold feet about grad school again. The thought of committing to any one discipline gives me a yucky feeling, but I still really want to go. I just wish I could see something beyond the school part of it. Something beyond wanting a terminal degree as an end in itself. I just like knowing things to know them. And I want to know Everything.

I think my ideal life pursuit is to learn everything and then explain to people why this is this and that is that and what we should or could do about it and how. And ideally there would be presentations and lectures and photographs and writing and traveling and people-meeting and hand shaking and smiling and challenge involved.

I told someone today that I want to be John McPhee. Which is true. I do want to be John McPhee. I want to be John McPhee and Barbara Kingsolver and Jad Abumrad. If I do research, I want the world to be better for it. I think what I'm most best at is being excited about everything. At trying every new thing and remembering it. Or telling stories.

Sorta kinda also toying with the idea of landscape architecture, though. I might see if I can meet up with my Trees prof to chitty chat about what that means exactly and how one makes a living doing it. Hmm hmm hmm.

Today's spark of excitement

A minute ago, the hallways of my building were rife with firemen toting ENORMOUS axes in their belts and firewomen with multiple fire extinguishers strapped to their backs. There were two fire trucks parked out front, and I dashed out to the fire escape just in time to see them pointing the hose up at me.

In fairness, it looks like the apartment enflammé was at the back of the building, and even so, they decided hoses were not necessary, so no actual water came out, but exciting nonetheless!

I took in the scene with a bowl of lemon pasta from the balcony at the front of the building, waiting until the hubub died down to determine who shan't be getting his or her security deposit back. Looks like one of the apt.s on the third floor has had its door pried open. And I thought I'd get a finger wagging for letting the dirty wheel of my bike kiss the newly painted wall today...

Curious seed

I've gone and done it. My affinity for all things botanical has spawned yet another blog. Not only have I succumbed to the societal pressure to specialize, or at least organize, I moved it on over to Tumblr to see what all the fuss is about.

It's still something of a mess, but I'm hoping to use it as gardening journal type thing wherein I wax philosophical about the industrial food system, track horticultural and agricultural experiments, and store what bits of knowledge I pick up.

You can come visit me if you like at Curious Seed.

I also still have my tree id blog, which I'm hoping to jazz up a little once the semester is over and I can make it less a class project and more my own.

Maybe with all this blogging and web-tinkering I'll even learn a little about web design and the good ol' internet.

Movin' and shakin'

So, I killed my camera the other week. It died a painful but instant death when I dropped it on a class field trip. Alas. But! I have seized this opportunity to finally gift myself the digital slr I've been lusting after for years. Man are those things expensive. I got a used one and even that cost a pretty penny. Super excited to try it out and get back into photography, though, so I'm focusing on that, rather than the gaping hole it put in my bank account! I still need to collect various odds n ends to get it up and running, but watch out for new pics!

In other fun, I got an fMRI this morning! I don't know about you, but I've probably wanted an MRI since the first time I saw someone floating through the magic scanning machine watching tv on the internet. The machine they used for the psych/neurology experiment I participated in wasn't as glamourous as what-all they have on tv, but very exciting nonetheless. I just wish they'd give me a picture of my brain as a participation prize.

There was a man handling the apricots at Berkeley Bowl today who started talking gibberish to me today, but the end of the semester has been turning the old grey matter to mush, so I couldn't say for sure. I'm almost done though! Insane as this week (and probably next week too) will be, there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Shutterbug

I am Pretty Sure the guy in the apartment across the little alley way from me was taking a photo pointed my direction out of the corner of his window when I looked up and he scurried away suddenly. If you're going to take stalker photos, I hope at least they're flattering stalker photos.

Spin off

I am tempted to start a new, separate gardening / agriculture / horticulture / food politics blog, but then what would i talk about here??? I am sure I could think of something. Except that this is specifically supposed to be a compendium of every possible interesting thing. Hmm hmm hmm. Would I really be giving in to the societal pressure to specialize at the expense of my campaign for a renascent generalism? I do already have about 14 posts written... Can I still be an ardent generalist by having multiple specialized blogs?

Were you aware of it? vol. 29: Snails & M

I am really loving Isabella Rosselini's Green Porno.

Good karma

Working will call at the annual SF Botanical Garden sale is definitely a far more athletic assignment than cashiering -- lifting full boxes of recently watered plants above your head, scurrying back and forth. I LOVED IT! Plant sitting, running around, and chatting with people is way more fun than counting tags and calculating change.

One woman even gave me the best compliment ever. She reads my name off my name tag and says I should be a writer. Or a philosopher. Made my day.

That and a little catching up with John this morning. I'm glad you could top off your April with a bit of sun time.

And! The rest of my seeds came in the mail today! I can't wait to try out some of these ground cherries and the stevia.

Not only that! The SFSU folks got back to me today finally. I guess by 'early April' they meant 'before May.' But they accepted me! I'm two for two on internships! I'm sad to have to turn them down, but I've decided I'm still happy to be doing grassland plant ecology stuff with a shorter (and bikeable!) commute and a little more money even though marine microbiology would have been cool. If the rainforest birds guy had said he needed me to come to Africa to do a little field work it would have been tough, but this will be good.

Canning your own strawberry rhubarb jam

Jam making always seemed to me like one of those old-time household sports like quilting and barn raising that is so much better with friends. I've been making jam for years now, but today was the first time I actually managed to get a little crowd together to help stir the pot. I'm so pleased to revive not just home made jam but the act of getting together and making practical household things fun. So, yay.


Canning supplies:
Canning jars. Ball and Mason make them, but you can use just about any glass jar with a standard sized rim. I like to use half pint jars for jam for a few reasons: 1. I usually have only one jar open at a time and like to cycle through different flavors, 2. Smaller jars are easier to fill all the way, which is important for getting a good seal. 3. Smaller jars means there are more jars to share! Check your recipe to see how many pints of jam it makes and plan to have at least that many jars handy (or twice that many, if you're using half pints).

Lids. Even if you still have the lids from other jars, it's good to use a new lid each time to ensure a good seal. There's a good chance old lids will seal, but you can't know for sure till you're done.








Rings. Rings are reusable. You can use single piece lids, but using two piece lids is great because the metal screw band doesn't need to be kept in boiling water during processing, so you can screw them on without burning your fingers. It's also nice to be able to reuse part of your lid, since once you have your rings, you can get additional lids separately.


A canner.You can get fancy canning equipment, but I like to use a big pot with a cake rack inside. The cake rack is important because you don't want your jars sitting on the bottom of the pot, in contact with the metal, which is in direct contact with the flame on gas stoves or burner on electric stoves. Make sure your pot is deep enough to be able to hold your jars and enough water to cover them. The deeper, the better. Bigger pots also allow you to process more jars at once. It's nice to save a little time during canning since the rest of the process can be time consuming, and I'm usually ready to be done already by the time canning is happening.



Another big pot. You'll use this one for actually making the jam. I like using a wok since the greater surface area helps the jam thicken up faster. The shallow sides also make scooping the jam into jars easier, but any old pot will do.



Wooden spoon. Something big to stir the jam while it's cooking. I like to use a bamboo spoon, but anything big will do the trick.










Tongs. These are for taking jars in and out of the boiling water bath in your canner and for fishing out lids from their boiling water bath. (I recommend sterilizing your lids in yet another small pot). The longer the tongs, the better.




Oven mitt. Or two or three or four. You'll need these for handling the sterilized jars, which will be HOT! It's good to have extra oven mitts because they get wet what with all the boiling water around and wet mitts make for burnt fingers.


A ladle. You'll need something to scoop the hot jam into the jars. I like to use a small measuring cup with a handle for this. The quarter cup size works great!




Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
A good jam for April and May when rhubarb is in season and strawberries are starting to ripen. Rhubarb ginger jam is another favorite. Yum. So many folks were able to make it to the party that we had to expand the jam recipe, but here's the original...

Ingredients:
2 pounds rhubarb (about 8 cups chopped fruit)
2 pounds strawberries (about 4 cups chopped fruit)
6 cups white granulated sugar
Optional: juice from a lemon or two.

Makes 5-10 half pints.

How to make jam:
Wash the rhubarb and remove the leaves. (Do not eat the leaves -- they are poisonous!). Chop stems into 1/2" chunks and measure how many cups of fruit you have. Add rhubarb to a big bowl with half the sugar and leave to mascerate for an hour.

While the sugar is breaking down the rhubarb, wash and chop the strawberries, removing any stems. You can leave the strawberry chunks pretty big. Strawberries don't need to mascerate, so these can just hang out for now.

Now is a good time to get started with the jars for canning. Take out all your jars, lids and rings and wash each piece thoroughly with soap and water.

Take out the big pot you'll be using as your canner and set your cake rack inside. Add as many empty jars (without lids) into the canner as will fit and cover the jars with water. Bring to a boil. Boiling that much water takes a long time, so I like to fill up my kettle (or hot water boiler) with water and add the boiling water to the pot to help speed things up.

Once the sugar on your rhubarb has turned to runny syrup, add the rhubarb mixture, strawberries, and the rest of the sugar (as well as any lemon juice, if you're using it) to your wok or other big pot and bring to a boil, stirring more or less constantly.

When to stop stirring and start filling up jars is up to you. The longer you wait, the thicker your jam will be as more water evaporates. Since your jam is boiling, it looks runnier than it will at room temperature once it cools, but you can get a good idea of how thick your jam will be by pouring a bit onto a frozen metal spoon to cool it down. If you want your jam to set (to be a solid gel at room temperature) this can take a few hours. Beware! Strawberry rhubarb jam can get pretty thick if you wait long enough, but I like to leave this one somewhat runny. Canning your jam sooner rather than later gives you bigger chunks and more jars of jam since your volume is higher (without the excess water evaporating with continued boiling).

As long as the jam is boiling, it's safe to start canning.

Canning:
While your jam is cooking, you'll need to sterilize your jars and lids in boiling water. Keep your jars at a rolling boil in the canner and sterilize the lids in another small pot with boiling water.

When you're ready to start canning your jam, fish out an empty jar from the canner, returning any water in the jar to the canner. Use your oven mitt to handle the jars -- they will be hot! Make sure your ladle / measuring cup is clean and use it to pour the hot jam into your jar. Fill jars until there is about 1/4" of space at the top. You want your jars to be full to make sure there is enough suction to seal the lid as the jam cools.

Once the jar is full of jam, carefully clean any jam from the mouth and sides of the jar. Use the tongs to get one of your lids out of its boiling bath and center it on the top of your jar, then take one of the screw rings and screw it on until just starts to get tight. No need to over do it -- you want to be able to get it off again later. Once the jar is sealed, set it in the canner, making sure there is still enough boiling water to cover the top of the jar.

Full jars of jam need to be processed at a rolling boil in the canner for (at least) 10 minutes. Fill up as many jars will fit in the canner at one time, then put the lid back on the pot you're using as the canner and start timing the ten minutes once the last jar is in.

After ten minutes, use the tongs to remove the jars from the canning bath and leave them to cool on the counter. I usually let them cool upside down. Supposedly this also helps test the seal. It is probably unnecessary, but I do it anyway just in case.

Once the jam is cool, you can have at it. Processing your jam this way should preserve it for up to a year without refridgeration, but make sure each jar has a good seal! If the lid pops up during cooling, your jar does not have a good seal. It's still edible, just keep it in the refrigerator and consume within a month. Always always take a look at your jam before digging in. If there is any mold or other sign of contamination, throw the jam out! Sad as it is to dump out your precious homemade jam, a bout of botulism is worse! (You can reuse the jar after sterilizing it).

And that's it!

Q and A
Can I use other jars I have around the house?
Yep. You can use any old jars, especially if the tops fit either the regular or wide-mouth lids and rings Ball makes. If the lids with rings don't fit your jars, you can use the original lids that came with them, just keep the lids in the boiling water bath to sterilize them and watch for a good seal. It's probably a good idea to store any jam made with a reused lid in the fridge.

What if I don't have enough jam left to fill the last jar to the top?
No worries. Fill up the last jar as high as you can. There isn't really any need to process this last jar in the canner since you'll want to eat this jar of jam right first. Store it in the refrigerator for up to a month.

I made a lot of jam and I couldn't finish it all in one year. Can I still eat it?
If you can't eat it all, home made jam makes awesome presents. If you still have more than you and yours can put on toast in a year, it's probably ok. Just between us, I have jars in my cupboard now that are more than a year old. It's probably just fine, but be extra careful checking that the seal is still good, make sure there's no sign of contamination, and eat at your own risk. In general, though, it's a good idea to label your jars of jam with the date when you make them so that you know how old it is. That way you can make and effort eat older jars first.

Bartery

I've been having this inkling for a while now about bringing back barter. It seems like such a great way to connect with people.

I've been fascinated for a long time with how things work and where things come from, especially food, and I feel like lots of folks have a lot to offer on that front. And wouldn't it be great if we could all share?

To start things off, I'm throwing a little jam making party. I've made jam most years for the past few years now, and I almost always let people know when I'm planning to do it, but no one has ever taken me up on joining in until now. I can't possibly eat all the jam I make. I still have tons of jam from previous years, but there is something therapeutic and good-feeling about making jam or bread or anything that was once a mystery.

I'm taking this bit of interest as a sign of what I hope will be a sea change, and this year I'm hoping to step it up a notch. I went on a little seed ordering spree -- Ok, a big seed ordering seed spree -- and I now have thirty some varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers all waiting to get in the ground. I'm trying to sign up for a community plot near me, but if that doesn't pan out, there's no way I can plant all of these in the little planters on my roof I intend to claim. So, I'm hoping that maybe my seeds and I can make friends with folks with a bit of extra space in their yards. I would love to trade either seeds for some of the vegetables/herbs/flowers they produce or maybe I could offer vegetables/herbs/flowers to someone in exchange for a bit of earth. Or some of my seeds for some of your seeds. Or some of my seeds for some of your vegetables. Or some of my seeds for a smile and some good will. I've already got one taker!

Life just feels so good these days. Things feel so Right. I'm so ridiculously busy, with five classes, four volunteer gigs, and a propensity for throwing parties, but I'm reminded of The Alchemist, or Jack and the beanstalk, or a proverb that suggests keeping seeds in your pocket to expand your wealth. I love the way you can take one seed, set it in the earth, nurture it for a bit and get a hundred seeds back. How beautiful is that?

Happy Earth Day!

...and if anyone is interested in a little bartery, let me know!