This time of the year is the beginning of serious food preservation for me. Unfortunately, a lot of folks get the mistaken idea that I just work, work, work. Well, yes and no. Of course I work; if you don’t, you don’t have anything or get anywhere. But I’ve learned to work in cycles and take breaks (even five or ten minutes at a whack) fairly often. And in those breaks, I take time to enjoy my flower beds, the secluded spot where my late husband Bob’s memorial garden is, or just sit by the creek. One of my favorite mini-breaks is walking across our new grass in the front yard, over to the little fish pond that David and I established on the end of one of the flower beds this spring. It’s just one of those cheap plastic, preformed ponds (on sale, of course!), but it came with a pump for a fountain, now re-routed to my on sale beaver spitter and it was quick to put in.

I added some plants, an old stump, rocks and bingo! Instant relaxation. Of course my beaver doesn’t spit when the generator isn’t running, but what the heck.

Even when I work in the garden, I work, then take time to sit on the on-sale bench down there, get up, work some more, sit some more, etc. I get the job done and have a few quiet minutes to enjoy the woods around us. From that bench I’ve seen deer, wild geese only a few feet up, flying to the pond, a wolf hunting mice, red fox, song birds and baby snowshoe rabbits. It’s nice gardening in a nature preserve! And I wouldn’t have seen all that if I didn’t take those few minute breaks in between the work.

Today I canned green beans, put up my favorite bread and butter pickles, took Mom to the thrift store in town, helped David get the four wheeler back running, shoveled out the aisle in the goat barn and worked with David down in the horse pasture, bulldozing a trail for the truck down to the creek. But I also sat on the milking bench and visited with the chickens and goats, went into the donkey’s pen and worked with them some more, teaching them to pick up their feet and stood and talked to David while he took a turn at shoveling the hay dirt out of the aisle.

A nice mixture of work and “play” makes sense. Too much work will just burn a person out so they can’t enjoy anything. We’ve all met them. They’re crabby with their spouse and children, never have a smile on their face and are always in too much of a hurry. Been there done that. Sure, I could get more done in a day. But I like me better the way I am. — Jackie

I’ve put readers’ questions with my answers below:

Canning spaghetti sauce safely

Just found you and love you already — I was looking for some help concerning some spaghetti sauce I made and canned last week. I used a recipe given to me by a friend. I did not have a
pressure canner at the time. The sauce looks great in the jars presently—-but my concern is this: I cooked the tomatoes, peppers, onions for 1 hour, using a blue canner (since I had no pan large enough for all the sauce) I stirred but found out later the scorching on the bottom of the pan actually ate away at the metal!!!!!!!!! Anyway after adding all the spices and seasoning I cooked another 1 hour, then filled hot jars with the sauce and sealed the jars. Now the recipe did not call for putting the jars in hot water and boiling. I am very concerned with two things, one: did the scorching contaminate the sauce? and two: did I need to boil the filled jars in the canner?? If you could answer please, and give me a alternative to these canned jars, (12 jars in all) is it too late to boil the jars at
this time, after 1 week??? I have since purchased a pressure canner and will purchase a new canner to boil the filled jars in the future.

Katy Cole
Woodsfield, Ohio

Did you taste the sauce before you put it in the jars? This will tell you if your sauce is bad from being scorched. Your big problem is that you did not water bath your spaghetti sauce, which is necessary for safe storage. After a week, it is kind of scary as to whether it is okay to eat or not. I hate to have you waste all that sauce. I really, really do, but honey it just isn’t safe to keep.

Next time, keep stirring that kettle when it is thickening. (What I do is put it into a roasting pan like you use for roasting a turkey and put my sauce in the oven overnight on the lowest setting. In the morning it is just about right to can up. No scorching!) Then when the jars are filled, water bath process them for 40 minutes and you’ll have sauce that is tasty and safe to eat. — Jackie

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