No.\u00a0 I’m not going nuts.\u00a0 I’m talking about that inner voice….or is it an angel whispering in my ear?\u00a0 Like two nights ago.\u00a0 I saw that the wind storm we’d had blew a small tree on the upper part of my garden fence as I dug carrots.\u00a0 “You’d better fix that fence….”\u00a0 But I swept that voice away.\u00a0 Not enough time.\u00a0 I’m too busy.\u00a0 The deer won’t jump the fence now that most of the garden has been harvested.\u00a0 “You’d better fix the fence….”<\/p>\n
Yeah, the garden had pretty much been harvested.\u00a0 Except my huge rutabagas, a row of parsnips and some assorted onions.<\/p>\n
I didn’t fix the fence.<\/p>\n
Then yesterday I went down to finish up the carrots and there was a partially chewed onion between the two rows of closely planted carrots.\u00a0 It wasn’t there yesterday….\u00a0 I glanced at the ground.\u00a0 It was covered with fresh deer tracks!\u00a0 Oh crap!
\nIt was about then that rutabagas came to mind and I glanced over to where the row was.\u00a0 Now the leaves were as tall as my waist and some of the ‘bagies were the size of a soccer ball.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 I saw NO leaves.\u00a0 And I remembered the voice.<\/p>\n
I walked over to the rutabaga patch and there were no leaves, only glimmering white….\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 The white was rutabaga flesh where Bambi had gone down the row and chewed vigorously on each and every one.\u00a0 There had to be several deer because just one couldn’t have eaten that much!\u00a0 I should have pulled them a week ago.<\/p>\n
I should have listened to the voice.<\/p>\n
![\"Rutabagas](\"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/rutabagas-that-the-deer-ate-psg.jpg\" "\\"Rutabagas")
Those rutabagas would not store over winter, chewed on like they were.\u00a0 So to save them, I spent the afternoon canning rutabagas.\u00a0 Although canning manuals say that rutabagas become strong tasting and darken in storage, I haven’t found them to do this.\u00a0 I do pour off the canning water when I heat them to use, heating them in fresh water.\u00a0 But I hadn’t planned on canning them at all.\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n
By the way, I did fix the fence.\u00a0 I still have a few carrots, that row of parsnips and some onions.\u00a0 And Bambi and friends would eat every one.\u00a0 At least I have the satisfaction of knowing we’ll harvest at least one very well fed, rutabaga flavored deer this hunting season!<\/p>\n
Readers\u2019 questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n Spaghetti sauce with romano cheese, vodka, cream<\/strong><\/p>\n My spaghetti sauce has aged romano cheese in it. Can I can the recipe? And my spaghetti sauce with vodka and heavy cream — may I can it or will I kill my family?<\/p>\n Janet Longo No.\u00a0 I’m not going nuts.\u00a0 I’m talking about that inner voice….or is it an angel whispering in my ear?\u00a0 Like two nights ago.\u00a0 I saw that the wind storm we’d had blew a small tree on the upper part of my garden fence as I dug carrots.\u00a0 “You’d better fix that fence….”\u00a0 But I swept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRound Lake Beach, Illinois
\n<\/em>
\nIf I were you, I’d just make a plain spaghetti sauce, then add your romano, vodka or cream just before you make your batch of spaghetti.\u00a0 I have canned cheese, but never a mixture containing cheese.\u00a0 I have canned different products containing milk or cream and have not been happy with the results; they tend to appear “curdled”, which looks unappetizing to say the least.\u00a0 Yep, I’d make the plain sauce, then tweak it as you are getting ready to use it.\u00a0 I think you’ll be happier with the result.\u00a0 — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"