Weekend Projects

Well, I just made six jars of mango jam in my pressure canner I got for Christmas. What a snap! It wasn't faster necessarily, but it did involve a lot less work, and a whole lot less hot water. That's the biggest drawback to the boiling water canner; it takes nearly 45 minutes to get it up to a full boil, and it's hard to judge exactly how much water you'll need to properly cover the jars. And in the summer, it can be pretty unbearable to be standing over 4 gallons of boiling water. Anyway, the instructions were very easy to follow and I really liked it. You also have the added benefit of knowing for sure that it's all sterilized and good to go. I'm looking forward to trying more stuff with it this spring.

I put a little ad in our neighborhood email newsletter asking if anyone had bamboo they were looking to thin out. I've seen lots around, but I wanted to make sure I asked first, just to be sure. I got about 5 emails back right away. I took Marc and Olive with me this morning and we went over and got some from a woman on Overbrook. It's amazing just how much storm damage there still is around. A lot of the bamboo was bent right to the ground, but if I pulled it out from the snow, it sprang right back up. I got a bunch of it and I'm planning on making trellises for my raised beds this summer. They're just handy to have as tomato stakes and it is super strong too. It always seems silly to buy them when I see them in catalogs.

I have to get started on the raised beds soon; I need to check at the site we're working on for scrap lumber. I still have the planter boxes from last summer, but I really have to come up with a better way to keep them clean. I dumped the water out of them today and it was just disgusting and smelly. I think that was their inherent design flaw. It creates easy access for mosquitoes and other grossness. I think I can drill some more drainholes in the edge and maybe keep it flushed out more regularly. I paid a lot for them, so I don't want to just toss them. Maybe I can come up with a better configuration.

The tomatoes are doing really well, I moved them onto a wire shelf rack in front of the window. I just wish there were more sun; now that they're bigger the fluorescent light tube just seems puny.