juicing

THE FIRST TIME

It’s morning again at 8:14. The sun has risen but it is cloudy and -3℃ out and 7.3℃ in the greenhouse. I see from the graph on the LaCrosse View app, the heater must have kicked in at 4 am. Thank goodness for modern technology that we can monitor the temperature in the greenhouse from the house. Before that in the spring of our first year, I was running in and out, back and forth. I had to cross my fingers and hope for the best after covering everything for the night. Now I can rest easy. It’s our second year. We are doing fabulous. I am pleased. The sun is beaming just now, too.

I made jelly the first time ever yesterday. It is another one of those things that I didn’t think I could do. In the past, reading the instructions discouraged me. First you have to prepare the fruit, cook it and do all that stuff with cheese cloth to get the juice. Doesn’t that sound formidable? Well, for some reason or other, this summer I got enticed by Lee Valley’s ad about the Mehu-Liisa Steamer/Juicer. It was a little pricey but I shrugged and thought: Why not? I deserve it. It’s not as if I need to justify it to anyone. It sure made things much easier. I made the first batch of juice with apples from my brother’s tree. Though they were the end of the season ones, the juice was sweet and delicious. No added sugar needed. I had a few bottles stored and waiting for me in cooler.

not prime apples
steamer/juicer
apple juice

Yesterday I discovered that I can make jelly after all. It was fairly easy when I had already made the juice. But being the first time, it was more complicated, messier and took longer than needed. Isn’t that true of all first times? I’m happy to say it was a success. The jelly jelled. I will try making grape jelly next in a few days. Making food is very satisfying to an old soul.

boiling apple juice + lemon juice + calcium water
mixing pectin to some boiled juice in blender. keep lid closed. do NOT vent!
freshly canned in Instant Pot – cooling on rack overnight

MY WHOLE PICTURE

Day’s end. I am again struggling to write today’s post for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Funny how some days the words just flow. Then I have these days. I am stuck at START with no forward movement. I guess I will have to work for each word and sentence until I have a paragraph, then another and another. So rather than being stuck, bored and restless I scroll through social media. I have just scrolled through Esme Weijun Wang’s Intagram. I’ve been following her for a few years. I find Esme very interesting and inspiring as she is Asian, a writer, has a schizoaffective disorder and suffers from chronic lyme disease. She has so many physical and mental challenges and yet she is very successful. It makes me try a little harder to push through my own little trials.

I have recently said that it’s not good for me to look at the big picture when I’m tackling a big job. It overwhelms me before I can get started. There are always exceptions to the rule. If I want to have a successful day/life, I have to look at the whole picture. What is it that I want for the day/life? After I have identified my goal, I then break down the steps to get there. I guess it’s called planning. It’s something I haven’t consciously done or thought to do – until now. So what was my whole picture for the day?

  • Writing this post.
  • Juicing one ice cream pail of grapes.
  • Finish reading Explain Pain.

How did I do? I’ve juiced two ice cream pails of grapes for 3 bottles of juice. I’ve cleaned up after myself, too. I have 20 pages in Explain Pain to read. I still have time tonight. I want to return it to our exercise guru at our gym tomorrow. And my post is finished. How about that, eh?