Today I read a pretty disturbing article on MSN about the process of reconditioning food. The mere idea is… just appalling. One of the examples given was of moldy applesauce, where the mold is scraped off, and then the remaining applesauce reheated and reprocessed and then served up all over again.
Um. No. So not right. Ever.
Also in the article it mentions how the FDA also has bizarre allowances in food items. Another example: A small 3.5 can of sliced mushrooms CAN contain 20 or more maggots of any size, and still be considered safe for human consumption, and sold for such purposes. Aside from the fact that I would never buy canned mushrooms anyway, that thought completely horrifies me. I cannot imagine serving my kids a box of brand name macaroni and cheese and knowing that there could be up to 225 insect fragments in the box, and that would be okay.
It’s just not okay!
I was thinking about this the other day as I went down to the Kitchen Annex and retrieved a jar of pickles for our Thanksgiving feast. I have all these wonderful jars of preserves, pickles, jams and salsas sitting on the shelves, and I know what’s in each and every one of them. I’ve been meaning to go to the basement and take a picture of my shelves, today seemed as good a day as any to me.
I love grabbing a jar off of these shelves. Every time I do it I can’t help but smile at everything else that’s just sitting there, waiting for its opportunity to be put to use in the kitchen. I love canning, and I love the results of canning even better. I really wish I’d been able to do more this year. I do have enough apples on the porch to do another batch of applesauce, but other than that, the canning kitchen is likely closed until jam season rolls back around.
I get picked on a lot for it, to tell the truth. And while the picking certainly doesn’t bother me in the least, it’s bothersome that there are people in my life who think what I do with food a waste of time. It’s never a waste of time to bake a loaf of bread or cook up a pot of soup. It’s never a waste of time to boil fruit with sugar and pectin, and then have a whole year’s supply of jam at the ready. It’s feeding my family smartly and healthily, and I can be absolutely certain that there are not 4.5 rodent hairs also contained in that jar. Seriously. Rodent hairs. *Shudder*
It’s a labor of love for my family, and for those I share with as well. I love giving a friend a jar of homemade salsa or a jar of jam. Even more, I love cracking one open in my own kitchen and taking a taste of whatever is hiding inside. I know where this food came from. I picked it myself off the tree, or I supported a local farmer by purchasing something they worked tirelessly to produce so that people like me could purchase it from them.
In all honesty, the only thing I have not figured out about buying locally is our meat. Though, we have drastically reduced our consumption of it overall, it’s hard to buy local meat if you’re not interested in buying in large quantity. It’s just difficult to find the funds to drop several hundred dollars on half a local pig or quarter of a cow. Someday, just not today. Milk I have become a maniac about. I will only buy two specific brands of milk. One local, and one organic. If one of those milks is not available, we will go without milk that week- that’s how passionate we are about it. It’s so vital to me that my daughter consumes milk without hormones, that we would rather just eliminate it from our diet than drink something that could cause her to experience puberty earlier than normal.
Anyway. That article just got me thinking today, and I really did want to share that beautiful photo of my Kitchen Annex. I have one more day of NaBloPoMo coming up tomorrow. I’m really proud of myself for making it through the entire month of November. Will I maintain the pace? I have thoughts on that tomorrow. Until then, here’s another peek at the canned goods, because I know you wanted to see it again.
Thanks for the peek into your Annex. Looks wonderful. You’ve done well for your family.
I can our food as much as possible, but I must use some commercially processed things such as salts, vinegars, sugars, pectin, etc. I’ve wondered how to get ingredients without the undesirable insect & rodent parts that the FDA allows.
I watch the white vinegar I use to see that it is from grain – the cheaper types are processed from petroleum. blech! But what about the others? I’m sure they aren’t 100% pure. How to avoid the bug parts while using the ingredients I need for successful canning – that’s the question.
Oh, and thanks for the Cool Whip replacement recipe. We haven’t used the stuff in years, but so many dessert recipes seem to call for it. Glad to have a way to cook with real food.
Debbie, I guess you just do what you can. 🙂 I also use commercial pectin. I’ve read how to make my own from immature apples, but as we’re sans an apple tree, I just purchase it. I use plain old white sugar as well, and of course am not harvesting my own salt. 😉 I tried making red wine vinegar once and that didn’t work so well. I should try again since I have some red wines that aren’t that great for drinking.