Food KAL

In the past few weeks I was busy picking up fruits and vegetables from our garden and preserve them for the winter. Even though our plum trees produced only two plums, we are having some yellow raspberries and alpine strawberries to snack on and we still are having an abundance of cucumbers. I have been pickling them at least twice a week.
Our friends and family might be receiving homemade pickles as their Christmas presents.

Dog approves

I cannot really share the recipe for my pickling liquid as it seems to be every time slightly different. I am following the recipe my mom gave me when we started to do our own pickling.
She said: "I use water, vinegar, pickling salt, a bit of sugar, spices (All Spice, Black Peppercorn, Bay Leaves, Cinnamon, Clove), try how it tastes and add what you think is needed. In the jar put some mustard seeds, fresh dill, sliced onions, garlic, peppers, carrots and cucumbers. Fill the jars with liquid close the top and boil in a pot with a kitchen towel on the bottom for about twenty minutes."
We have been using her recipe for some time, experimenting with variety of flavors, adding hot peppers to some jars, etc. Each batch that I make tastes slightly different, and that is what I enjoy about it - the unpredictability of what it will taste like when we open a new jar of our pickles.

Apples

I was also thinking about the next KAL for my group on Ravelry. I decided that we should knit anything that is food related. Aprons, dishcloths, knitted food, knitted parts of a food chain...…
The Food related KAL will run from now until the end of October, when I will pick the grand prize winner and some more winners to win other things as well.

To start the KAL I am offering  a 25% discount on many of my food related knitting patterns. The coupon code is valid until September 25th midnight EST.

Bowls

Use the coupon code Food to receive the discount.

Joint the fun and a chance to win my group Stana's critters etc on Ravelry.

photo by Knitpicks

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Fruits of our labor

Plum tree blooms

All my life I had an access to fresh fruits and vegetables. I know the difference of taste between fruits and vegetables bought from a store and freshly picked from the garden. I had learn how much work it requires to grow the fruits and vegetables.

One side of my family were farmers. Even though their land was confiscated by the communist party during the totalitarian regime, their were allowed to have a small plot of land near by their house that they were allowed to live in. As a child I remember to visit my grandparents and being able to pick fresh fruits of the trees, or vegetables from the small garden. I thought it was normal for everyone to have this opportunity.

I do not want to bore you with my family history. When I had my child, I wanted to offer the  opportunity to try fresh fruits and vegetables. Our small garden is nothing in comparison with what my grandparents and parents had, but it let my child experience the process of growing up your own fruits and vegetables.

Two years ago we planted two plum trees. This year the plum trees bloomed wonderfully. I was looking forward to have some plums. Then the June drop happened and the green little plums disappeared, except for two. I keep an eye on these two plums and check on them frequently.

Plum I

Plum II

Not all of our gardening attempts are as bad as our plum trees. We had plenty of fruits from our berry bushes and our cucumbers and beets are doing fine as well. I have been rather busy with preserving some of the vegetables for later. Therefore my knitting time has been rather limited and my progress on various projects has been slow. This weekend I will be doing another batch of pickled cucumbers and some sauerkraut as well.

Berries

Pickling 

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Life.....

Fall colors scarf

This fall I have a class at school named Anthropology: Food and Culture. The two books that are assigned reading are quite interesting. Especially the book titled Earth Knows My Name, written by Patricia Klindients. here is  The link to book on Amazon page.
I have found the book fascinating due to several reasons. I live in a country that is not my birthplace. Also my father's side of my family worked the land as farmers for many generations.
Maybe the book fascinates me due to sentimental reasons, while reading it I think of my past and the way life used to be. I do not want to say that life before was better or worse. There are always two sides of a story and we need to look at them carefully. The convenience of modern life has its advantages and I do not wish to loose them. I love having the opportunity to use Internet and talk with my mom on a daily basis, even though there is an ocean between us. My father never had that when we were growing up. He talked to his mother only when we made that all day trip across the country to visit them.
However, one thing is sure, somehow slowly and at first reluctantly I have decided to continue in that tradition and started a small garden. Though my garden is very small in comparison with what  I have seen and worked on when I was a child it still gives us some vegetables and even fruits. It's awesome to see the plants grow from seeds, and care for them throughout the growing season. And yes, the salad from our garden not only looks delicious, it tastes better than any store bought salad package.

Salad

I also use up the extras from the garden and preserve it for later times. Pickling cucumbers and other vegetables is labor intensive and takes time, but it looks great on our table in the middle of winter.

Pickling

The time I spend in garden takes away time from my knitting, but I do not regret it. When winter comes, I know there will be longer evenings which I can spend by our fireplace with knitting needles in hand.

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