Completed: #20. make my own jam

I am told I was born an old soul. I am also often called "childlike", so it's a strange balance. As a child, I was always quietly enamoured with my Gaspé grandmother's way of life: the indigenous influence in a small country town sort of apart from my suburban small city upbringing.

Laundry was dried on lines. Field berries were picked fresh and made into jams, kept in a cold cellar for up to a year, alongside jars of sweet bread & butter pickles, and ever-ready stashes of root vegetables. Produce was grown in gardens, fish was caught and sold fresh from the Atlantic, the only corner grocery store was small and family-run by my uncle.

As I age, this is the lifestyle I've steadily tried to infuse into my quote big city living unquote. It imbues a peace and calm in the ready-made mass-produced fluorescence of grocery aisles and major intersections. It speaks favourably to some very core aspect of my being. It helps me on the journey to becoming more the person I'd like to be.

Last night, I received what will be my last Mama Earth order. I started out, in one of my first exacted goals on this list, with a Farms & Forks delivery. That company, months later, was absorbed into the larger institution of Mama Earth. I have very few complaints - their produce is great, and their customer service is excellent. However, since moving to North York, my delivery day has been switched to Friday evenings. The deliveries generally arrive around 7pm, which presents large issues if I am ever away for the weekend. In short, I'll be changing over to a biweekly delivery from a smaller, North York-based organization called Fresh City Farms, which will bring my order on Thursday evenings.

Anyway, this final order contained a pound of Ontario coronation grapes. I have very specific feelings about grapes, as follows: red -> love, green -> like, anything else -> loathe. However, though I consume jam very infrequently, I know that I have always loved any variety of grape jam. Therein, this idea was born.

This morning was the first official weekend Geoff and I have both spent in our new place. After a late night of organizing, we slept in. I woke, washed my clothes for the upcoming work week (gah!), and for the first time, used my new laundry line that my parents helped me install upon request.

(Hanging these clothes flooded back all sorts of Gaspé memories. They also smell greater than anything I've ever washed. Today's first "old soul" accomplishment.)

After these clothes were hung, we headed out for the first in what I'm sure will become a weekend tradition of grocery shopping (and, next to cooking our dinners together, may also become one of my favourite domestic activities). Knowing that I intended to make grape jam (the day's second "old soul" accomplishment), I researched local gluten-free grocery stores and found Goodbye Gluten. It's no Sweet Potato, but it'll do. I bought a loaf of overpriced gluten-free multigrain and an Amy's gluten-free vegan mac & cheese microwave dinner.

I took a long nap in the late afternoon to early evening, waking to try the mac & cheese (which was decidedly tolerable), take down my laundry, and prepare the jam.

I very loosely based my recipe upon this one for concord grape jam.

Here is the very simple pared-down version (which is easier than pie):

1. Skin the grapes by squeezing them into a small bowl / container.

2. Keep the grape skins in a separate bowl. They will be added later on in the cooking process.

3. Put the shelled grape mixture in a pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally.

4. Bring to a gentle boil after 3-4 minutes. Boil for about 5 minutes, covered. Remove cover to stir occasionally.

5. Add grape skins. Set heat as high as it will go. Stir frequently.

6. After about 2 minutes, add a cup of sugar per pound of grapes. (I use coconut sugar, so that this is a completely vegan-friendly recipe.) Add this sugar a cup at a time, while stirring.

7. Stir constantly as jam thickens.

8. Use a spoon test for completion: If you lift the spoon and it drips into the pot, it needs to be cooked longer. It should slowly fall into the pot when it is complete.

9. Remove from heat. Add the jam to a jar if you are planning to keep it in the fridge for awhile before consumption. The heat from the berries should create a vacuum seal (if the centre seal is pressed down, you're generally good). If it does not seal after an evening, either complete a hot water bath, or make sure you consume the jam in fairly short order. (I only made a small amount of jam, which I intend to begin consuming tomorrow, so I just set mine aside in a tupperware container. Breakfast!)

I was really struck after making this with the same thought I had after making pickles for the first time (which was another goal on my last three-year set): This is so easy! Why does anyone buy these at the store??

I encourage you to try it for yourself.

[Original goal list posted here.]

Progress: 9/30 - #18. read 30 texts that will aid in my teaching

I've been so busy with arts & crafts and reinventing new ways to be self-sufficient that this is, somehow, the only book I've completed this summer. This leaves me, essentially - on a ratio - one book behind on a three-year goal. I'm not too concerned. Books to me are an escapism that make waiting in transit possible (of which I've done little this summer, with zero international travel), that make quiet evenings possible, that make lunch breaks on bad days tolerable. Etc. Etc. Etc. I'll get there. I've been content in my own head these days. This is something for which I am grateful.

Anyway.

When first I spoke about reasserting my Métis identity a few years back, a colleague said: "You should read Three Day Road." I continued to hear about Joseph Boyden at many conferences since this recommendation, and started reading more about him and his literature. I almost picked up The Orenda, until I realized it was a continuation in a series that began with Three Day Road. I then decided to log the latter on an ongoing "To Read" list. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a $200 Indigo gift card some time back from a contest held by my union (one of many reasons I am indebted to my union!), and sat there at my computer screen with my "To Read" list in hand, picking off books. This was obviously one.

Now, at almost 400 pages of tiny text and brutal war descriptions, this is no light book. I'd recommend it on my 2D multicultural list to only the very mature readers. It could be a great pairing for a 4U ISU. Near the end of the book, the protagonist ruminates: “We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.” This is the odd and exclusive reason I appreciate war texts, for this is what they illustrate about the human condition.

There is so much foreshadowing that I anticipated the ending well before the midpoint of the text as the only logical meeting point of the two parallel narratives. This kept making me wonder if perhaps I would be shockingly mistaken, or if I was meant to sadly anticipate the way in which it would all go down, so to speak, and simply wait for how. I think if the latter were possible, it didn't even take away anything from the narrative to me: just spoke of the brutal degradation of humanity in such a scenario. I kept reminiscing about this class I took in university called Literary Non-Fiction, in which we read - amongst many other texts - Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Of course we knew the inevitable ending. This was real. We were only waiting. (This called up all sorts of ethical questions with regard to ourselves as readers that I have always loathed having to face, but that's sort of an aside.) My professor asked: "What is the purpose of a parallel structure?" I raised my hand, and was selected: "At some point, they have to meet."

The structure here is a little different, as it floats through space and time within both narratives - told more in flashbacks than in present tense. However, unlike any postmodern text, this is entirely fluid and never disorienting.

Boyden is a beautiful writer. I do want to read the others in the series.

[Original goal list posted here.]