Slice of Life Story - An Unplanned Pickle Project!

Yesterday I made green tomato pickle. I picked the last of the tomatoes from our small vegetable garden, found a recipe for green tomato pickle relish and set about producing a few jars of this delicious condiment. Today when I entered the house, I could smell the sweet remnant smells of the previous day’s cooking. The blending of tomatoes, onions, apple vinegar, sugar and spices were lingering in the air. There was a time when I’d regularly do cooking and preserving of our home grown produce, but other things has pushed this activity to the back of the queue in recent years. It was most satisfying to reconnect with such therapeutic activity. Cutting the onions and apple, blanching the tomatoes and then removing the skin, combining them in a large pot on the stove and adding copious amounts of vinegar, sugar and spices was fun. Then I found myself with the task of constant stirring over the simmering pot as the ingredients softened; the mingling aromas tickling my nose. The best thing about this spontaneous task was that I found myself involved in something that disconnected me from the computer.

In those jars I have a spread to savour and enjoy across the coming months. My father used to make green tomato pickle. I recall it well. The smell, the taste and the sight of long glass jars filled with the yummy green spread all came flooding back to me in yesterday’s little endeavour. It prompted me to make labels for the jars, such was my pleasure in this unplanned pickle project! 

Comments

  1. wlb22 March 2010 at 21:40

    When our children were young we had a big garden. We canned or froze most everything from the garden including relishes, pickles, and dilly beans. Those days have been traded since we are empty nesters. Now we travel, golf, boat, and yes compute. I bet making that relish was satisfying and probably brought back some fond memories for you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cathy22 March 2010 at 22:50

    As I started reading, I had to figure out where in the world someone would be growing tomatoes.

    I, too, remember food made by someone in my family and I understand the reminiscing that occurs when it happens! Thanks for helping me remember some of my own favorite foods from my grandparents.

    ReplyDelete
  3. bonnie K22 March 2010 at 23:00

    Wow, Alan, I love sour tomatoes. We used to buy ours in the summer from the pickle man who can around in his black Buick. No back seat. Just a flat platform from the back of the front seats covered with containers of pickles. And he had lots of samples before we had to choose.
    Sour tomatoes- always my favorites. I still buy them in the grocery store, but they are never the same.
    I'll bet yours would take me back,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  4. bonnie K22 March 2010 at 23:01

    Wow, Alan, I love sour tomatoes. We used to buy ours in the summer from the pickle man who can around in his black Buick. No back seat. Just a flat platform from the back of the front seats covered with containers of pickles. And he had lots of samples before we had to choose.
    Sour tomatoes- always my favorites. I still buy them in the grocery store, but they are never the same.
    I'll bet yours would take me back,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  5. Blink23 March 2010 at 09:30

    Isn't it amazing how creatively therapeutic and quieting cooking can be? I could smell your pickles!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Mary23 March 2010 at 10:55

    I so admire your ability to do this! I can barely cook anything from scratch without a recipe nearby. Also, I don't have much of a green thumb but I am trying to turn that around this summer with my first attempt at a garden in my first home! Thanks for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Letterpress23 March 2010 at 15:36

    So, when are you going to post the recipe? Or send it along? I always seem to time my tomatoes wrongly and am yanking out the vines with lots of green toms on them. I usually set them in the window to ripen, but this sounds fabulous. Given that I'm not familiar with it--do you use it like regular pickles, or do you serve with a savory dish, like a roast or something.

    Fun post--
    Elizabeth
    http://peninkpaper.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not every thing has a
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers to gain i
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intention of drawing t
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to
Read more