Making Dewberry Jam

We continue to pick dewberries, and we now have picked about 22 pounds.  Some of them we ate fresh over ice cream, but we are "canning" the rest.  Most we have bagged and put in the freezer.  Due to limited space, we are even using the freezer in the motor home refrigerator.  Looks like our freezers will be overloaded with dewberries until we can get the new freezer going in the new house.

Today we took a new tack.  Cec made two batches of jam the old fashioned way - without pectin (Sure Jell).  She crushed the berries, added sugar and boiled them down to a thick consistency.  Then the jam went into small jars that were sterilized by boiling and lids secured.  Then the filled jars were boiled to seal the lids.  After they cooled, they began to pop, indicating that the seal was secure.  The jars have to sit for an additional 12 hours without being disturbed to ensure that the seal is not broken.

The total production today was 18 half pints.  I got to scrape the pot for last remaining bits of jam, and it was delicious!  As my father would have said, "It'll make you slap your pappy down!"  For you non-East Texans, that means something is so good that it makes you take leave of your senses and do things that are otherwise unthinkable.

Today's Berry Haul

This is Cec with the dewberries we picked today.  More tomorrow for sure.

Back when I was a kid, my Mother would put on her big hat and long sleeved shirt, grab a pot from the kitchen and head for the nearest berry patch.  This was usually a fence row or on a railroad right-of-way, places that did not get mowed or chopped by farmers (that includes my Dad), or eaten by cows.

Most of the berries went into jar after jar of  blackberry jelly, which we enjoyed all year long.  Of course, some of the berries went into blackberry cobblers.

We probably won't make any jelly this year since our house is not completed, but we will have blackberry cobbler!  If we pick a lot of berries, we will freeze them for use later in the year.

Berry Picking Time In Texas

They bloomed several weeks ago, and now they are producing ripe berries.  I am speaking of the early variety of small wild blackberry known as "dewberries."  The larger wild blackberry comes along in a few weeks.

Several days ago we noticed that we have several patches of dewberries on our property and that they are beginning to ripen.  We picked just enough for a taste on our low-fat, ice cream sundae last night.  We walked down today with two containers and found quite a few ripened to a dark black.  We picked about a quart, perhaps enough for one of life's most delicious experiences, wild berry cobbler.

There are many others beginning to turn red and an even large number still green.  Our builder told us about another area near Trinity where there are many, many vines.  We plan to drive over there tomorrow.

Berries tend to grow in low, inaccessible areas, perfect habitat for snakes.  Texas has several varieties of rattlesnakes, copperhead moccasin, water moccasins and coral snake all native to this area. And did I mention fire ants?  Mean suckers that cause a pustle every place they sting. The rule in Texas is don't put your hand or foot any place you cannot see.  So we took a stick to prod around in any area we could not see before stepping or picking.

The vines themselves are not very friendly and have spines that stick and scratch.  You usualy return from a berry picking trip with punctured fingers and scratched arms.  Cec concluded quickly that gloves would be a good addition to her berry picking repertoire.

Gardening

The plants have been in the garden almost three weeks, and they are coming along nicely.  Only one or two of the plants died, and all appear to be thriving.

The hoses running along the rows near the plant are dripper hoses for irrigation.  I put an electronic timer on the faucet so I could water when we were out of town a couple of weeks ago.  We have had enough rain since that I have not had to water, but I think I will turn it on tonight since the surface seems a bit dry.  I used tent stakes to position the hoses and prevent them from breaking the plants as I pulled them into position.

I have ten or so tomato plants as I recall.   So we should have plenty for fried green tomatoes early on and plenty of vine ripened tomatoes later in the season.  Anyone who has not experienced a home grown tomato has missed one of the most sublime experiences of life.  Those "truck ripened" tomatoes you buy in the store range from barely passable to very bad.  

Despite being red, most supermarket tomatoes are not truly ripe.  The shelf life of naturally ripened tomatoes is so short that it would not be practical to truck them from California or Mexico. Instead they are picked green and artificially ripened using an inert gas.  They are red, but they are not ripe.  

Stone Work in Progress

The stone masons arrived yesterday and began to lay the stone siding.  We chose a color called "Marble Falls" and a light mortar.  It is manmade but looks very natural.  The stones are darker than on the samples used for the selection, but the light mortar lessens the effect.  We are very pleased with the result.  The stone rises about one-third of the way up the wall and will extend all around the house except for the screened porch.

The Cabinets Are Stained...Granite and Tile Upcoming

As previously reported the cabinets are now complete, and the painters have now stained them golden oak.  You might have noticed that the doors are missing.  That is because the doors are not made on site but are ordered from a manufacturer. They have been ordered and will be stained later.

The trim and doors have been masked and will be painted white soon.  That will be followed by the walls, although we have not selected a color.

We selected our granite countertops last week--an Indian granite called Shivakashi Yellow.

We spent most of last week looking at tile for the kitchen, entry, and bathrooms, and we have decided on all but the kitchen.  We thought we had the kitchen also, but the builder is trying to convince us that our selection is too close to the color of the granite.  Stay tuned.

Speaking of Mariachis

In the previous post I mentioned being serenaded by mariachis at Mi Tierra restaurant.   They offered us either a happy song or a romantic one, and we chose the latter.  The photo at the left shows the musicians with Cec.

San Antonio

We traveled to San Antonio this weekend to meet our friend Nancy and daughter Michelle, who were visiting on a band trip from Michigan.  We stayed at the Hotel Mimosa Riverwalk, which is where our friends were staying.  It was a nice hotel, which despite the name is located about 2 blocks from the River Walk.

Shortly after we arrived we walked to the fabulous River Walk Area, which is shown in the adjacent photo.  The weather was beautiful and the temperature ideal for a visit to this paradise in the midst of downtown San Antonio.

We decided to have dinner at Mi Tierra, a Mexican restaurant located in the Market Square area.  Market Square is located 8-10 blocks west of the River Walk area, and we decided to walk over instead of retrieving the car from the hotel parking lot.  It was a bit long but not unpleasant.  We had never been to Mi Tierra, but it was highly recommended on the Orangebloods (University of Texas sports) message board.  The food was excellent, and we were serenaded by mariachis!  On the way out we stopped at the bakery and bought a bag of delicious looking treats to share with our friends.

We met Nancy and Michelle on Saturday and spent the day with them at Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement park.  We had a very nice time despite a very rough ride on the Rattler wooden roller coaster at the end of the day.  We rode a couple of water rides and got splashed pretty heavily, especially Cec.  Unlike when I was a kid, I avoided any rides that go round and round or loop and twist.  My favorite ride is the swinging ship, called Overboard there but Pirate Ship elsewhere.  The ride is pretty mild, but it gives you a repeated zero gravity experience at the top of its swing, which feels very good.  (I probably would enjoy skydiving if I could ever get out to the airplane.)  Cec does not fare well on most rides, and Nancy and I rode all but water rides, on which Cec joined us.

Lotsa Travel

Cec and I are in Port Huron, MI, which is not far north of Detroit.  I am here for a business meeting with a company for which I am working part time.

The day before we left for Michigan, we went to a party at the Houston Museum of Natural Science celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Akin Gump law firm.  Our very good friend is a partner there.  The Museum is featuring the Lucy exhibit, and we were thrilled to see it.  Lucy is a 3.5 million year old hominid who was discovered several years ago in Ethiopia.

We arrived in Detroit on Saturday on Continental after a 4.5 hour delay due to a broken  airplane.  We arrived just in time to attend a meeting of the Wolverine Four Wheelers, our old off-road vehicle club.  We told only one member that we were coming, and we successfully pulled off the surprise.  It was great seeing our dear friends.  We really miss them.

The business meetings went very well, and I am very excited to part of the new business.  I believe it has tremendous potential.

While I attended meetings, Cec had a great time visiting with her buddies in the Troy area.

We return home tomorrow and then on Friday head to San Antonio to meet a Wolverine friend and her daughter, who are there on a high school band trip.  Ironically, we saw them at the Saturday meeting, but we will be happy to spend more time with them in San Antonio than we could at the meeting.  I think we are going to Six Flags for the day.  Hope they have a good wooden roller coaster!

On Sunday we drive up to Marble Falls to attend the 90th birthday party of a dear friend who was one of my first inventors back in my Sun Oil days early in my career.  He is an eternally optimistic, perpetually creative and loving person who is  joy to be around,

We plan to arrive back in Riverside late Sunday ready to get back to overseeing the home construction.

Cabinets in Progress

The cabinet makers arrived last week and are proceeding quickly.  They also hang all the doors and do all the window and door trim.  The photo at the left shows the partially completed kitchen cabinets.

Since we did not have complete architectural drawing done on the house, we are designing the cabinets in detail as we go.  That leads to some interesting dilemmas such as the size of the opening for washer and dryer in the utility room. The standard opening for top loaders is 62", each unit being 29" wide, leaving a gap of 4".  However, the washer dryer market is moving toward front loaders, motivated in part by government energy regulations.  Front loaders are 27" wide, leaving a gap of 8", which is unacceptable.  The cabinet makers built for the old standard, but we finally decided to have them move one cabined to close the gap.  

There are always compromises, but in general things are going well.  The cabinet makers are doing an outstanding job.

Garden Time!

When I was growing up, we always had a huge vegetable garden.  Some people gauge their success in life by the number of dollars in the bank; but my mother measured hers by how many tomato plants she set out and how many quarts of peas she put in the freezer.

My favorite garden vegetable is tomatoes, but the only garden we've had space for in recent years were tomatoes and peppers in flower pots.  The results were not very favorable.

So when the dogwoods began to bloom this year, the tug of the ancient ways asserted itself, and we knew we had to put in a garden.  Since we have not identified a good spot for a garden at the new home, and it is still chaotic, we decided to put it behind the my mother-in-law's trailer.  I bought a small Honda tiller (FG 110) at Home Depot to cultivate the soil, and it has turned out to be an outstanding choice.  It is fairly easy to handle, it starts with one pull, and it does a nice job of tilling.

We bought fertilizer and our plants at a small, old-fashioned farm store in Trinity.  Plants were picked over this year in most places, but they had a good supply.  The man at the farm store said that high food prices have led many more than usual to plant gardens this year.  We bought all sets - tomatoes, peppers (hot and mild), onions, squash, canteloupes, cucumbers and okra. My mother used to plant all but tomatoes, onions, and peppers from seeds, but we did not get started soon enough to do it that way.  We did not even consider crops such as peas and beans due to the lack of space and the preparation required.  We had to get it done quickly, and the result is a bit chaotic.

Everything is planted, and now we water and wait.  I can't wait for a plate of sliced tomatoes!