Monday, August 22, 2011

You Never Know...

Going to visit family, you never know what you'll get into.
This past week was no exception. We'd gone to Regina a couple of weeks earlier and had stopped at Value Village, the local version of Goodwill. We saw a sign that seniors over 62 get 20% off on Tuesdays so this past Tuesday we went back and Mom shopped. Actually, as long as one person is over 62 the whole price is discounted.
We got into the bedding area, sheets and duvets from $2.99 to $6.99 and we got a stack. Then spent time removing hems and seams. Nice stack of fabric ready to cut into strips for rugs!! Now just to find the time to weave them....
 Up in Canada they have chokecherries. The bushes grow wild kind of like blackberries do up here and about this time of year people used to pick them to make juice or jam out of. Well, the park my Mom and sister drive through a time or two a week have a bunch of these bushes, especially back in the far end. On Wednesday Mom decided that after dialysis we would go there and pick chokecherries. They looked about ready to pick. We spent over an hour picking them.

I guess it's only fair if I take a picture of my sister picking that I would post the one of myself too. We got those containers filled a couple of times. The bushes are high and we often had to work together, pulling down the branches will the other picked them. It didn't go badly, actually. I'd never done it before but what's to learn!
Once home we cleaned them and put about half in a big pot covered with water to boil til they were well done. Then strained the juice out which was put back in the pot with sugar just to boil enough "to be done" not thickened and then sealed into jars.
The big deal for us growing up was to have waffles. Mom made a white sauce that we put on the waffles and then some chokecherry juice on top. Another thing was when Grandma would make bubbat in a pan with farmer sausage and the juice was used on top of that as well. Ah, memories! I'll have some of the juice down in Tennessee to introduce my family to. Hmm, guess I"d better get that white sauce recipe before I forget.....

This week it's back to Tennessee and figuring out what to weave next!
Carol

4 comments:

LA said...

How wonderful that you took the time to pick berries! And you'll think of that each time you use the juice this winter! Great finds at the Goodwill store--that adds up to lots of fabric.

Tina J said...

We can't wait to see you!

Bonnie said...

Wonderful fabric. Looks like fun picking the beries.

Anonymous said...

Your fabric find and berry-picking time with family looks great! (I was picking wild blueberries in Ontario last month, but no waffle iron to be found on Dad's boat!) Happy rag stripping. ~Marta in SF