Beets and Bees

July 7, 2010 at 7:46 pm (Uncategorized)

The much anticipated e-mail from Sarah, “Mom, I need….” With the following “please send me your canning and preserving books and your bee-keeping books, as well.” Now let me see about that. Canning? Bee-keeping? Like any anxious Mom an hour later I was at the post office paying $44 to ship old preserving books to Mali. However, I thought I should review a few of the techniques I’ve read about over the years in case I’m questioned on processing anything other than Apple Pie Filling or sealing fresh Beet Relish in a subsequent e-mail. “Water boils at lower temperatures the higher we go above sea level–and therefore is less effective as a destroyer of micro-organisms…..” What is the altitude of Mali? Does it make a difference if the water is carried 2 miles from the nearest well? My books indicate cooking times for a gas/electric range or even a pressure cooker. Not a single recipe for cooking over wood or even elephant dung. So what’s a little bit of mold…this is not the kind of stress I need. And then there is the sterilization of the canning jars…what jars? I did find the process for preserving eel and fish roe, but it requires crystalline ascorbic acid dissolved in a quart of water. Oh, never mind. That requires a freezer. Electricity? Nope. I’m on to the chapter of canning meats. Now we’re talking. Plucking and drawing a chicken. “Pluck feathers from the still warm, fresh-killed and bled chicken, being careful to get all the pinfeathers. Hold the bird by its feet and pull the feathers…singe off the hairs….” Yikes. I’m moving on to Cucumber Crock Pickles. Now we’re talking. If you read about a significant decrease in the population of Bamako, just don’t tell me. 

Keeping Bees. “The busiest time of the year is early summer, when you’ll need to add extensions to the hive to give the queen bee enough room to lay her eggs and the workers sufficient space to store their honey.” Oh, whatever.