Yesterday after sharing my recipe for homemade Raspberry Jam Bars, I realized that I have yet to share my recipe for canning Raspberry Jam.
One of the best things about canning Raspberry Jam, is that it gives you a great excuse to head out to a local pick your own farm to hand select bright red sun-ripened raspberries. Read more…
Old Fashioned Kitchen
It has been said that through the careful observation of history, will we find the answers needed for tomorrow’s future. As I take small steps to reduce our carbon footprints on this Earth, I am often drawn to the legends of my Great Grandparents who farmed the land and knew how to successfully live a sustainable life.
Two generations ago, my Great Grandmother Julia immigrated to the United States from Poland. When she arrived on Ellis Island, she did not have a designer purse hanging from her slender wrists; instead, she carried a small pillowcase full of her belongings. When I consider that she came to this country completely alone, I deeply admire her courage and fierce determination to succeed. Great Grandmother Julia chose to start her new life in Riverhead, New York. It was a small Polish community and she was not here very long before she fell in love with my Great Grandfather Julius. Together they started a family, and etched out a life farming a potato farm that is now the home to some of the best vineyards on Long Island.
As I sit here at my laptop, and look around at all of the modern conveniences that life in this century has afforded me, I can not help but wonder if my great grandparents would recognize most of them. If they were to be able to travel through time and space for a visit, how would my everyday existence appear to their old world eyes and sense of accomplishment? Would they be impressed with the fact that my home and life is stuffed to the gills with time saving gadgets which free up my time, only so it can be over scheduled and filled up with a million other distracting tasks, preventing me from savoring the moment at hand? Above all, could they comprehend the fact that living green and practicing sustainability is something I am learning and not second nature? Yes, these are questions that make me wonder about who I am and what I can do to leave something more behind me then an enormous carbon footprint in this world… Something that would make them feel proud of the legacy they have left behind them as well…
At the moment, the steps I am taking still seem small and insignificant to me, but all of them have enriched my life, giving it a deeper sense of value, and purpose. In my journey, towards eating local, living greener, and incorporating more sustainable practices into my life, I have found that Read more…
