July has been a busy month for us with two road trips, jam
making, a couple of Music Circus plays in Sacramento, more jamming, and the
beginning of my community service for the Master Food Preserver program. I’m
finishing the month with 10+ hours served of my total 50 hours required this
year. Woohoo! I’m off to a great start…not totally my own doing though. I
signed up to work a four-hour shift at the Amador County Fair with my cohort,
Vera Allen. Being Sunday morning, the last day of the Fair, and a bit smoky
from a fire that had started the prior Wednesday in an area close to the
fairgrounds, attendance seemed light and interest in our booth was even lighter.
The most exciting part of our shift was watching the butterfly exhibit next to
our table. I spent hours watching the Monarchs and growing more and more
certain that Verne and I need to create a habitat that will draw these beautiful insects.
I’m so busy right now with an Etsy site that’s still not completely
up and running, working on three commissioned quilt pieces (actually, they aren’t
started yet), and putting in my MFP hours, that I’ve decided it would be a
wonderful project for Verne. He already knows quite a bit about Monarchs and we
have an expert, Alicia and her Buena Vista Butterfly Farm, within an hour of
us. A quote from Alicia’s letterhead, “Where Beauty Flies on Gentle Wings,” is
enough for me to love the woman without even meeting her. Also, Vera tells me
that the 4H program has a butterfly project. All I need is a kid to join it…anyone
have a kid they’d like to rent out for a few hours a month? Afterall, it won’t
be the first time I’ve used children to get myself into a 4H project. I had the
girls sign up for a dozen projects over the years because I wanted the
experience of raising chickens, rabbits, sheep, pigs, and cows. Well, the Fair
this year wasn’t a total bust (butterflies excluded). Verne used the four hours
I was working to leisurely partake of all the exhibits and enjoy a few beers
before noon, not his usual practice. He spent a little time with Vera and me at
the booth offering his two cents when we had the occasional question from a
passerby.
That explains four of my ten hours spent on MFP business
this month. The other six were not exactly elective. I don’t know who reads
this blog, but I’ve decided that since I consider it to be my personal journal,
I won’t hold back, but bare all. I haven’t exactly looked forward to the
community service requirement of my new title as a Master Food Preserver. I
will certainly meet my commitment and serve my time, but I was hoping to just
lay low and pick and choose the activity. In other words, be a bit invisible.
Well, I received an email the Monday before Fair telling me that our tickets
for entrance and parking were available at the Cooperative Extension office. I
thought about having Vera pick them up since she’s there several days a week,
but Verne and I were in town so I asked him to stop by the office so I could
get our tickets. Big mistake for one who was hoping to lay low and remain
invisible for the next year. Lo and behold, Sue, our teacher and leader, was
in the front office that day. That poorly timed visit resulted in my additional
community service hours in July. I left with a new assignment and within 24
hours had a second. I’ll save the first for another blog, because I’ve yet to
get started. The second, however, has kept me busy for the last five days. I
was to return a phone call to a reporter of the Sierra Lodestar (serving Amador and Calaveras Counties), who wanted to
write an article on canning. The Lodestar likes to personalize their stories,
so her questions went way, way beyond the technicalities of canning. She wanted
to write about my personal history and experience with food preservation,
complete with pictures of me canning. The pictures were a problem as I’m
usually behind the camera and I couldn’t find a single picture of me canning. I
tried to talk her into just including the MFP logo and she insisted that their
readers want pictures! With her deadline looming, I agreed to provide her with
a few on Monday.
We set out early this morning to buy peaches and
strawberries (and take pictures) at the Fruit Bowl on Highway 88. I was
reminded why I’m the one who is usually taking the pictures…I’m a more skilled
photographer than Verne and, secondly, he’s more photogenic. It took dozens of
shots before we got one that is useable.
We got home and started the process of canning peaches and
taking pictures of each step. We managed to get five acceptable pictures from
over 50 shots. (Thank goodness for digital cameras.) However, the canning was a
disaster! I’m still not sure how we messed up something as simple as canning
peaches in a simple syrup. I’ve identified a few things we could have done
better had we not been so distracted by the photo shoot, but I’m too
embarrassed to disclose them here…even though I promised to “bare all.” It’s
just too distressful to have such a failure now that I’m a full-fledged MFP and
what if word got out and Ann at the Lodestar stumbled onto this blog and shared
my failure with the public? Yikes! I’m once again humbled and reminded that I’m
a food preserver novice…a soon-to-be local MFP celebrity, but still a novice.
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