Quote:
Originally Posted by lakelady
Regarding canning, I gave up giving anyone anything. For years when I was a young mom, I went out of my way to come up with all sorts of fancy gourmet jams and preserves. I even hand picked violets to make violet jelly (it's awesome if you ever get some!)...do you have any idea how many hours go into picking enough violets for a couple of jars of jelly??? Only to find out your friends are giving it to their kids on the PB&J sandwiches. OMG. Totally ruin the taste why don't you. Not that I don't love PB&J, but special treats should be eaten separately to enjoy all of the flavors imo. Brokenbar, I can really imagine how you felt when that friend thought you'd just "whip up" all those jars of sauce. These days many folks don't realize the hard work and value of a home made anything. It's pretty sad actually. Ragu? ugh...tastes like tomato paste with sugar. bleche!
I'd say one of my favorite "myths" is that tomatoes need TONS of water. Sure they do, if you want them drowned out and watered down 
I also continually hear that heirlooms are too hard to grow. I've grown both heirlooms (very limited to the usual old stand bys until this year) along with hybrids, and honestly, I've never seen a difference in productivity or care at all. |
This is so funny!
Luckily, my side of the family appreciates the worth of a small sized jar of pickled beans, habanero jam or incredibly good tomato paste. They know exactly what those things would cost at the gourmet store or Farmer's Market, where my brother will buy them and my parents can't afford to.
I think for their Christmas gifts this year, I'm making pickled beans, tomato paste , habanero jam and I'm going to attempt some fancy homemade pastas, all in a cute basket.
Violet jam sounds wonderful and I love violets. I usually just make strawberry, blackberry, pear and apple jams/jelly, plus pepper jellies.
I agree that heirlooms are no more productive or harder to grow than hybrids. Just depends on the variety. Oh, and this fallacy has been in several newspaper articles, including a huge special in the Wallstreet Journal. How fussy heirlooms are and how the production is lower, but that the taste will make up for the disease ridden, low production issues.