Whine
I would like to humbly suggest that an urban homesteading lifestyle requires a certain degree of letting shit slide.
You have two choices: make peace with weeds, kitchen dishes, chicken shit and dirty fingernails or go crazy fighting the inevitable.
I would like to humbly suggest that blogging also requires a certain degree of letting shit slide.
You have two choices: make peace with assholes, content thieves and trolls or go crazy fighting the inevitable.
I’ve been going a little crazy lately. See, I don’t just want a productive garden, I want an attractive garden. I don’t just want a pantry stocked with home canned foods, I want a (relatively) clean stove top. I don’t just want quality time with my kids and a fun-filled home, I want organization that allows me to find stuff when I want it. I don’t just want to do all this crap, I want to write about it. I don’t just want to write about it, I want to not wake up to hate email attacking me.
My battle with setting goals that are quite frequently at odds with each other has reached something of a fervor lately. Much of this is related to how much time (and, more critically, emotional energy) I allow my blog to consume. Too much, as it turns out. There was a good several-week period recently where I was pretty sure Al Gore made a terrible, terrible mistake when he invented the internet.
See, I am still learning how to brush off the “realities” of being a blogger – like periodically being told things like:
You write like an 11th grade fat girl, who is poor, and cannot afford to eat right. Do us a favor and write about something youre [sic] proficient in..like shopping at Grocery Outlet and be [sic] single. Don’t dump your inadequacies on those seeking legitimate nutritional advice. Youre [sic] neither qualified, nor worthy to be leading people down your clearly desolate path.
Hugs and kisses to you, too, asshole.
Bump around the internet long enough and eventually you get sprayed with the hatespew of some real fuckheads. My turn to catch spew came a few weeks ago, and it was just one thing after another.
My blog has been very much an extension of a certain part of my life: the home stuff and garden stuff, and periodically things about my family and kids. Perhaps other bloggers keep better distance from their writing, I don’t know. I think most writers get rather attached to what they write, whatever the topic, or they wouldn’t do it.
People who don’t blog (and many who do) say that comments like the above gem are a sign that a site is popular enough to have trolls – and that is a sign that a blogger is doing great! Maybe so. But it doesn’t feel great – it feels exactly as if someone broke into your house, took a shit on your couch and then left you to clean it up. Was any permanent damage done? Well, not really…but I’m scrubbing shit and the loose-stooled perpetrator is down the road, already busy soiling someone else’s furniture.
I suppose the most gracious way to describe this would be “learning experience.”
Wine & Weed
Alright, enough of that. I didn’t actually intend to write about internet trolls, but the topic has clearly been clogging up my fingers, because any time I sit down to write, out it leaks.
Here’s the part of this post that isn’t butthurt navel-gazing. One of the reason that the urban homesteading world has an amazing and (mostly) supportive virtual community is because many of us feel like there aren’t many real-life people in our real-life world who are particularly interested in this Grow Your Own stuff.
All of us recognize that many hands make lighter work, and most of us want some degree of real life community. But you can’t sit around and wait for someone come knocking. If you want a community, you have to make it.
So, I would like to share my secret to making a Productive Home Friend. I call it the Wine and Weed.
Weeding Tool
If you know someone casually, maybe at work or from around the neighborhood, and they seem cool and interested in gardening (they don’t have to be hard core), ask if they’d be interested in setting up a few labor trades over the summer. A couple hours one week at your place, then a couple hours a few weeks later at their house.
Hosting house supplies wine. This is the important part. You aren’t just offering manual labor for manual labor. You are throwing a Mini Productive Home Party. It’s fun! There’s booze!*
Pick someone reliable, and make sure you are reliable, and keep “swapped hours” pretty equal so no resentment builds up. If you have kids, a Productive Home Friend with compatible age and temperament kids is a huge bonus.
Walking around a garden with a friend for 90 minutes, drinking wine and pulling weeds or raking out mulch can get an unbelievable amount done for almost no perceived effort. There is a synergy that happens when you work together with someone that really does lessen the burden.
If you have a particularly close friend, you could even host a “Wine, Whine and Weed” trade, akin to the “Stitch and Bitch” parties knitters host.
The point is to introduce the concept of friendly socialization while still getting shit done. People really go for it – I just floated the Wine and Weed concept at a coworker of mine last night and her response was, “sign me up.”
…And pass the wine.
Do you have a real life community of support for gardening, canning, and other productive home activities, or are you the only kook in your town doing this stuff?
I subscribe to a lot of blogs. I mean a LOT. Everything from decorating, to gardening, to recipes. What can I say–I have varied interests and I’m always hungry for information, or at least someone to distract me from all the things I should be doing. You know how it goes, I’m sure. That being said, amongst all those emails I get everyday from bloggers, there are few that stand out. And Northwest Edible Life is one that stands out for all the good reasons. It makes me think, it captures my attention, it educates me, and usually makes me laugh.
To hell with trolls and anyone else who has a bone to pick about the subjects, writing, or whatever petty piece of crap they’d like to whine about when they visit Northwest Edible Life. Tough shit, I say. I like what you dish out and hope that you’ll keep it up.
I’d hate to have you drop from my list of favorites.
I was actually wondering what you thought about trolls the other day when I was reading some of the comments on a post on fb. I have to say reading the comments here is effin awesome. They mostly seem to be from inspired, interested fans and fellow gardeners but some people seem not to get it. They get me riled up and they’re not even talking to me. I can imagine how you feel but it’s nice to see the support for you. Hell hath no fury like a person whose couch was shit on who also has admin editorial abilities. Thank you for every fucking awesome thing you write.
Love your blog! Love the creative, quirky, waaay cool, practical (I could go on and on…there’s lots of complimentary adjectives I could use) links you provide. There’s so much good advice and talent out there that I probably wouldn’t have found but for you. Like the Rocket Mass Heater! We’ve already shared that with 2 other people and have decided we need to incorporate one into the design of our new home. So don’t let the bastards get ya down. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one…just some are bigger than others!
Keep your chin up, ( it’ll be easier to keep from smelling the shit )
I love the way you write, your recipes have more than intrigued me, and I see why Lauren likes you do much. And I promise not to shit on your couch – LOL!!
Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think that wanting to blog about your gardening exploits should have to be at odds with not wanting hate mail. Is it really too much to ask of the human race to just keep the negative bullshit under wraps? Ugh, how rude!!
I completely agree. And I don’t even really understand what that troll comment was trying to say. You would think if you’re going to bash someone online, you would at least want to make sure the insult you aimed at them was clear.
It’s sad that some people feel they have to say something nasty about things. I think the annonimity of the internet brings out the trolls. Anyway…I for one LOVE your blog and look forward to seeing it come up when I open my e-mail.
I don’t understand trolls. Are there really people in the world with so little to do that they go on blogs they’re not even interested in and then SPEND TIME being angry about what other people do in their free time? Any psychologists out there want to enlighten me about this? Also where do people get so much time to read stuff they don’t want to be reading? I mean I guess that’s what I’m doing right now, by writing about trolls, but- NO! I’m on this website because Erica is a hilarious writer and tells it like she thinks it and makes me feel better / laugh about being an imperfect and striving urban-hippie chick! (Thanks Erica, you rock it out.)
Your blog is one of my favs…I was bummed I couldn’t include the NW Garden Show in my budget this year cuz I thought it would be interesting to see you in person. I love what you do and what you write about and it encourages me to try more STUFF. I live in Seattle and we have a mutual friend…I would love to wine and weed with you…email me and I’ll tell you our mutual friend 🙂
I love the wine & weed idea. I’m definitely going to search for interested friends. If we get another couple in house, maybe two can weed and two can cook! I sometimes long for communal living but think some of the headaches might outweigh the benefits. A little weekend wine & weeding might be a much better way to go.
I’m glad you could vent about the nasty comments. It’s hard to hear that stuff, even when you know it’s not true. Have you read Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly? It might be encouraging to you right now…she speaks well into some of this stuff.
Just thought of one more thing. I am unsubscribing to a lot of blogs these days because I need to better focus on my priorities and not get sidetracked. Yours would be one of the LAST to go if I had to cut them all out. Thank you for your work!
Okay, that asshole troll was clearly a sniveling weenie, but toward the end of that paragraph, I just started cracking up. The ending thing about your “clearly desolate” life just put me over the top. I had tears in my eyes I was giggling so hard. What an utterly inane diatribe! I, too, blog, but unsuccessfully, as I’ve never had an encounter with trolls. And I’m glad for that, as I think it really WOULD hurt my feelings. Your blog is wondrous. Simply and honestly wondrous. Keep it up! We need you.
I’ve read several of your blogs; you are witty and genuine. forget about the trolls. A farmer geek with a dirty stove has a innocent lil’ crush on you.
I’ve read several of your blogs; you are witty and genuine. Forget about the trolls. This farm geek with a dirty stove has an innocent lil’ crush on you. Keep having more fun than ‘they’ do!
Sounds like a great idea, making a dull chore into a party!
The person who said that trolls are a sign of success are right, I’m afraid. Anther blog friend of mine has been suffering recently. Only solution is to ignore, but I agree it is very hurtful – blogs are by their nature personal, so it feels like a personal attack. The alternative is keeping your blog so low profile that hardly anyone reads it and even then you’re not guaranteed absence of idiots! Just remember that they are really talking about themselves and their own inadequacies, not you!
I’m not going to bother wasting any time or energy on the troll thing. Just wanted to say that your Wine & Weed idea is brilliant! I don’t have a garden, but love gardening, so I’m going to suggest it to my neighbor in the hopes that they want help and are willing to feed me wine!
I read You for Your wit and humor. And yes, community. Thank You, “Don’t let the bastard’s win”, is how the saying goes.
First off, your wine and weed sounds like an EXCELLENT idea. And I’m already thinking about who to bring it up to in order to get my wine on.
Second, I don’t reply often, but am a regular reader here- you are fantastic. Your writing makes me either laugh or think- and often both. I know it’s impossible to ignore it. Blogging is a clear window in to ones life, and by doing it, it is going on display for all to see. And it *hurts* when asshabedashers are not just critical, but down right nasty about it. But someone making comments like the one you shared – that’s a reflection on *them*, not on you. Someone who has nothing better to do than bring someone down (because none of the complaints they had are either true or valid {you have never claimed to be a nutritionist for example}) is a sadm despressing individual. And I’d feel more sorry for them if that aspect didn’t involve baseless vitriol at someone so clearly working their rear off anf being amazing at sharing her experiences with others.
That got longer and wordier than I intended, especially since you don’t know me, but I feel like I (and many of your readers) know you at least to the extent we possibly could. It takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there like you do. And you have my respect for it and everything else that you do.
Ditto all of the above! And thankyou for your frankness in your writing…I so enjoy and appreciate it.
Personally, I am offended if I do not receive some hate now and then. It is like high octane fuel. I have not been following your blog very long, but so far I am impressed.
If it makes you feel any better, a few days ago, someone called me a fat ugly bitch who needed to go on a diet just because I tried to (politely) present a differing point of view 😉 Fortunately, a long background in customer service told me that this diatribe wasn’t actually directed at me, but at the world in general, and the scope of overreaction was just so damn funny to me that I literally spent the rest of the day laughing about it 🙂
*hug* You are doing an awesome job, I hope you never tire of it, and kisses and unicorn farts to the sad sack who had to resort to personal attacks about your appearance to make him/herself feel better.
Rock on, Erica 🙂
I’ve been meaning to write the opposite of the troll comment here for awhile – and I see I’m not the only one! Here’s more like the gushy “OMG I think I love you!!!” slightly obsessed fan mail comment (but not the creepy kind, really) 😉 . Seriously, yours is one of the few – and perhaps the **only** – email newsletters that I get truly excited about when I see in my inbox. Like I get a hit of endorphins just seeing “Northwest Edible Life” in my inbox. BTW – such a vanilla title for such an oh-so-saucy and rich and funny and smart and cool and-and-and just plain awesome friggin blog (hmmm I searched the page and counted six whole properly written FUCKS! – see you inspire us! hehe) Anyhow, I’m thinkin’ a name like “Rock Your NW Edible Life” or something that at least hints of the awesomeness that lies within (and see the rock is a double entendre for cool and like, rocks in the garden – right, sorta!) ALSO – saw you at the NW Garden Show and you are as cool and smart and funny as a presenter as you are a blogger – Top Chef producers would probably salivate over you. And I think like you should OUT yourself more than you do here for your professional chef training and how that translates over into your love of growing your own food and doing amazing shit with it! Okay, keep rockin it on, sister! Lining up the girlfriends for the wine-n-weed parties in my head as I type! 🙂
Ah, trolls. Aren’t they fun? It’s amazing how we can receive ten thousand compliments from people, but one miserable jackass with a chip on their shoulder can wiggle through and make us question our abilities.
You’re a brilliant writer, and unbelievably inspiring. Remember that, and know how much you inspire so many of us.
I just have to say that your above rant has only cemented my desire to hear what you have to say in your blog! You can’t make everyone happy all the time, and even worse it isn’t that you made them read what you had to say, right? Your blog is about your personal experience and what you have learned from doing. As far as I am concerned your input ranks much, much higher on the scale of valuable information when compared to someone who learned what they know from a book. To many people these days are failing to go to the human source for needed knowledge and information and that is something we should fear. Nothing can replicate the human variable in any situation regarding lessons learned and skills obtained. I could read hundreds of books but would still value the opinion of a person who has with some background actually done a thing and learned from it and I would not be to above myself to be appreciative of the gift of learning from someone else’s experiences. If I don’t agree with what you have to say, then I can easily find the answers I am looking for by searching elsewhere. Lord knows that in today’s time no matter what the answer is we are searching for we will inevitably find at least one sole who agrees. Thank you again for showing us that you are just like us, another valuable lesson learned from Spencerian and shared so we don’t have to learn it on our own, that is unless we are to full of ourselves to listen.
soul**
experience** good grief that will teach me not to proof read.
I LOVE this! Love, love, love it! I would suggest composting such a comment, but that might ruin your compost pile and poison the chickens!
I love the wine and weed idea, but no one here drinks wine but me. Oh well, more (wine) for me. Cheers!
Well, I hate your troll with a burning fucking passion. I ran a completely different blog and shut it down because the audience really wanted me to bleed for them. It was an emotional rollercoaster, so I shut it down and started something more positive. Turns out, I love blogging, but don’t really need the Interwebs inside my innermost thoughts.
Your blog is kickass. As a newbie here, I’ve already spread it out because it’s got all the elements that I look for.
Getting back to whine, wine, and weed, I move a lot, so it gets tough to form real connections where I live… my job ends up being my community (I’m in the Coast Guard). But, I think the garden is essentially a community asset that is primarily curated by the owner. To be really great, is should be shared in some capacity. I think this is a major purpose.
Unfortunately, my garden looks like shit right now. We just moved there less than a year ago (typical) and made haste with our late planting last season. The soil sucks, the chickens shit everywhere, and I work too much. My life’s plan is to change this. I want to be a master gardener and embrace the full spectrum of what it means to be productive.
You are truly productive. Somebody emailing you something shitty is so typical of somebody who just doesn’t understand what it takes to produce something of value. It’s difficult work that is often shouted into a black space. Don’t worry about that assclown.
I have stumbled upon your blog through reading Natural Awakenings. Wow! as I myself is trying to grow our own food and become self-sufficient, but I am still a novice; started only in 2010. So, I have a lot to learn from you and your blog.
Thanks for the post and the idea! I was part of a community garden for a couple of years and I had some pretty smart garden leaders. We had a work day once a month where we weeded the common areas, fixed the compost and did other tasks to keep up the garden. Historically, these days had extremely low turn out (even though you sign something when you get your plot agreeing to help). Although there is no realistic way to make sure every gardener participates, my garden leaders realized that offering coffee and food increased attendance numbers dramatically. Plus, once they started bringing food, a few of us other gardeners brought fruit and baked goods also. The result was that the work day turned into a potluck brunch with work. It was great. You could meet people and exchange ideas and go over problems you were having. They even had a couple speakers come and discuss different topics. This laborious work day is the part of the garden I miss the most. Now, if they had offered wine, I can only imagine what a party those work days would have been! great suggestion.
-Maureen
We do the Saturday morning bloody mary routine… as long as the bloodies keep flowing, the work keeps going… and after a while you just say screw it and have another bloody and park your butt and watch the chickens…. it just ain’t all that important…
Matt Jarvis
Eugene, Oregon
Does it really matter what people say or don’t say. We are here because we want to be and looking for like minded people to express ourselves and learn from each other as much as possible. Every morning I look forward to receiving your email, reading and absorbing what I need to know. So therefore keep it coming because the majority rules around here … and that’s us. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences, knowledge and wisdom with those you need and want it …. just me !!
I must not read very many blogs compared to other people, because while I had heard of trolls I had not read any of their “communications.” I was horrified at the one you posted (and horrified by the grammar!) and am sorry you were subjected to that. It took my breath away reading it, and it was not even directed at me! Only a cowardly excrement extruding orifice would write something like that, and I hope all the positive comments you’ve received balanced out his/her comment.
I just want to thank everyone for these amazingly kind comments. You guys are wonderful.
Wheaton’s Law, indeed! Love the blog, look forward to it whenever I get the chance to go online. Thanks for all you do and the wonderful, human, tough-while-being-fragile perspective you provide. Pay no heed to those who would rather tear down than build. It has been my experience that most people who do that are actually demonstrating the failings and shortcomings in their own lives and are trying to drag the rest of us down to join them in their cesspools of self-pity.
Grow, build, share and have a wonderful life. Still waiting for the cookbook, though. Could you speed that up a little? 🙂
I generally enjoy your posts, Erica. Not every one is Pulitzer material, but every one seems to be thoughtful, informative and heartfelt. That Heartfelt position is the one that will cause you pain. I don’t know how one balances personal, emotional investment in one’s writing with the indifferent detachment required to deflect trolls, but you are figuring it out.
“To thine own self be true.” Someone with great literary merit said that. (just can’t remember who; don’t have time to google it.)
In a perfect world, hate speech would trigger at least a camera shot of the writer at their keyboard, posted along with their bile. Then, you would see what truly pathetic and tortured cretins waste their time in such negative air. Until then, Keep Calm and Carry On.
Well, for starters, that dickheads’ comment doesn’t make any sense. Plus, you are a talented writer, a generous blogger, and all-round awesome in general. So those idiots who leave completely shitty comments or emails can fuck off.
Now, as to balancing all this stuff we have decided was a good idea to take on, we must be soil sisters (my phone auto corrected ‘sole’ but that’s OK, we can be soil sisters instead) as that crazy shit messes me up too. I just don’t see why I can’t do it all & do it awesomely as well. But in the words of Samwise Gamgee, just let it go! (Can you tell I watched Return of the King again last night!) but us soil sisters, whilst we want to drop that potato like its hot, we still have this burning desire to keep that potato and turn it into a 12 dish degustation with enough left over to preserve it in three different ways. But that concept (and the potato… and the ring too) need to be thrown into the firey lava of Mount Doom.
I started a group called The Yeban Homesteading Club in my local area, for just that reason. I needed real life interaction with people who were happy (eager) to talk compost, chickens, heirloom seeds, preserving etc. We’re still going, chatting on our Facebook group, getting together once a month to chat, swap, share, do the occasional workshop. But I am thinking we could def. have weeding & more drinking!! Good idea!
Now, go have a glass if wine and have your husband and kids tell you how awesome you are. Works for me!
Yeban. Ahahahahahahaha! Urban. Stoopid autocorrect!
Oh, and yes, not soul sisters, but ‘SOLE’ sisters, I meant it as Sustainable, Organic, Local, Ethical… which was having a go at myself, because I am always using that acronym because I think it makes me look clever. Let’s just stick with soil sisters, and I’ll shut up now.
One reason your blog is so popular, and seems to be growing quite nicely, is your sincerity and openness. You have goals, some of which are pretty hard to reach, and you’ve shared when you can’t reach them and discussed the conflict you, and many of us, feel when our aspirations run smack dab into our reality. It seems like that kind of openness would go hand-in-hand with taking the nasty comments personally, even when it’s clear that the comments illuminate much more about the one who send them than the one they were sent to.
You’ve created a wonderful little corner online, full of ideas and inspiration for newbies and more experienced gardeners alike. I hope you can find a way to let the ugly complainers roll away like water off a duck’s back and still share such wonderful urban homesteading/productive living/gardening posts with the rest of us.
Cheers to you!
I love your blog and your willingness to share your wonderful knowledge. Please keep it up!
Erica you add enjoyment to my day. Some assholes like to piss on everyone’s parade cuz it isn’t theirs.. They are Bullys
It is hard to be creative and thin skinned.. so F$%K em and forget em…. I love that you have a mouth as dirty as your knees…..LOL makes you so much more real…. Thanks for all your sharing. North Carolina loves you
I love yor blog! The troll’s comment is hysterical to me because it’s so pathetically off the wall and off target! But, if it were a comment on my blog? I’d be blubbering in my room, lol. Trolls are particularly mean becase they can be anonymous and not be held accountable for their bad, rude and generally antisocial behavior. Ignore the troll with the sad life, wine and weed and blog on!
I have worked customer service in much of my career and it always surprised me that people felt it ok to take their life frustrations out on the phone or via email. I have had the option of hanging up/deleting, but it still feels yucky. So may the good energy replace the bad. I like glug and garden idea. I have had friends who would weed with me and it was always more fun. Good idea to formalize a bit. Could share out plants like berries or other divisions or bulbs in an easy take it home kind of way.
I enjoy your blog. Don’t let the trolls get you down.
“NON CARBORUNDUM ILLEGITIMI” = Don’t let the bastards grind you down
This little aphorism has been on my desk since my college days, rendered in Sharpie on cardboard or just pencil on the back of a sales receipt, saving me from giving up or giving in countless times.
I actually had a good laugh at that excerpt from the loser who commented on your blog. What does a fat 11th grader write like???? I’m hoping they have a better handle on their grammar and spelling than that moron. I know a lot about food and nutrition and your advice is sound and mostly common sense. Ignore the idiots, think how much time they must spend going from blog to blog leaving nasty comments. There is always the temptation to turn the comments off but then for every steamer someone leaves you there will be dozens of us leaving you our thanks for your entertaining, funny and intelligent words.
Remember, trolls can only write about what they see in the mirror! Keep up the good work, you’re a blessing.
Erica, don’t let the assholes get you down! I know that’s easier said than done, but there are an extraordinary amount of us who are so happy to be on this journey with you, so try to forget comments from trolls. Love the idea of a wine, whine and weed party 😉 May have to try that out 🙂
Hi Erica…I just found your blog and LOVE your writing and your topics. As a fellow blogger I am glad to see you persevering in spite of all the trolls and naysayers and writing about what it true and perfect for you (and many of the rest of us!). And I also LOVE your idea of wine, whine and weed party! While my raised bed garden doesn’t really need extra help–the idea of pulling in friends to connect with and create something is very valuable. Keep writing–it is appreciated!
“Don’t let the bastards get you down”….
Hey just wanted to say that I stumbled randomly onto your site a few weeks ago and even though I don’t garden or can or pickle or keep chickens or do anything really remotely related to the stuff you write about except eat food (when I can find the time), I was totally inspired. What you are doing with your life is art, and sharing your struggles and inspirations so honestly through this blog is very brave. I’m sure that there are many more people appreciate your work who don’t stop to comment.
Well, it’s clear that your troll is getting no love here!
I concur with all of the above. You provide a huge service to the “grow your own” community and you rock.
I’m really intrigued by your wine and weed suggestion. There aren’t a lot of urban h’steaders out here in suburbia (the land of homeowner’s associations) but the lure of red wine just might do the trick. I’m all over it!
Hang in there…and bookmark this page so you can reread all the love (119 comments and counting) the next time some idiot decides to take a dump in your blog.
I am a real [sic] big fan!
Hi Erica,
I just read the above post and want you to share my thoughts. I enjoy your site and think it is a great resource with a personal, friendly feel to it. You are willing to put time, effort, and resources into writing it- if people like that commentor above feel that your site is so bad, why did they take the time to comment? Shouldn’t they just stop reading and leave?
I don’t know why people feel the need to sit behind a screen name and act like assholes. On my business blog (education) I disabled comments before my first posting because I can’t take the nasty jerks out there who criticise but offer nothing. Don’t like my opinion? Fine, tell me politely about other viewpoints and let’s have an enlightening conversation. This just doesn’t seem to happen anymore.
When did so many people decide that personal attacks and poorly-written comments are the proper debate tools?
Anyway, I think you are great. Your blog teaches me things and makes me laugh. Plus, you swear; I dig that shit 🙂
Thanks for bringing us together.
p.s. my husband and I just built on 50 acres. We did it ourselves (except for skilled trades) and both of us are hands-on people. I have been making yogurt, cheese, lacto-ferm stuff, bread etc. and one of my students likes to see the pictures from the house and my cooking/canning. When I showed her my maple syrup adventures from this last weekend, she threw her hands up and said’ “Why do you make everything? You can just buy syrup, you know!” I thought it was pretty funny. Most kids think I am nuts, but I (and you, and your followers) am really just doing great-grandma stuff. Funny how our relationship with food has changed so much over three generations.
Sorry for the rambling post. In case you gave up and started skimming- I said nice things about you.