Hello Everyone!

Hello Everyone!  My name is Kelli.  I am terrible at many of the regular domestic duties like cooking dinner every night, dusting, vacuuming, and laundry…….. just about all of them.  But, I excel in the retro kitchen arts otherwise known as canning, putting up, or preserving summer’s bounty.  As a child I was forced to participate in planting, weeding, and picking whatever was in the garden but I never had to join in on the “fun” of preserving our fruits and vegetables.  About 20 years ago, my Nana told me it was finally time for me to learn how to make jam and jelly.  She stared at me with those piercing blue eyes that said I better get with it, and so I did.  The odd thing is that I decided that I really liked it!  There was something about stirring the fruit, pectin, and sugar together over high heat that was beautiful like an impressionist painting right before the dots, dashes, and squiggly lines turned into a laughing child sitting by the water’s edge.  Most of the time I am mesmerized by the swirling of deeply colored fruit and white sugar forming a fruity sangria swirl, of sorts.

In this blog, I want to talk to you who live in small apartments in the urban centers of our country as well as those who live in farmhouses on county roads in rural America.  Let’s discuss how to make jelly and jam and salsa and spaghetti sauce, put up green beans and corn on the cob. I will throw in how to have a small garden.  It’s cost efficient, better for your body, and you may discover that you love it as much as I do!  I look forward to us becoming friends.