Posts Tagged ‘make it do’

This week as I was driving to Salt Lake City, I was listening to NPR’s Radio West.  The author being interviewed was Ellen Ruppel Shell about her book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.  The subject really caught my attention.  It was a fascinating conversation filled with many ideas I agreed wholeheartedly with and others that I didn’t.  She talked about frugality being different than cheap.  “Cheap” defines things that are made poorly, which self-destruct… and cost so little you just replace them many, many times.

Frugality by her definition, is about having fewer things, but of good quality.  It’s about taking good care of what you have, so that it lasts a long, long time.

The program made me think about my daughters’ bed.

My twins share the full bed you see above.

I really love their bed.

But before it belonged to my girls, it had a little history.

It was the bed my husband and I had when we were first married, until we could afford a larger bed.

And before that, it was my bed growing up.  When I was young, I shared it with my younger sister Cam.  She woke me many nights having had a nightmare… and I would walk her up to my parents room.  We also gave each other “charlie-horses” in that bed…ouch.  And told stories to each other under the covers…

Before it belonged to me it was my parents first bed when they got married, until they could afford a bigger bed.  As newlyweds they had driven to Beaver, Utah to pick the bed up from the home of my mother’s Great Aunt.

She gave them the bed because it had once been my grandfather’s when he was a little boy.  His mother had died giving birth to him, so he was raised by his Uncle Will and his wife.  The bed was their’s and they gave it to my grandfather.

Before that, the story of this old bed is lost.

But, I am grateful that whoever of my ancestors purchased my daughters’ bed, they bought something of such quality, that after many generations, and many coats of paint, it is still solid and lovely.

My kids were out of school Monday.  So we headed up to my mother-in-law’s home to pick Concord Grapes.  She says the best time to pick Concord grapes is right after the first cold snap.

Picking grapes is a great activity for kids.  Since they love both grape juice and PB and J’s with homemade Grape Jelly, it’s easy to get them motivated to get picking.  My mother-in-law had a bumper crop this year and we were able to pick one five gallon bucket and plus a box full.

After picking we headed home to warm up (we had some snow flurries flying while picking) and to process the grapes.  The first step is to remove the stems from the grapes.  This is also a perfect job for kids.  Make sure to remove any leaves or other debris.

Rinse the grapes in a colander.  This bowl of grapes has been stemmed, rinsed and is waiting to go into the Steam Canner.  Notice there are a few little pieces of stems.  I am never too fussy about those, as a few don’t seam to affect the flavor of the juice.

Remember this old juice steamer?  I loaded the grapes as high as I could into this old friend.   As soon as they start juicing, the lid falls into place.

And here’s the result… nearly 12 quarts of concentrated grape juice.  They went into the refrigerator over night to give the sediment time to settle to the bottom.  Then I can pour off the juice and leave the sediment.

It’s is going to be a busy day… I have to make 5 large pans of Lasagna and 3 batches of shortbread cookies for a dinner for the teachers on Wednesday… and the grape jelly and juice process.  My mom always said hard work never killed anyone.  Let’s hope she’s right.