Back in the day, such an expression! it was common for things to be handed down through stories and essentially being taught all the things necessary for every day living. Mother's taught their daughter's what it took to run a household, and father's taught their sons what it took to do whatever it was he did, either through apprenticeship or whatever. While it is highly unlikely that I would have stood around and listened to any particular lesson in home making, there is a part of me that wishes that I'd seen SOMETHING, that I could have potentially absorbed by osmosis.
While progress has taken many women out of the kitchen and into the world where they can do whatever they want, necessity is pushing many of us back into it. I still fight with the constraints of what it means to saddle yourself with a flock of chickens and an enormous garden that is going to mean preserving of food -- something I am just not that comfortable with. And it's annoying.
I don't know if it is due to age or what, but I find myself researching and researching how to do something, instead of just using my gut! I had a baby and read as many books as I could get my hands on, but back then it was literally Dr. Spock and What to Expect when You're Expecting out there ... and maybe that was a good thing. Two very different viewpoints and ways to do things -- and I figured out that somewhere in the middle was just right.
I was much more comfortable raising a baby than I am baby chicks! I know that sounds ridiculous, and believe me, I KNOW THAT SOUNDS RIDICULOUS, but somehow I felt raising a baby human was obvious, whereas raising baby chicks not so much. In fact, I have read too much and I keep pointing out to myself that they are happy. They don't complain and they do what they are supposed to, which is roughly eat, poop, sleep, poop, drink, poop and as of late flap their wings. But I worry about their "brooder" becoming too small, and then what? So I google ... what do you do when your chicks are too big for their brooder ... and read. And read. And read. All the while, the chicks are fine in their current situation. What the hell? I worry that I might have gotten the wrong shavings by accident. Didn't I read that a certain type of shavings was toxic to them? Why didn't I write that down when I went to buy shavings? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? How could I make such a stupid error? (The toxic shavings are cedar and I bought aspen. It's all okay. For now.)
And then there are my seedlings. There are just too many little things depending on me right now, it's freaking me out! My seedlings are under the grow lights in the basement. I have googled how long are you supposed to keep seedlings under grow lights countless times ... I still don't really know. Some are growing yellow, I googled that. I am at the point now where too much knowledge is really only getting in the way. What the hell is wrong with figuring it all out on my own?
And herein lies the problem. It's all too easy, I think. I am over-thinking it all because can anything really be THAT easy. Really, ALL I have to do is put a pea down on the ground and cover it lightly with soil and it will grow? It just doesn't make sense ... being so easy, so somehow I have to figure out a way to make it more complicated ... and then what? I don't know. I am just guessing that this is what is going on, but I don't like it.
I want to make this recipe of Beet Kvass. This is a fermented beverage made out of beets and a culture. Of course EVERYONE has their own way of making beet kvass, and some leave it to ferment for two days, others for a week. Which is right? Now here is the thing. I make water kefir all the time, there is always a jar sitting on my counter. I have determined that I like it best when it has fermented for three days. That is another example of something that there is no true right or wrong way ... but even with this knowledge, I still second guess myself. Oh no! Someone is talking about mold. I don't want mold. Google that.
The truth of the matter is, I have beets, I have the culture starter and I have a mason jar. Several of the things I read used the jar. But another, the one of the woman I tend to like her recipes and advice, etc. uses an actual fermenter. I googled that. Do I really need to buy a fermenter? That is when I lost it! That is when I started this blog, in an attempt to chill out and stop making things harder than they need to be. I know how to make fermented beverages, why do I think I am now going to actually be doing rocket science this time around? I JUST DON'T KNOW why I seem to have no natural affinity for this ... and then I think, well maybe you do! Your chickens are happy, your seedlings are fine, there are a FEW that are turning yellow for heaven's sake, and you've been fermenting kefir for years, and you've also brewed kombucha, grown your own wheat grass and frozen a ton of things from the garden last year that you are enjoying now. So what is going on?
I don't know. I find it weird. I seem to think that if my grandmother had shown my mother how to can and preserve food and then she had taught me, the universe would be in alignment. When I know, not so very deep in my heart, that I would have scoffed at any attempt to teach me anything. My grandfather had a garden and fruit bushes, and I just didn't pay that much attention. For one, there were creepy crawly things in gardens (and that sure as hell hasn't stopped bothering me to this day!) and while I have attempted to build the same structures that he used (to no avail) for tomatoes, because I can see them in my mind's eye ... that's about all I got out of it. (And my mind's eye and my carpentry skills have never gotten along -- they are like mortal enemies who stalk each other, ready to knife the other.)
Okay, now I have to go clean out the chick brooder and without Google assistance, figure out if my yellowing plants need to be watered or fertilized or just left alone. Like the peas. I put them in the ground, lightly covered them with soil, then everyday lamented that it hadn't worked. The peas never came up. So I planted a second crop (in a different area) and lo and behold, the others came up. Peter mentioned that I need to have patience. Yeah, that might be part of the problem. I don't have any.
I wonder if you can google it and then buy it on Amazon?
