I can't figure out where this stuff comes from

[boots-aregard]

Sometimes, I can't figure out where certain impulses come from.

I've got a 6 year old granddaughter, and I want her to be at least not worthless about science, so I mention to a friend that I'm looking for science experiments to interest her in the physical world. And he mentions a plum tree on a public right-of-way that is dropping it's plums like mad. He's already gleaned several pounds to make jam. I don't want to make jam, but vinegar sounds interesting.

Therefore, in the name of 6-year-old-granddaughter experimentation, _I_ wind up with 10 lbs of bruised fruit in my kitchen (50 miles away from said granddaughter), and am about to go on a crock search with my 96 year old father (who is always hurting for "things to do" on the weekend) in which to ferment the fruit. And of course I am polling all my sisters for that huge crock that my mother used to have, picked up somewhere and kept for years as an umbrella stand, which would be perfect.

You might be catching the hint that this kind of barely interconnected half-baked project nonsense runs in the family...

My father comes from farming stock, and you can bet he'll approve of making vinegar from ground-harvested public fruit.
My mother comes from poor, Welsh make-something-from-nothing stock and was a champion gleaner.

I think my poor granddaughter, who is a City Child, is merely an excuse.

Are you a gleaner?
Are you a reflection of your family's backstory?

[StraightForward]

Sounds like a fun project! But then I'm sitting here sipping homemade kombucha and plotting to start a new batch of kimchi.

I'm a kind of chicken gleaner, but I'll certainly do it, given the chance. Was sad to see that the branches overhanging the sidewalk on a neglected apricot up the road are starting to die out. I'll probably try to nab some of what's left if I time it right to get them when they're ripe but before all the other walkers pick them. I pick up nasty apples for the chickens and horses sometimes as well.

Let us know how the vinegar turns out. I've been trying to turn some old cider into ACV, but that's as far as my vinegar-making adventures have gone (so far).

[hoopoe]

some of my most vivid memories from early childhood ( when things were sorta good) was blackberry picking and clam digging

this was free food. Clams required a small garden trowel and pan. Mom made great clam chowder from the take

blackberries was a family ritual. lots of picking, then divide. Dad made wine, I can see the 4x4 block of wood he used to crush . Mom made amazing pie and jelly

http://meanderingwa.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... rries.html

now I make pie and flavored vodka

[Mareless]

All my grandparents grew up on small farms/ homesteads and were teenagers/ young adults during the depression. Every one of them ended up moving to the city and working in the factories (one grandma was a Rosie the riveter, working in a bomber factory during WWII ). None of them ever went back to the farm.

Which means that my parents grew up in the suburbs in the 50s and 60s. To them, going to the mall on weekends and eating out several times a week was living the good life.

Me, I hate fast food. Also hate the mall. I love living in the country, growing my own food (including chickens for eggs and meat), deer hunting, cooking from scratch, the whole old fashioned nine yards that I am two generations removed from. I have no use for new and trendy, I prefer to put my money into good quality functional stuff that will hopefully last me several decades.

[kande50]

Are you a gleaner?
Are you a reflection of your family's backstory?

I have just about every available crock, jar and bucket full of apple and pear peels/cores from our bumper crop of fruit last fall. We made cider out of most of it and then I took the rest and made vinegar. It still smells a bit like alcohol, but I'm pretty sure some of it has turned into vinegar. It also produced masses of cellulose (mother of vinegar) on top, but I haven't come up with a use for it, yet.

[Flight]

My grandparents (both have died) were refugees from the war, and scratched up a living here in Australia from having nothing. Their own background was growing a lot of their own food etc. They had a bit of land and would grow their own animals and eat them too!
I'm not like that I dislike cooking immensely!
Although, outside I tend to try and do a lot of stuff myself and I think that was from growing up around them.

[ThursdayNext]

I might be a closet gleaner: I made a garden arbor out of an old IKEA coat rack. Does that count?

[boots-aregard]

I might be a closet gleaner: I made a garden arbor out of an old IKEA coat rack. Does that count?

Yes, it does, and I want to see it! I need an arbor. (Though I usually scrounge old gazebo frames).