Out Beyond the Corn

There is a world out there, beyond our garden. It doesn’t always dip into our everyday lives, but sometimes we are affected by it. The war in Ukraine is one of these instances. Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine has slowly become the dominant story in our mainstream newscasts, replacing the constant coverage of the pandemic. NATO and governments all over the world, including Canada, have not remained neutral in the conflict between these two nations. The enemy was easy for the western world to define. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, ordered his army to invade Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting for its life! It’s citizens had little choice but to retaliate. Who wouldn’t defend themselves from an aggressor if directly threatened?

News media on all sides of the conflict are supplying their people with inflammatory censored one-sided newscasts to keep them engaged and enraged, to convince the masses to rally behind the need for austerity, the need to provide support - positioning them to be prepared for what might yet come. The banners of righteousness and nationalism have been raised.  

Few North Americans know anything about the history of this conflict, but no war occurs in a vacuum. Broken agreements, civil unrest, insincere or bogged down negotiations, policy changes, territorial disputes, sabre rattling, and inaction brought this situation to a head. I’m not in any way justifying Putin’s aggression, but he apparently decided negotiation was no longer possible. (Not all of Russia’s citizens agree as seen by demonstrations taking place.) The insanity of it all boggles my mind. The people who have been thrust into this war, who never had a choice (both Ukrainian and Russian), are dying/suffering. Billions of dollars worth of infrastructure is being destroyed. The spin off, due to the imposition of sanctions, is hurting neighbouring countries who are facing a winter without Russian natural gas to heat their homes. Nuclear weapons are being considered, on both sides. Nuclear power plants could be compromised. And fighting climate change? That goes on the back burner, the weapons of war negate any and all measures aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The ripple effects of this war are compounding. There has been talk of a Third World War.

But terrible losses endured by some can result in profit for others. There’s nothing like war to stimulate some sectors of the economy. Those who gain from war - the military industrial complex, arms dealers, arms/equipment manufacturers, oil companies, companies that provide materials/labour to rebuild, raw material suppliers, stockholders, the big players - do so on the backs of those who suffer its ravages. There is little benefit for the people whose homes/livelihoods are destroyed, the soldiers/civilians who die or are wounded, the country with broken infrastructure and massive environmental damage, the traumatized children, the dead domestic and wild animals, the war vets suffering from PTSD…

Ordinary people bear the brunt of war. They are expendable. 

Check out YouTube, Bob Dylan, Masters of War

Spaghetti Sauce Extraordinaire!

Ahh, I said to myself, this recipe uses 25 pounds of tomatoes - 5 bags of frozen beauties out of the freezer and into the canning pot! Twenty minutes prep it says, sounds good, and once this is done I’ll be down to a mere 60 pounds or so to deal with. There could be an end in sight! I steeled myself to tackle the spaghetti sauce recipe I found on the internet.

First the ingredients - amazing, I had them all! Tomatoes, onions, green and red peppers, tomato paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt, garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, lemon juice. I wouldn’t have to run to the store for a thing! I’d read on the net that frozen tomatoes, when plunged into hot water, peel easily if you pinch them on the blossom end. This sounded good to me as I’ve never been one to go through the drop the fresh tomato into boiling water then into cold water to peel method. Too much work, too time consuming, so “not me” that I usually leave the peels on when canning tomatoes, or pears and peaches for that matter. On first try, with the first 5 pound frozen bag, I found this peeling method to be so easy it was worth doing. But 25 pounds of tomatoes is a lot of tomatoes! Then of course they needed the little bit at the stem end removed and had to be cut up. They were still mostly frozen so this was cold but easy. That 20 minutes prep time was long gone though, well over an hour ago.

Then there was all the other ingredients. I do have a simple food chopper that cuts stuff up quite tiny, only the one setting, so I made fast work of the peppers. I decided to use the onion rejects (odd shapes, the ones that looked like they weren’t going to keep very well) so there was extra peeling and slicing to get the needed 8 cups. By now my compost bin was overflowing and had to be dumped. My basil was dry but still in leaf shape so I got out my mortar and pestle to grind it small. In hindsight I guess I could have used my chopper thingy for that too.

I thought it was going to be a cool day, it was downright chilly when I got up. When I got the kitchen wood stove going it felt good. I enjoy cooking on a wood stove, such an even heat, less chance of scorching. It’s like an old fashioned slow cooker. But after hour 2 of prepping next to the wood stove the windows were open and I was ready to peel down to my underwear. I didn’t, heaven forbid if someone should happen to drop by! 

The recipe says it should make 9 quarts of sauce. By about 3:00 I’m fighting off that negative thinking that tends to sneak in when I’m working hard and long on a canning project. “I could buy that much good quality spaghetti sauce for about $20, less if I caught a sale…why am I doing this…home grown, organic…self sufficiency is an important skill…living off the land as much as I’m able has been my mantra for 50 years, why stop now…yada yada…”

I’m finally nearing the end of the ingredient list and ready to add the garlic. Darn! Dried up. Should I use granulated? Hmmmm. I was tempted but no, after all these other fresh ingredients that would just not do. Maybe I should make a quick trip to town? A better idea yet, I’ll call a neighbour. Sure they said, come on over.

It was now 4:00 pm and my sauce, sans garlic, was beginning to bubble away on the stove at the beginning of its 6 hour cook down. I was exhausted and oh so happy when my garlic rescue friends invited us for supper (and wine). Had we stayed home I would have had a hard time making a grilled cheese sandwich. I got my husband to remove the heavy pot of sauce from the stove and off we went.

Next morning I peeled a dozen cloves of garlic, chopped them in my chopper thing and added it to the sauce. What beautiful garlic! Wow, I guess I’ve never had garlic fresh from the garden before, big cloves, easy to peel. Maybe I should grow some… maybe not, perhaps trade for some instead. 

There was a bit of a catch on this 20 minute prep, 6 hour simmer recipe - a need to stir every 15 minutes to prevent sticking and scorching! That’s 24 stirrings and 6 hours near a hot stove! I set a timer so I wouldn’t get mentally lost doing something else (according to my husband I always have my nose in a book). I went out to fetch jars from the shed. Should I use pints or quarts? Hard to decide in a 2 person family. Has anyone else ever wished they would make a 3 cup jar? I decided on pints. If I used a quart of sauce to make spaghetti we’d be eating it for days. I couldn’t quite handle the full 6 hours of simmering, but I did reduce the liquid down to 9 litres. 

The spaghetti sauce - delicious! The work - rewarding, the tomato bonanza - overwhelming. Tomorrow - salsa.