The xXx Gloom & Doom Report

[moolie]

What a great story, hope you can get another piece of your heritage growing again!

Too bad there's no way that a bit of Oma's hazelnut tree would survive Alberta winters The best I can do is to stock up when bulk nuts abound in the shops just before Christmas.

 

[i_am2bz]

LOVE hazelnuts, my late Oma had a tree and everyone in the family got a big bread bag full every year at Christmas. Something I miss so much since she sold her house 17 years ago to move into the care home. She grew them in BC's Fraser Valley, so a similar climate to the US pacific northwest. The last time I drove by her old house the tree was still there, hope the new owners enjoy the nuts as much as our family did!

Not too late for jams though, you could always buy berries--and we're coming up on citrus season if you like marmelade

I thought icu said he planted bushes....??? See, shows what I know about hazelnuts!

Raw berries around here are ridiculously expensive (IMO)...I do have tons of blackberry bushes, so will try to do jam next year. But strawberries are my all-time favorite; really disppointed I didn't get any this year, & half my plants died!

 

[moolie]

Sorry to hear you need to replace your strawberry plants, that's a bummer. Is the berry price still ridiculous if you compare the cost of a jar of jam from the store to what it would cost to make it yourself? That's always my measuring stick. I can generally get 1 batch/8 jars of jam for the same price as one at the store, even if the berries themselves seem costly. And then we can stretch their yumminess out throughout the whole year

 

[i_am2bz]

Sorry to hear you need to replace your strawberry plants, that's a bummer. Is the berry price still ridiculous if you compare the cost of a jar of jam from the store to what it would cost to make it yourself? That's always my measuring stick. I can generally get 1 batch/8 jars of jam for the same price as one at the store, even if the berries themselves seem costly. And then we can stretch their yumminess out throughout the whole year

It's definitely cheaper to buy store-boughten. Not as good; just cheaper. How do you get them so cheap - do you pick-your-own? You can't even buy them in the little wooden baskets anymore around here, they come sealed in plastic with the bad ones hidden underneath where you can't seem 'em.

 

[moolie]

I buy them at the farmer's market--they don't come in the wooden baskets (haven't seen those in ages), but the pale green pressed-paper ones (like paper egg carton material). Sometimes they have blue styrofoam but I don't buy anything that comes in styrofoam so I avoid those.

But they have those plastic things at the grocery store and the pricing on those doesn't look too bad either, ours are see-through on all sides though so I would turn the package over and look at everything if I was going to buy those.

Raspberries are usually $1.99, blackberries twice that or more (I didn't buy any this year), and strawberries are usually $2.49 or so per package. A couple of packages usually adds up to what the recipe calls for, plus pectin.

Too bad you are so far away or I'd send you some strawberry jam!

 

[i_am2bz]

Too bad you are so far away or I'd send you some strawberry jam!

Thanks, moolie!

Now you're making me think I orta jump in & make me some jam!!

 

[k0xxx]

Hey guys, I won't be updating the xXx Report for an undermined amount of time. I'll still be available by e-mail. I just need to spend some time in a different (less PC) atmosphere, at least until I have lost the urge to question. Until then, remember the words of someone far wiser than I, "Shoot low, they may be riding Shetlands!"

 

[valmom]

I havent caught up with what has been going on lately here. I have to say, I have quit and come back since there isn't anywhere else you can get the kind of information you can find here! (and you are part of it- don't be gone too terribly long )

 

[i_am2bz]

Hey guys, I won't be updating the xXx Report for an undermined amount of time. I'll still be available by e-mail. I just need to spend some time in a different (less PC) atmosphere, at least until I have lost the urge to question. Until then, remember the words of someone far wiser than I, "Shoot low, they may be riding Shetlands!"

Oh, man!! Where am I going to get my daily dose of depressing news now??? Maybe Wifezilla....?

 

[TanksHill]

Geesh, I cant believe the evolution of things around here.

For so long we have been this little community of helpful folks coming and going doing our own thing. Now it seems things are a bit wacky.

Perhaps a break would be a good thing.

G