Harvest!

My harvest season has begun! I'm trying to get as much done as possible before I leave for vacation next week...

This weekend, I canned about seven pints of corn relish (on the left in the picture below) and about 19 half-pints of tomatillo salsa (on the right). For some reason, my tomatillo salsa is more brown than green this year. I wonder if it's because I used purple onions? These recipes are from the PDF SALSA RECIPES FOR CANNING by Val Hillers and Richard Dougherty. I used all locally grown produce that I got at our farmer's markets. The tomatillos came from my own garden...

I bought a meal kit from a farmer's market vendor that included the following purple heirloom tomatoes (sorry, I cannot remember the entire name), swiss chard (left), and several types of summer squash (not pictured). I sauteed these vegetables into a delicious sauce that we put on a pizza crust with other pizza fixings and then put it on the grill. It was delicious.

In the background you can see tomatoes, which came from my garden. I'm gearing up this week to can a tomato-peach relish. This tomato-peach relish is from the Preserving Peaches document located at the Clemson University Home & Garden Information Center.

Before the season is done, I hope to can more salsa (tomatillo and regular tomato), plus some seasoned tomato sauce.

We have had an extremely humid and wet summer...and I'm looking forward to fall...wearing sweatshirts and jeans, watching football, making delicious soups from my frozen/canned tomatoes, and enjoying my jellies and salsas.

Moving On…

I am wrapping up my final couple days in the office, then I’m off on a vacation next week to Portland and Sacramento and I’ll be starting a new position in another department the following week.

I have to admit, the private office was a major selling point for this new position. A real office with four walls, a door, and a window. I have spent most of my six years here in a very communal, cubicle environment with no windows and way too many people in a small space... every detail of everyone’s lives becomes common knowledge…

I’ve spent several days this week packing up my office…weeding through file folders and tossing what’s outdated and handing off current project materials to co-workers. I’m left with two small boxes to take with me. It occurred to me that one benefit of having moved offices every year for the last six years is that I had relatively small amount of material to go through. It’s amazing how work becomes so much of your daily life…years of meeting minutes, product deployments that have long since come and gone, pages of notes about things learned and forgotten…

Now that I’m leaving, Management and Administration have begun discussions as to how to redefine my position. I thought it was ironic that it took me leaving to begin discussions as to how to do things differently. But then it also occurred to me…that maybe I had become my own biggest obstacle. Maybe after a certain amount of time in any position, we become our own biggest obstacle and we don’t even know it. Bringing in someone new means they can start fresh here, and I can take what I’ve learned and begin in a new environment. I’m looking forward to the change of scenery.

65 Years

Recently my grandparents celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. In a time when the American divorce rate is roughly 50 percent, this is an extraordinary milestone. At three years, I'm still somewhat of a newlywed, especially in comparison to their achievement, so I asked my grandparents for their best advice for a successful marriage.

My grandma said, "Learn to stand up for yourself." My grandpa said, "Keep your mouth shut."

I must admit, I was expecting something a bit more touchy feely, something more along the lines of "be a good listener," or "make time for each other," but I got a nice chuckle out of this. And I was reminded that relationships constantly change, and we all have to find what works for us for where we're at in our lives and relationships. I hope that we all find our own best advice for successful partnerships. Do you have any advice to share?

These pictures were taken right after my grandparents met, in one of those photo booths in which you receive a strip of small photographs that you have to cut apart. My grandparents are about 20 years old here, and got married shortly after. My grandpa managed to avoid World War II on a farm deferrment--he was the oldest son and his family needed him to work the family farm near Alma, Wisconsin.




They have three children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. My grandpa drove a cement truck and laid concrete for 40 years; my grandma worked 20 years at our local University, where I also work, and although she's been retired for 20 years, people here still remember her.

I spend every Monday night with my grandparents--it's a standing ritual that we always honor. I have learned so much from them and I consider time with them a great and special privilege.

A Season of Berries

I love how every growing season is unique. I don't remember having any berries last year. This year we've had a lot of rain and humidity, and we've had excellent berry crops. My freezer is full of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Here are a few pictures and the berries just keep coming....I can already taste the fruit smoothies all winter long....

After crawling through woods and high grasses, getting scratched by thorns and flanked by flying bugs, it's now clear to me why fresh berries are expensive. I never thought about this until I became interested in where my food comes from, and began harvesting and preserving some of that food myself.

Just Peachy

One of the things I look forward to in July is buying peaches off the TreeRipe Citrus truck, straight from Georgia. These peaches are so delicious--so utterly unlike anything we can buy in the Midwest--that this year I bought 60 pounds. Now I am a little conflicted about this, since I try to buy local and a lot of fuel was used in transporting these peaches a long distance, but at least I know where this food comes from. I figure it's better than buying from large grocery store chains, where I don't know where the food is from and often it's not even from this country.

Every June I anticipate the newspaper ad announcing that the TreeRipe Citrus truck is coming. This year I arrived about 15 minutes early and I stood in line for about 20 minutes. You must understand the whole experience of buying peaches. The sun was out, the weather beautifully warm. Everyone around me in line chattered endlessly about the quality of the peaches and what they did with their peaches last year and what they'll do with their peaches this year. By the time I bought my peaches, there were probably three times as many people in line behind me than there had ever been in front of me. As the line grew, traffic in and out of the small parking lot became chaotic and congested--people of all ages congregated to get their hands on those wonderful peaches.

Last year I bought 30 pounds of peaches and mostly froze them, but this year I did some research beforehand and got a bit more courageous. I stumbled on to a MAC DADDY food preservation site: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/food/food_safety/preservation/
I like that their recipes are also available in printable PDF format. This site helped me be courageous enough this year to try canning and dehydrating, in addition to freezing my peaches.






As with all food preservation projects, it takes alot of time and effort. But I think one of the ladies in the peach line summed it up perfectly when she said, "You just feel so proud when you're done canning those peaches." I couldn't agree more.

Disappointed

The LTE reform meeting was not what I’d hoped for. I was disappointed. I know that it’s an accomplishment that people were willing to sit around a table and talk about the issue, which has probably never been done on this campus before. I should focus on that. On the other hand, I thought it was focused on protecting the rights of union workers and not focused on how we could all give up a little bit to encourage equity for limited term employees. Even the living wage issue was not well received because we couldn’t have LTEs making more than what union-represented permanent workers make…

Overall the way it came across to me was they are interested in protecting LTEs as long as it means securing additional permanent union-represented positions, but not specifically interested in LTE rights in any sense (the statement “it’s about the position, not the person” was repeated numerous times).

In addition there was a lot of time spent talking about a manual they made which basically consists of screen captures educating LTEs about how to apply for jobs on the Wisc site…and discussion of interviewing skills and other things. I understand these things are helpful but I don’t think that gets at the real issues…50% of our LTEs have college degrees. Many have applied for numerous jobs. I think we all know this isn’t about teaching people how to buff up their resumes or interview better. But, I also lack a complete understanding of all the politics and complexities involved….and at this point I’m starting to feel like I’m not sure I want to understand any more if I am going to hold on to any sort of a positive attitude. Anyway, that’s my take on it….

An update on "limited term" employee reform

In an earlier post I wrote about my involvement in LTE reform issues for the approximately 200 "limited term" positions here on campus in which people work long term for low wages and minimal benefits. The latest development was a May article in the campus newspaper highlighting our work in this area.

After that article was published I was contacted by some folks at UW-Madison, where they have a comprehensive LTE reform plan, about coming to our campus for discussions on how we might achieve what they have. And now it's a reality! The following link to a press release describes the meeting that will take place on our campus next week. I view this as a true milestone as we've never gotten this far in our discussions of this very sensitive topic on our campus. I'll keep you updated. Regardless of what happens, I feel lucky to be part of something so important, as it has the potential to improve working conditions for so many people.

http://www.uwec.edu/newsreleases/10/july/0707LTEAdvisoryCommittee.htm