Ok first off, sorry for being MIA to this blog for so long! My only excuse is that during spring and summer, I tend to blog less as I’m occupied elsewhere. So forgive me if posts are few & far between between now & fall.

But I had to write today my quest for a butter bell. What’s a butter bell? It’s an ingenious little ceramic crock that sits on a counter and stores butter. Yes, stores it on the counter. As in not in the fridge. A bell-shaped area is attached to the lid, and you put the butter in that, then invert it back into the crock that holds fresh water. The water creates a seal and keeps the butter fresh—the best part is that it keeps it soft and spreadable. Mmmmm.

I love this idea; I’m taken in by all the ways that people did things before things like refrigerators. I don’t like being so totally dependent on a refrigerator, an appliance that costs so much money to buy, to operate, and to fix/replace. We think of these things as “necessary” for life, but people lived for millions of years without them (and plenty still do). I often wonder how I might live without one (because I’m odd and I think about such things). Part of my simplifying and looking into homesteading ways includes considering how I might do without things I have been conditioned to think I can’t do without.

Little “gadgets” like butter bells are one way. I’d wanted one a few months back, but for varying reasons ended up forgetting about them. But then today the (awesome) blog Chickens in the Road posted about them, and my interest was renewed. Must. Have! Admittedly, I want one if for no other reason than to shock and surprise friends who come over…first they’re always surprised that I bake my own bread daily, but then to top that off by offering them butter that’s stored right there in the kitchen, not in the fridge…*cue maniacal laughter* I can see the expressions now! Priceless! Perhaps I should learn the words to the Sweeney Todd song sung by Mrs. Lovett, “Worst Pies in London,” so I can sing it while I offer bread and butter bell butter…hehehehehe.

So I went to buy a butter bell on Amazon.com, and oy.  There are lots of butter bells out there! Egad. I had no idea. I was going to get the one that Suzanne blogged about, since it’s inexpensive, but then as I looked I found not one but THREE that I like. Goodness, how to choose?

There’s the plain, inexpensive one, which is lovely and rustic and would do just fine…

Then there’s the adorable one marked “butter” and comes with its own spreading knife! Now that’s really cute. And there’s no mistaking what’s in it:

But then there is the Le Creuset model. In case you didn’t know (and I’m not sure I’ve blogged about it on here, actually), I love Le Creuset. LOVE it. I’m slowly collecting it as I can. So I almost have to get this one:

But…but…this one is three times the cost of the plain one. LE sigh.

Whenever I do finally make a choice and get one, I’ll be sure to blog about my experiences with it (including any guest reactions when they first see it…hehe).

One thing I loved to study back in grad school was symbolism. I was working toward an English M.A., and while most people don’t realize it, such a course of study involves a lot of theory in various topics such as sociology, communication, gender issues, politics, etc. This is because language crosses all those lines, and when you start to really delve into the written word, you delve into all sorts of topics such as who wrote the words, why they wrote them, when did they write them, what was the purpose, did the author realize how the words might be interpreted, etc etc etc. It really gets you thinking about the power of words and how that power is enacted all around us, most obviously in advertising. This then leads to discussions of symbolism, and how powerful symbols can convey as much as a bookful of words (“an image is worth a thousand words,” indeed). As I’ve mentioned recently on this blog, The Matrix is my all-time favorite movie, and one reason for that is that it is chock-full of potent symbolism. Gimme a good image to ponder over and wonder at, and I can happily discuss it for hours (and have, on many occasions, over good wine or good coffee).

Over the past couple of years, my interest in symbolism has had less to do with technology and cyberculture theory and more to do with the opposites of those: what do we do without as much technology and ideas about “small community” theory (to give it a totally arbitrary name). People made do for eons without the things we now think of as “necessary” for life, and there is a possibility we might one day need to do without them once more (whether from no more oil, or insanely expensive oil, or just not enough income, or no income at all…many possibilities). But even if you don’t think we’ll ever be without our current way of life, we are very definitely slowly losing food safety and control, and one way I plan to regain control of my food is by growing it and preserving it. Contaminated spinach? Not from my backyard, thankyouverymuch.

In order to keep my own food (and selectively-purchased bulk items), I need jars. Lots of jars. And what kind of jar do people use for such things? Mason jars, of course. And because I can’t help it—I suppose I was brainwashed trained too well in grad school—I start thinking more and more about the humble little Mason jar. And I start to see a very powerful symbol.

When you think of Mason jars, you might think of things like preserves and homemade salsa and homemade pickles. You might think of grandmothers. You might think of old-time farming or farm kitsch or blue-collar-ness. Maybe you think of “poor” people, since why would someone bother canning or storing things when they can just go buy ready-made stuff? And then there are plenty of jokes about rednecks drinking out of Mason jars.

But then if you think about why they often symbolize such things, you start to branch into food issues and sustainability. Mason jars mean food on the shelves long after a harvest. They mean control over what’s in your food. They mean at least a modicum of food independence. They mean an investment that guarantees a return: They’ll last your entire life and they have a million and one uses. They don’t cost much, so even if money is tight a person can acquire a few Mason jars (and even drink out of ‘em, if so inclined). Mason jars symbolize bounty, security, frugality, and dare I say it, hope.

With Mason jars, I hope to preserve the tomato bounty I hope to have (or as a last resort, purchase from local farmers). I need them to hold all the preserves I hope to make using fruit from my neighbor’s trees. I need the jars to hold all the fermented veggies I want to make. I need them for storing things like dry beans, flour, salt. I need them to hold homemade cleaning products. To hold craft items. Every day, I think of a new use for a jar or two.

So why all this deep thought about a simple glass jar? Well, yesterday I was finally able to buy my first cases of Mason jars:

The experience touched a deeper nerve. I went to a local Ace Hardware, a small but locally owned store that has been in business for ages, according to my roommate, and since they’ve managed to survive despite the presence of a ubiquitous Home Depot just a couple of miles away, I plan to start giving Ace as much of my business from now on as possible. The store was full of so many great homemaking goodies, including stuff you just don’t see for sale that much any more anywhere, that I can’t wait to go back and rummage around (for example, they had a dusty stack of cotton-backed, vinyl-topped red check tablecloths, in the pattern you see here as my blog background; I can’t even remember the last time I saw one of those for sale, at least in my area. Notice I mentioned a dusty stack; I wonder how long they’ve had them in stock. No matter. *I* plan to take one home, very soon).

When I got to the isle with the canning jars, I was just giddy. Jars and rings and lids, oh my! I quickly nabbed a case of quart, pint, and 4 oz jars, the first two the wide-mouth variety. I happily took my stack of jars to the checkout counter and carefully set them up on it. An elderly gentleman checking out ahead of me glanced at them, realized what they were, and exclaimed, “I didn’t think anyone canned any more!” I smiled and said, “Oh, definitely!” What ensued was a brief discussion between us and the check out woman:

(Note: This is as close to what was said as I can remember, and I’m sure I left some bits out, but you can still get the gist of it.)
Checkout woman: “Ooooh yeah people still can, absolutely!”
Man: “My goodness, that reminds me of my grandmother! She’d spend days canning!”
Me: “Yeah, so did my great-grandmother, and my grandmother & mom both canned.”
Man: “Oh no, not my mother, no way. Just my grandmother. She lived on a farm.”
Checkout woman: “You don’t need a farm to can! No way. You can have a garden anywhere!”
Man (looking disappointed): “Not where I live. If one blade of grass is out of line…! Those homeowners associations will get you! They’re horrible!”
Me: “That is horrible! It’s not right. Stuff like that…it’s horrible that anyone ever goes hungry when there are so many useless yards around.”
Checkout woman: “I don’t have no use for a yard. Just gimme plants!”
Me: “They’re usually prettier than a yard, anyway!”
Checkout woman: “Yeah they are.”
Man: (Nodding in agreement, looking pleasantly surprised by the conversation)

I thought about that man and about the jars as I drove away from the store. I thought about how the jars had sparked memories for him, and about all the implications of an elderly man thinking “nobody canned anymore.” I like to think that the discovery that people still grow and can their own food, even in the suburbs/city (or especially in the suburbs/city), gives him some kind of hope for the future. I think this because the older I get, the more I get irritated and disgusted with so much of society, and the more I understand why older generations don’t think much of my generation. And when I see people a generation younger than me who are trying to do things differently, it gives me a glimmer of hope that it’s not all lost. So maybe, just maybe, the smile on that gentleman’s face meant that he had a moment of realizing that there are still people around who care about better ways of doing things, and that there are still glimmers of hope in unlikely places.

All from a stack of Mason jars.

This post originally appeared on my other blog, Avidly Dreaming.

Ok, time to start putting my daily practices where my mouth is. Time to start walkin’ the talk. During my year of switching to as much of a “homesteading” way of life as possible while still living in a suburb, I’ve got to learn new skills (and learn to do without). I am going to challenge myself each month to new ways of doing things, some more radical to me than others, but all in the name of getting used to more self-sufficiency.

And the idea is for the challenge topics to take root as habits and stick around long after the month is over.

So for January, I’m challenging myself to…

• Switch to a real/traditional foods diet. I’ve already started this over the past couple of weeks, and honestly I’m so excited about it that it’s not really going to be much of a challenge. Well, ok, learning to use sprouted & soaked grains instead of refined flour will be a challenge. And, er, affording pastured meats on my budget will be a challenge. But I’m ready to learn to plan ahead and to switch around my shopping list, making do without some other things (such as diet soda) in order to afford it. So we’ll see. My diet will include pastured dairy & meats (raw dairy if I can find it), fermented foods, no processed “food,” no additives/colors/etc, no nitrites, no MSG (already have cut that out), no fake sugars…and the no fake sugars thing means no more Diet Coke. For all my moving to better eating, I still drink that crap. But not this month! My roommate thinks it’s impossible to cut out, lol, and she’ll still be drinking hers. So the temptation will be there. But lately I’ve so enjoyed drinking milk with meals that I actually haven’t wanted any soda. Let’s see how I feel in a week or so…
• No TV. This just means no turning on the tv set…I do enjoy several TV shows, but I will watch them all online. I don’t turn the TV on that much to begin with, since most commercials seem to trigger latent homicidal tendencies in me, but if I know I can’t watch the set, I expect to want to. So I’m challenging myself not to use it. My laptop is all the entertainment center I need (and hey, it’s an Energy Star appliance, and my older, large-and-in-the-way TV is not).
• No clothes dryer. This one should be a no-brainer; I live in Florida, where there is plenty of sun, so drying clothes outside shouldn’t be that much of a hassle. My goals are to learn to live without this particular energy & money eater; I plan to do this challenge again in August when the electric bill typically skyrockets due to A/C. I expect the hard part of this will be getting into the habit of actually taking laundry outside & hanging it (which might take 20 minutes) instead of just tossing it into the dryer (which takes a minute or two), as well as dealing with weather patterns (five days of rain will crimp drying plans or result in clothes hung willy-nilly around my living spaces). But like changing my eating habits, it just means getting used to a bit more planning and learning to deal with the unexpected.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

P.S. My roommate just came back from the thrift store with a hand-crank meat grinder that she got for $5! Just the other day I was looking at pre-packaged sausage at my local supermarket, and was instantly disgusted to see that every d*mn brand had MSG in it. When I mentioned it to roomie, she said we could just get a meat grinder & some pork and make our own sausage (she’s a more advanced cook than I am). I’d never considered doing that, and I suppose I didn’t realize it was possible. Duuuuh me! *smacks forehead* So we said hey, we’ll both keep an eye out for a grinder. Then lo & behold, today she finds one! Check it out:

Look at that beauty! I can’t wait to try it out. One more step toward controlling what goes into my body!