Getting organized, perpetually! Pantry edition
I have some updates in the thrifting department and also, relatedly, the Great Hallway Renovation, but they will have to wait, I guess.
Today I need to get organized.
Will I get organized?
Well, if the previous 65+ years’ worth of days are any indication…
No.
However, one must try!
I have to organize the pantry because it’s slowing me down and making me crazy.
Here’s how it looked in April, barely hanging on to some semblance of tidiness, but not really:
I now have a lot of dried herbs, tinctures, and other remedies (more on that below) and they were moderately organized before my kitchen renovation.
They are now not at all easy to access, in part because after the renovation, I repurposed a key element that was keeping things collected. I put it over in the tea area and haven’t found a replacement, either there or for the herbs.
It’s that wooden shelf that fits a certain kind of special flip-top ball jar perfectly, but also needed to be here (in this current mess, the mess, hopefully, before the tidiness).
Basically I need several of those little shelves and a few really big ones.
The rest of the remedies are on the big racks in the pantry, and thus can’t be accessed easily — I have to rummage through them all instead of having them alphabetized and out where I can see them.
The jar situation itself is out of control. Once you become a jar person, your life is essentially over. I’ll try to explain!
First, besides your remedies, all your canning and freezing things go in jars. So you need a lot of new jars, and then you need to put the preserves somewhere, and then you use them and have empty jars. Where do you put those??
Not to mention the jars that specialty jams and olives come in, which of course are too precious to recycle. Who among us can part with an unusual, cute jar? Keep in mind that honey doesn’t need special processing, so any adorable jar will do.
Where to store them, though.
Next, there are all the lids. You need new lids handy in case you suddenly process a batch of pickles — can’t be running to the store. (You can also reuse pristine, non-bent lids from before — yes, you can — but they also have to be stored). If you happen upon lids on clearance after canning season, you have to pick them up. But then you have to find a place for them.
Mason jars now have lots of useful specialty lids and it’s easy to get pulled into that world. Some of my favorites (I have found them at Walmart but you can order them too): plastic lids (affiliate link) not for canning, but they do seal; fermentation lids; drinking lids, and oh so many other sorts.
And of course, sourdough starter, a lot of leftovers, yogurt, kefir, and berries can be stored in mason jars.
So the whole jar thing is the key here to getting to the bottom of what is going on. Today I need to get the good boxes from the garage and send some jars out there. Hopefully that will free up space in the pantry.
Another pantry issue is my cookbooks, my paper bag collection (vying with the jars for high keeping-to-recycling ratio, I mean, when you need a certain paper bag you need it and who throws away the ones with handles), and containers too large to store in the container drawer in the kitchen.
And I just need to get rid of some things I do not use!
I’ve been searching high and low for the right shelf for right here:
…but am coming to the conclusion that I need to reorganize some shelf in some another room to free that up until such time as the perfect one shows up. Maybe my remedies can then be here where the light is good.
But you see how that plan involves making a mess in an entirely unrelated area of the house…
… and my freezers definitely need attention as well. Do not freezers become a hopeless jumble? (Even granted I do have a system of sorts— it’s the fridge freezers that are so difficult, I find.) I prefer having things in jars but somehow ziplocks get used and those are just so jumble-producing, instantly.
Thoughts and prayers.
NB: If you are gearing up for school planning, I do encourage you to devote a few hours to organizing your pantry and freezer(s). I’m not trying to drag you into my insanity, but just noting that being able to make meals peacefully, without excessive rummaging and reaching over seldom-used items to get what you need, is a huge boon to the rest of life. It will be time well spent.
Knitting Corner
I am almost done with my Sunday Cardigan (but no more done than I was last time I checked in) and have acquired these darling closures for it.
The button band on this sweater is so thick that I early on decided I would prefer these clasps. It wasn’t easy to choose, but I think I will like these.
I got super bogged down in the heel portion of these socks, which is annoying because this project was supposed to be mindless. Once again, this is looking too big, but I am powering on through.
I have a lot of questions about learning about herbs because I mentioned it in my last post.
I can’t go too deep into it right now, but I want to say that once you realize the regular medications are not actually helping (as with UTIs, very often, or with allergies, or so many things), the iron enters your soul and you try to find other ways.
Especially for us women with our hormonal challenges, I would say conventional medicine is letting us down. The time when your kids are getting to be teenagers is the most acute in this regard! We need help just to stay on an even keel!
I know it seems random and frustrating and maybe even futile to get information, but you’ll figure it out. I’m working on it! I find two approaches, as a beginner, helpful.
One approach is to start with an herb, spice, or oil (such as tea-tree oil) you have heard is good for something. Look that item up and see what you can find out about it, especially how it works in general, i.e. is it anti-inflammatory, is it good for your lungs, and so on.
So for instance, dandelion and comfrey have a deep tap-root and thus pull up lots of minerals that are found deep in the ground. Your body may need these minerals. As you read about them here and there, you will understand and they will seem less random.
The other way is to start with the ailment (let’s say a persistent cough) and look up the herb that would be good for it. Now is a good time to do this, because things are growing now! January will be harder. And you don’t want to be paying a lot of money for something like mullein or goldenrod, which are literally weeds that you will see just growing in most places.
In fact, go ahead and harvest those common plants right now, as well as plantain, wild lettuce, and comfrey. Look them up and look up their “look-alikes” too, for comparison — you will soon be able to spot them confidently. Bring them in, spread them on a clean towel, let them dry under a fan or in your dehydrator (I got mine at a yard sale for $5). Crumble them into jars (see above) when they are very dry, and label the jar. Store out of direct sunlight.
The day will come when you will pull out what you need, make a tea or compress, and feel better!
I liked this conversation posted by Homesteading Family. It really changed my perspective a lot. At one point Caroline talks about how people take a supplement one time, or drink some chamomile tea, and think herbs don’t work, but when you grow them (or, I would add, start to see them out in the wild and bring home large bunches), you use them differently and that helps you understand how they really work.
Doc Jones has some very important things to say about understanding how the plant works so you can apply it to a given situation. I found his observations go beyond what you usually read and hear.
This way of doing things is a different way of thinking. It’s bringing home something that doctors and pharmacists used to do; up until more recently than you think, these remedies were normal parts of medicine. Now they let the drug company sell things through them (not all, but most). They are good at fixing you up when you’ve had trauma — thank goodness for the ER when you’ve been in a car accident! And for other emergencies. I’m all for doctors (but less for our current system).
But for the 90+% of just nursing care medical issues most of us have, a lot of knowledge has been lost. I guess we have to think for ourselves!
Some resources:
Here’s how to make tinctures — it’s really easy — much easier than, say, canning. You just have to have glycerin (which you can buy at the pharmacy) or high-proof vodka, which is how I do it.
Many sites are trying to sell their supplements. So you have to look up actual studies as well. It’s not hard, though. Start by searching something like “goldenrod remedy studies.”
St. Hildegard’s Garden gives you an overview of how God has provided remedies in the world, with St. Hildegard as the insightful, faith-filled guide who systematized common, ancient knowledge.
Deirdre likes this book: Be Your Own Doctor by Rachel Weaver M.H (affiliate link)
These two books have good information in them: The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies by Claude Davis and The Country Almanac of Home Remedies: Time-Tested & Almost Forgotten Wisdom for Treating Hundreds of Common Ailments, Aches & Pains Quickly and Naturally by Brigitte Mars and Chrystle Fiedler (affiliate links)
If you start now, you will be surprised how much you learn in just a few months!
Okay, off to organize!
bits & piecesA bit more on the medicinal properties of dandelions: Dandelion root extract affects colorectal cancer proliferation and survival through the activation of multiple death signalling pathwaysStudy: 9 in 10 Cradle Catholics Leaving the Church; Experts Urge Stronger Faith Community
Suzanne Venker: 5 money mistakes women make before they become mothers . Variations on things I’ve been saying for so long! Note, by the way, that living frugally helps so much with her third point. When consumerism and, not to put too fine a point on it, shopping, become a way of life, life becomes full of discontent. As Chesterton said, “Thrift is the really romantic thing; economy is more romantic than extravagance…”
Make sure your pediatrician isn’t using a growth chart that compares your breastfed child with a set of formula-fed children.
I’ve shared about the Fairfield Carmelites before. Here is an article that collects the links and films about what they are doing and has some lovely photos and reflections as well. Besides the spiritual inspiration of knowing about these dedicated contemplatives, I find them very inspiring when I’m thinking about my own very un-cloistered way of life and how I want it to be.
John Henry Newman, Newest Doctor of the Church
from the archivesNine Hospitality Thoughts
In case you would like to see the pantry as it has been — it changes all the time but here’s one tour from a couple of years ago! (Keep in mind that the necessary angle of the lens makes it look bigger than it is. Still, it is rather large.)
liturgical living
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