Cherries

[Mama Mangia]

Didn't mean to start anything - all I want to say is that if you are canning and you have any questions consult and up-to-date Ball Blue Book.

Times have changed - recipes can be tweaked or just handed down and done the way they have always been done. Just the processing part needs attention.

I have a neighbor that has been canning the same way for years - non-sterilized jars, re-using the same caps - using the oven method she learned back in Poland. She keeps her jars in the basement year after year until they are eaten. NO WAY would I want to even sample any of her canning!

Some people you cannot change - and I firmly believe in checking the Ball Blue Book. It is not worth taking the teeniest chance. I don't care how Aunt Mable did it for years - or that your mom did this or your gram did that. That is not the way it is supposed to be done all the time.

Better safe than sorry.

[jglass]

You know my mother in law was telling me that when her cousin cans veggies they just throw the stuff into clean washed jars and dont do anything with a canner. Im shocked they havent gotten sick yet. I dont think I would want an invitation to those peoples house for dinner.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

We humans dig cherries a lot. But did you know that Alaskan Grizzly Bears also love'em?

At Illinois Creek Gold Mine Camp a year ago, a hungry sow busted into the galley during the night and amid all the yummies available to her, she licked-up three things: dirty deep fryer grease, a bulk case of Lays Potato Chips, and a hotel pan of cherry crisp!

[jglass]

lol maybe those are the three basic food groups for bears.

I used some of the cherries I had frozen a few weeks ago to make Jons Dad a batch of that cherry sauce he likes so well. I just put it into clean jars and didnt bother with the canner. He keeps it in the fridge and it wont last long enough to worry about it.

[Mama Mangia]

Of course bears love fruit desserts!

We went through a couple summers of black bears being in the area - which never happens here.

So to catch them - it was apple pies, cherry pies, etc. all put out by people to lure them so they could catch them. Hell - what do you do with a black bear when you get him??

I'll make my fruit desserts for family and friends - let someone else bake for the bears!

[chubbyalaskagriz]

At the various oil, fishing and mining camps I worked at up north, there were always hunters on staff who tried to sweet-talk we kitchen folk into saving two things for them: old donuts and deep-fryer grease. Evidently bear-hunters highly prize these two items to bait traps with. I've been told SUGAR and GREASE are the two best bear LURES, which would make DONUTS doubly-blessed!

[KYHeirloomer]

In Wisconsin they've got some strange laws, one of which is that you cannot use meat in a bear bait. But you can use grease if it remains liquid at, IIRC, 78F. Bacon grease does that, but you have to make sure you really strain it well, because even one crumble of bacon could get you fined or worse.

A guide I used to hunt with up Hurley way would go through the fuss, because bacon grease really has some reach. Maple syrup is the only thing I know of with more legs than that.

In addition, hunters were armed with spray bottles filled with liquid smoke. The idea was that every once in a while you'd send a mist of smoke out on the breeze. This both covered the human scent, and served as a further attractent.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Liquid Smoke? Wow- POTENT STUFF! I could definitely see that working well for bears.

My uncle isn't a hunter so he doesn't do this for bagging purposes, but on his property he puts out salt licks and brown sugar for the deer. He buys it by the 50lb. bag. He could get in huge trouble from fish & game... but he does it anyway... He just likes having deer in his woods...

Also, speaking of things hunters do that can get them into serious trouble... growing up we knew a farmer who had a pond that was about 4-5 feet deep. In the Fall he would stake chicken wire all along the bottom of the pond- about a foot off the pond-floor. He then scattered several 5 gallon buckets of dried corn into the pond. Soon the honking of the geese and ducks would start... He would go out everyday and wade into the pond and grab MANY waterfowl by their feet from the holes in the chicken wire (birds flew overhead, saw the corn, dived in, dived to floor of pond to access corn and got heads caught in holes of chicken wire...) and he ate goose/duck all winter long! He's probably doing time dining on bread & water, in a cell w/ Bubba at the big-house as I type this!