The 97¢ Profit

In the garden at sunrise, I shoved my buckets along the dirt path picking every green bean in sight. It was a mad race with time. They were growing like crazy, and would soon be too fat for my liking. And the sun! Not only did direct sunlight annoy me, it slowed me down; and I was on a mission. I was determined to bring in a good harvest and not waste my beans!

Dump the beans in the sink, wash the beans, pick out the best beans, chop the beans, pack the hot jars, pour salted water in the jars, seal the jars, lower them into the boiling pot, screw the lid on the pot, set the timer...

I labored all day long picking, cleaning, chopping, packing, removing, and wiping up the mess. The sun burned hot outside and my face burned in my kitchen. Peanut butter sandwiches for lunch with the kids, and I was back at it.

My satisfaction was real when I surveyed the 24 pints of beans lined up on the counter at the end of my day.

After a simple dinner (who had time to cook?), I made a quick run to the grocery store for milk. Hey, the green beans are on sale! Let's check this out!

All said and done, after a full day of hard labor, I had saved 97¢. My beans are better, I comforted myself... Help me to invest my life and my time wisely, my God.

Comments

KaraBeagle said…
I know, we feel the same way about the peaches we can...but there is something to be said for doing things together....AND ours taste so much better.

If you can find out when they are harvesting beans, you can pick up the "spillage" where they load the trucks and get the beans for free and they are so much cheaper, if cheaper is what you are interested in.

My grandma used to give me bean seeds from OSU and they were the BEST green beans. I used to go out to my garden with paper grocery bags and fill them. Then I would sit watching tv or helping L with school while I snapped them, even enlisting her and G to help. We canned them in quarts. We used to do 50 quarts a year...if I didn't have to work, I might do that again..this year my garden is sadly lacking beans and brocolli and cauliflower..but I plan to do cabbage for sauerkraut... All the new crock have porous bottoms and they don't work for krauting, so I will have to do my kraut in gallon jars...(sigh).

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