Caution: Seriousness Ahead.
If you know me or follow me on any social media, you know that I am a pretty enthusiastic canner. I take a lot of kidding and funny looks from people when I say that I canned_______. You know that half smile "ok crazy lady" look. I'm sure people wonder what my deal is. Well, here is my deal. (And no it's not that I'm preparing for the grid to go down.)
Number one, I enjoy canning. Plain and simple. I like the ping of jars sealing. It is one of the most empowering feelings there is. You might think that's a stretch, but let me explain. For every jar of applesauce/jam/pickles/meat/beans etc. that seals, that is one less thing I have to buy with my hard earned money. No, canning isn't free. No, it isn't always the cheapest way to get a can of peaches. But, if you compare apples to apples and look for a glass jar of all natural, (mostly) organic produce with no chemicals in it, then it is tons cheaper.
Number two, I am not so sure about all the so-called safe preservatives in commercially processed food. If I buy a can of peaches for example, I want a container of fruit preserved with a bit of sugar in water. I do not want High Fructose Corn Syrup or aspartame or any other currently hip sweetener. I'll take sugar please. Either from US grown sugarcane or more locally, sugar beets. I know what that is and where it comes from. Yes, I know this is a bit OCD and yes sometimes I curse the day I started reading labels and researching ingredients.
Number three, and here's where the real seriousness comes in, knowing that there is a pantry stocked with a full variety of vegetables, fruits and proteins is very comforting to me. Several years ago, my husband lost his job. About the time the economy went in the toilet, the company he worked for sold out to a global manufacturer and that meant downsizing (even though they said that everything would continue as before). I was pregnant with our son. It was December. Up until this point, we had never gone through any seriously hard times. We were not prepared for how much our world would change if we didn't have that paycheck coming in. It effected us in every possible way. No, we didn't lose our house or our cars or anything that scary. But we had to take a long hard look at our life and cut everywhere we possibly could. This is not an uncommon story. At that time, we believed that this was a short term setback and in six months everything would be fine. Well, it has been six years and we are not back to where we were before in financial terms. We are slowly gaining ground, but we still have a ways to go.
One thing we discovered during that time is that all the government programs that are supposed to be there as a safety net when one suffers a catastrophic job loss were not available to us.
There was no funding for him to go to school and learn a new trade, it was the wrong time of year and all the funding had been used up.
There was no medical assistance for us because I have a job that offers medical coverage (never mind that it cost 30% of my gross wages to cover all of us).
There was no food assistance because I was still working and earning more than the state poverty guideline for our family size (by $100 a month, not counting the aforementioned massive deduction for health insurance).
We got WIC to cover formula for our baby and a small amount of assistance with daycare. That was it. Nothing even close to the amount that theoretically would be available to a family in need.
The government didn't do jack squat for us. We were on our own. I felt so defeated and vowed never to be there again.
After having survived that experience, we know that it could happen again in a minute. I could go to work today and find out that my job no longer exists. And with it would go the bulk of our income and our access to medical care. Am I paranoid? Maybe. Am I changed because of this life experience? You bet.
Ultimately, all we can do is keep chipping away at the debt we took on and work to not need to take on more if history repeats itself. We fix what we have, make what we can and buy what we have to. And yes, we occasionally go out for pizza.
So, yes I can. I'm eternally grateful to the wonderful people who have shared their knowledge with me. And I'm willing to teach anybody who shows any interest whatsoever.
No comments:
Post a Comment