It was like a scene from a horror movie.
I was standing in a dark, damp, dirt floor cellar, with barely enough light to see by. The cold dirt floor, shadowy corners and musty smell, though reminiscent of childhood fears involving axe murderers and bogeymen, were not what dismayed me.
No, what really bothered me was the nightmarish scene before me: countless cobwebs hanging thick and low from the ceiling, filled with sawdust and the mummified skeletons of hundreds of large, dead spiders.
And even more terrifying: I was about to perform the task of removing them.
Cellars are wonderful things, but I recently discovered just how wonderful a habitat a cellar can be for those lovely creatures that prefer to dwell in dark basements. Luckily, as disgusting as the above description sounds, it wasn't really as bad as it seemed at first. I just grabbed a stick of firewood and rolled up those cobwebs like cotton candy, spiders and all. Once the spiderwebs were gone, a little broom work and I was ready to store my crops for the winter. Sort of.
First I had to clear a space for them.
I wouldn't really consider my parents pack rats. They are usually pretty good at clearing out the old junk. But basements are funny places. They tend to collect junk. And it seems like the darker and more musty they are, the more weird old crap just accumulates there. In my cleaning, I encountered empty canning jars with rusty lids, plant pots, maple syrup bottles of varying shapes, sizes, and ages from young to ancient, interesting looking pieces of firewood, a rat trap (ew), empty wine bottles, an old garden hose, various rusty cans of something unrecognizable, a bunch of little jam jars full of black ooze, etc. Okay, so maybe that list isn't all that weird, but that thick layer of dust and cobwebs that blanket everything sure makes it seem like this stuff has been here for eons.
And apparently some of it has. At least, long enough for the rust to eat a hole in the lid of this jar. Hmm... do you think it is still edible?
Seriously. I actually have no idea what the contents of these jars are. Maybe we should do a smell test? It could be fun! Right? . . . Right?
And yes, in the background you are observing a bag of lamb starter, a stack of egg cartons, and an empty can of Guinness, among other things.
Side note: There is something beautiful, or at least entertaining, about the kinds of odds and ends that collect in basements. You can learn a lot about a person from the things they hide away in the cellar, but don't throw out for some crazy reason. Maybe it will be useful someday, or maybe it has nostalgic meaning, or maybe it's just been there so long you were no longer aware of its existence. Regardless of why it's there, what you keep and what you throw away tells a story. But, I digress. This is supposed to be about food, isn't it?
Well, here it is. Not really that impressive in photos, but it was satisfying to store away some of the crop. The remainder was shared with family or came with me to Ottawa, where it will become the subject of future blogs!
The basement is pretty cold, so the gourds (squash and pumpkins) will keep for a few months there. The rutabagas should too, but if they don't I won't be heartbroken. One can only eat so much rutabaga, you know! I intended to cover them in paraffin, but lacked the time or energy to carry out that experiment. It will be interesting to see how long they last.
Since the carrots were so mangled by chipmunks that there wasn't enough left to store for winter, the only other storage vegetable I had to worry about was parsnips. They got the same treatment that the carrots would have, had they survived.
They don't look all too appetizing like that, do they? Kind of like little bones, or tiny skeletons, buried in the sand.
Oh god. I gotta get out of here.
I was standing in a dark, damp, dirt floor cellar, with barely enough light to see by. The cold dirt floor, shadowy corners and musty smell, though reminiscent of childhood fears involving axe murderers and bogeymen, were not what dismayed me.
No, what really bothered me was the nightmarish scene before me: countless cobwebs hanging thick and low from the ceiling, filled with sawdust and the mummified skeletons of hundreds of large, dead spiders.
And even more terrifying: I was about to perform the task of removing them.
Cellars are wonderful things, but I recently discovered just how wonderful a habitat a cellar can be for those lovely creatures that prefer to dwell in dark basements. Luckily, as disgusting as the above description sounds, it wasn't really as bad as it seemed at first. I just grabbed a stick of firewood and rolled up those cobwebs like cotton candy, spiders and all. Once the spiderwebs were gone, a little broom work and I was ready to store my crops for the winter. Sort of.First I had to clear a space for them.
I wouldn't really consider my parents pack rats. They are usually pretty good at clearing out the old junk. But basements are funny places. They tend to collect junk. And it seems like the darker and more musty they are, the more weird old crap just accumulates there. In my cleaning, I encountered empty canning jars with rusty lids, plant pots, maple syrup bottles of varying shapes, sizes, and ages from young to ancient, interesting looking pieces of firewood, a rat trap (ew), empty wine bottles, an old garden hose, various rusty cans of something unrecognizable, a bunch of little jam jars full of black ooze, etc. Okay, so maybe that list isn't all that weird, but that thick layer of dust and cobwebs that blanket everything sure makes it seem like this stuff has been here for eons.
Seriously. I actually have no idea what the contents of these jars are. Maybe we should do a smell test? It could be fun! Right? . . . Right?
And yes, in the background you are observing a bag of lamb starter, a stack of egg cartons, and an empty can of Guinness, among other things.
Side note: There is something beautiful, or at least entertaining, about the kinds of odds and ends that collect in basements. You can learn a lot about a person from the things they hide away in the cellar, but don't throw out for some crazy reason. Maybe it will be useful someday, or maybe it has nostalgic meaning, or maybe it's just been there so long you were no longer aware of its existence. Regardless of why it's there, what you keep and what you throw away tells a story. But, I digress. This is supposed to be about food, isn't it?
Well, here it is. Not really that impressive in photos, but it was satisfying to store away some of the crop. The remainder was shared with family or came with me to Ottawa, where it will become the subject of future blogs!
The basement is pretty cold, so the gourds (squash and pumpkins) will keep for a few months there. The rutabagas should too, but if they don't I won't be heartbroken. One can only eat so much rutabaga, you know! I intended to cover them in paraffin, but lacked the time or energy to carry out that experiment. It will be interesting to see how long they last.
Since the carrots were so mangled by chipmunks that there wasn't enough left to store for winter, the only other storage vegetable I had to worry about was parsnips. They got the same treatment that the carrots would have, had they survived.
They don't look all too appetizing like that, do they? Kind of like little bones, or tiny skeletons, buried in the sand.Oh god. I gotta get out of here.
I have to note that... if you were to have gone down a few years ago it would have been worse. I have attempted clearing those shelves a few times. Dumping about 20 jars each time. I know I didn't finish but come on give me a break, after smelling 20 jars of who knows what! Although, I do believe it was dads attempt at canning peppers in oil. At least I cleaned out my jars a few weeks ago :) Still good even though they are rusty!
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