Most of Saturday was spent watching videos about overwintering geraniums. Really, it was just during the Auburn game. I learned lots, mainly I need to take them out of their pots. UGH I really hate to buy things again in the spring when I can save them. At my house, I had flowers in the ground, so did not have to try to overwinter. The hosta and tulips I had in pots came back the next year. So, this is all new to me. Tommy watched Auburn lose while I watched videos.
The videos I watched were people removing plants from the ground and from pots too large to move. I wonder if I could carry these gallon pots into the laundry room for the winter. What do you do?
We went out for a McDonald's adult happy meal and the McD did not have them. Bummer. We did sit in the park for a bit and watched crows pecking around the baseball field.
Even though I slept well Friday night, I still took a nap. Tommy had part of the rest of the chicken I cooked, the leg, I think, and had that and carrots and potatoes for his dinner. I had sourdough bread and butter. I am going to have tuna and celery later, plus half an apple.
I found a drawer in the kitchen that has not been emptied. It is on the right of the oven and perfect for storing the potholders since it is only about six inches wide. So, I am slowly emptying it and finding things. He has a huge package of batteries with odd, old batteries in it. Hopefully, there will not be an argument about getting rid of used batteries.
In the freezer I had a chunk of butter that was about 8 inches by four inches and thicker than a regular stick of butter, maybe 1 1/4 inch. Usually, I have sticks or one huge block of butter. I put a stick or equivalent of a stick in a glass container with a click lock closure, the kind that closes on all four sides. Well, this was a puzzle as to how to divide it into equivalents to a stick. I think I ended up with five "sticks."
Finally, I just cut off one end for the counter storage. Then, I took waxed paper and stored four more portions on the door of the refrigerator since the remaining uncut chunk would not fit. Of course, the butter stuck well to the waxed paper. And, tonight when I unwrapped a new piece, it did come off easily.
Handling the Cut-Rite waxed paper roll, cutting it, and wrapping the butter took me back to my childhood. That is what we used. Mama used it to wrap our sandwiches for lunch each day. We had no Glad Wrap. Was it even a thing back in 1950? Okay, it was invented in 1933, but we had none. At any rate, it was a nostalgic moment with my mother being the focus. When I unwrapped it tonight, I had more memories that comforted me.
If my sandwich bread was a little less than fresh, I suppose I thought that is the way a packed sandwich was and did not fret about the lack of soft bread. Who knew that a sandwich could be kept as fresh as my sandwiches are today? (rhetorical) We used waxed paper for many things in the kitchen. Now, I mostly use it to line a cake pan for baking.
The new Tupperware design of cannisters is hateful. I struggled to open the two larger ones. Finally, I asked Tommy to open the smallest one. He was wrestling it for a bit, and he is strong. Flour is now in the largest one. The middle one will hold sugar. I suppose I will put something in the smallest one that I never want to access. The new design of the place to open the cannisters is a big fail!
Another thing--the T woman said this was the left over from Easter line. Now, who changes cannisters with the holidays? That is just crazy. I am not one bit impressed with a lavender, teal, and pink cannister set! I looked for the old yellow Tupperware cannisters at SA. I did not like the yellow or brown, but for ease of use and a good seal, I would buy those second hand. Okay, maybe not. I keep cannisters in the cabinet but would much prefer yellow on the counter to these pastels.
How do you overwinter geraniums or other plants in small pots? Do you use waxed paper? Did your mother use it? Have you tried the new styles of Tupperware?
We had some Tupperware bowls that were hard to open too. I finally just got rid of them. I loved the story about your Mom and the wax paper. Such a sweet memory. 💕
ReplyDeleteBelinda,
DeleteOnly my new bowls are hard to open. Were yours the new ones that were hard to open? The waxed paper almost brought me to tears. Thanks.
I never had good luck overwintering geraniums, but my mom used to take the plant out of the planter, put them in big brown paper grocer bags and put them into the bags leaves down and tie off the top of the bag and hang them in our heated basement by the top string around the top of the bags. So the geraniums hung around in the basement like bats for the winter. She then plnted them in the spring. They were not "seed geraniums" but geraniums from cuttings that had grown to full size.
ReplyDeleteI used to use wax paper, but now I use parchment paper.
I only have a few pieces of tupperware, but I like to feel free to throw away plastic containers that end up getting something moldy in them, and I would never do that to expensive Tupperware. My mother in law had and used a lot of tupperware pieces. She worked plus was an excellent housekeeper and never let anything get to the point of mold in her fridge.
Have an interesting day today.
susie, I'm curious--why would you throw out a dish that had something moldy in it? That food mold won't affect the plastic at all.
Deletesusie,
DeleteThat was one method i read about...lol...like bats, funny. I don't know what kind these are, just purchased from garden center.
Somehow, I like using waxed paper in the bottom of pans. I am not sure, but I don't think anything ever molded in the Tupperware. It might have happened, but I prefer to think that never happened...lol.
I take my geraniums in for the winter and never have a problem.
ReplyDeleteJackie,
DeleteThanks. My pots are small enough to do that. Will they live in a small uninsulated utility room without a window?
I have never overwintered geraniums. It would be an interesting experiment!
ReplyDeleteMy mom always wrapped my dad's lunch sandwiches in waxed paper. He would bring the paper home all folded up and ready for the next day's lunch. That waxed paper was reused until it fell apart!
I still used waxed paper for re-wrapping my deli meats and cheeses. Waxed paper breathes, unlike the plastic that the deli wraps the food in. It all stays fresher longer with the waxed paper. Sometime I will put a half-sheet of paper towel between the waxed paper and the plastic baggie, just to absorb any extra moisture.
I use lots of parchment paper (never waxed paper) in baking and roasting. I love that parchment allows the food to brown on the bottom, whereas I don't have that success with foil. I grew up without parchment; now I don't know how I'd live without it.
I am trying to cut down on my use of plastic bags and plastic wrap. Some days I am more successful than others, but I keep trying--and that's the important part.
Sue,
DeleteI am going to try and see if I can save them. I will let you know next spring.
Oh, I do remember taking waxed paper home. I had forgotten that. I also took home the paper bag, too.
Waxed paper does work on a cake pan or loaf pan. I never lose the bottom of my baked goods.
In some ways, I use less plastic. In other ways I use more, depending on the food to be stored. Mostly, I put things in glass storage.
One of those sounds from my childhood: My mother pulling the waxed paper from the box, tearing it off and then wrapping the sandwiches for my father's lunch box.
ReplyDeleteWe also used to collect the pretty fall leaves and iron them between two pieces of waxed paper and displaying them in the windows!
Jan,
DeleteDon't you love it when these small things are sounds and sights of childhood? I have never heard of ironing leaves between waxed paper to display on windows. Thanks for that idea.
I have my Mom's geraniums, they are at least 15 years. I just bring them inside in the pot, keep them close to a sunny window. Last winter, I had a new small red one. I brought it inside, in the pot. It was in the pantry. I forgot to water it. Then last Spring, I looked up and saw it. I started watering it and it grew.
ReplyDeleteBarbara,
DeleteThis is the kind of hint I need...lol. I do fear roaches would come in with the plants. I frequently see them on the porch still, even though I try to exterminate them. Did you water them?
All kinds of little beasties can come in in plants when you overwinter them inside. More than once my mom had hitchhiking toads come in with her Christmas Cactus. They were dug into the dirt to hibernate, and all of a sudden it was 70 degrees again! So the one was sitting on the shelf just blinking its eyes at my mom. She sat him in a pan of water for a few minutes and then put him outside again so when it got cold again he could dig himself back into the dirt. I brought a mouse into our house in one of my Christmas Cactuses and it took us about 3 days /nights to catch him in the house. He would not eat anything that we put in the traps for him. I didn't find or smell any damage he did. We accidentally killed him while we were trying to catch him alive to show the kids. My husband moved the book case out from against the wall and the little mouse had been trying to climb upwards and apparently the bookcase had leaned back and crushed the poor little thing.
DeleteA day or two later i found out what he had been eating and using for water. He had been eating my Christmas cactus leaves and the stem of it. His little mousehole was in the pot with the Christmas Cactus. Another time I bought the most beautiful houseplant home from the store. I was sitting in my chair and I saw something out of the corner of my eye and there were big centipede looking bugs falling over the edge of the big gorgeous house plant. I took the plant outside in the cold and sprayed all around the area in the house for bugs.
It was creepy. And what if I would not have seen all of those big centipede bugs escaping to take up residence in my home.
susie,
DeleteYou have convinced me not to bring any plant in the house! I have two huge planters on the porch that I have never used. Maybe I could put lots of plants in there and cover it with white cloth from my garden. If they die, I will just have to buy more instead of bringing any kind of critter! Thanks for those cautionary tales.
That seems a lot of work for geraniums. I would do this for some plants but not for them.
ReplyDeleteI still have the same Tupperware I bought back in the 1990s, can you imagine?
Urspo,
DeleteThey are some of the most expensive and prettiest plants I have. They lived through the heat!
Yes, I can imagine. I have Tupperware I bought in 1966!
Copied this from a google search on whether to use wax paper for baking: Like we said before, wax paper is moisture-resistant and non-stick, but it is absolutely not heat resistant. At high temperatures, the wax will melt and the paper itself can catch fire, so you want to always, always, *always avoid using wax paper in high-heat situations*, like in the oven or toaster oven.
ReplyDeleteAlice,
DeleteThe only time I use waxed paper in the oven is in the bottom of a cake or loaf pan. Yes, I can imagine that it would burn if exposed to heat of oven, so I have never even considered it.