Lehman's Country Life

High oil prices this winter mean families using propane or heating oil, both petroleum-based products, could face a pricey winter. In the Midwest, the average heating winter bill will run more than $2,100 — 26 percent above last winter, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The hurricanes battering the Gulf Coast may also lead to higher fuel costs, as Hurricane Katrina did in 2005. The Gulf’s offshore crude oil production accounts for about a quarter of total U.S. production. The region also produces a substantial portion of the nation’s natural gas. So, if you are thinking about buying or upgrading your wood heating stove, now is the time to do it!
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I was reminded, as I brought in yet another box of books and other belongings that have been in storage for several years, of an old Gary Larsen “Far Side” cartoon. A frowsy, bespectacled woman in a housedress is pushing an upright vacuum cleaner along a path through a thick jungle, and the caption reads something to the effect that she is wary because “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Perhaps my front room presented too tempting a void for the laws of physics. Is it possible, I wondered, that this is the same room where just a few days previous, I had actually taken the front panel off the piano and vacuumed its long-silent wires? where I moved a reading chair and floor lamp into position as the only other pieces of furniture and measured the window bay, envisioning actually being able to have a Christmas tree this year?
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If you’re looking for the true Taste Of The West, look no further than a freshly picked, mesquite-roasted “Chili Pepper,” better known to the botanical world as Capsicum.  This enchanting fruit had been domesticated in Ecuador for nearly 7,000 years before it was discovered by Europeans in 1492.  Captain Columbus encountered it in powdered form while in the Caribbean, and eager as he was to promote his new route to “India,” brought back the pungent spice (as well as a few unhappy natives) as proof of his success: he’d been to “India,” so they were “Indians,” so the spice must be “pepper,” the most popular and widely traded seasoning of his day.  Of course he was wrong on all three counts, but curiously we are afflicted with his errors even today; we still call the original Americans “Indians,” and Capsicums are still commonly known as “peppers.”
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It’s 5pm on a cold, windy winter’s day, and you’re just now thinking of dinner. The kids are already hungry and your spouse will be home in half an hour. Do you take a frozen lump of something out of the freezer and hurriedly try to thaw it in the microwave? Or perhaps just order Chinese takeout or pizza? Well…you could do those things. OR, you could simply walk to the canning shelf and select a jar of convenient, fully cooked, nutritious, delicious canned meat to serve as the base for the family meal. You open the jar – and dinner is on the table in a matter of minutes!
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