Canning is Done

The 2024 canning season has officially ended:

That is another 14 quarts of pumpkin. The husband will not lack for pies in the coming year.

I still may have to do some batches of beans every now and then, but the canning supplies can go back into storage until next summer.

While I worked on pumpkins, I listened to Nicole Sauce’s podcast episode entitled “Renew Yourself, Renew Your World.” She wrapped up 2024 and introduced her word of the year for 2025, which is “Enrich.” I still haven’t come up with a good word for myself.

I also listened to Amy Dingmann’s Farmish Kind of Life podcast. That episode hit me right where I needed it. It was entitled “Why Are Information Platforms Dying?” She talked about the natural life cycle of social media platforms and how everyone rushes to the newest shiny platform and posts there until it gets saturated and then they begin looking for the next newest shiny platform. I have been told for years that blogs are dead, and yet here I am. Toward the end of the podcast, she made a comment to the effect that “Maybe where you need to be is the place that isn’t popular anymore.”

I don’t like “shorts” or Tik-Tok or reels or other 20-second sound bites on social media. The videos I want to watch are the ones that dig in and explore. I have been agonizing over my inability to get enthused about Instagram—one of the current shiny platforms—and although I am going to make an effort, I am not going to begin chasing clicks.

She also talked about how social media platforms force content creators to sabotage themselves because the algorithms drive the production of more and more content in order to stay relevant, but people only have so much time to consume that content. It is ironic, but the more content a content creator produces, the more likely they are to lose followers. I find this is true; I fall way behind on podcasts that put out more than one or two episodes a week. And that’s the reason I don’t blog every day.

Lots of stuff for this Luddite to think about heading into 2025.

*******

I will sew today. What I sew remains to be seen—it might be zipper pouches or binding potholders, or I might get ambitious and cut out a few tops. I hit the pumpkin pretty hard yesterday and want to relax today. We are under a high wind warning and a winter weather advisory today, so it will be a good day to stay inside.