Hot Footing

Three weeks ago I was canning quarts of apricot halves.

Its an interesting project as syrup is made something less than 2 cups of water to one cup of sugar,boiled down to a simple syrup with a couple of frozen myers lemon juice ice cubes thrown in.

The apricots are picked from the tree and sliced in half, pitted and packed into quart jars. The warm syrup is poured over the paced apricots and bubbles are released by sliding a chop stick down the side of the jar. More syrup is added so that the 1/2 inch of head room is maintained at the top. The jars are loaded into a pot with boiling water where they cook and seal for 30 minutes under roiling boiling water.

This year I was using left over lids from previous years. As one batch of apricots were completed, I noticed that there was a wrinkle in the seal and two jars were less full than when I started.

To do the next batch the water in which the leaky quarts leaked into had to be replaced and the pot washed.

I took the jars out of the hot water and threw the hot water from the pot on the ground, to slow down the growth of the weeds in the back yard. The water did not totally clear my feet and the top of my shoe bore the result of the accident.

I quickly ran inside, stripped off the shoe and the sock and soaked my foot in water for about 45 minutes. It was really painful. I had Sue drive me over to the Urgent care and our family doc. looked it over.

He was happy to see that the second degree burns were not all the way through the meat of my foot. My big toe got the brunt of the injury.

Every day for the last three weeks my right foot has had to be doused with poly and wrapped with gauze and a miracle material called coban.

It is a stretchy rolled bandage material exerts pressure on the wound but does not stick to the wound, It only sticks to itself. It is very common in vet practices too. Every third day I go back to the dr and he looks it over and checks to see how the burn is heeling.

After three weeks the other parts of my foot are okay and new skin has formed. The big toe is still slowly healing but seems to be progressing too.

Coban can be had for about 2 dollars a roll on Ebay if you buy a case. A generic version at our Walgreen store is nearly double that cost.

This issue has not slowed down the canning process. I am a whole lot more cautious arond the hot water now.

Yesterday I canned 7 pints of white peach pie filling.

Today 2 quarts of sliced white peaches were peeled and sliced and bagged for the freezer.

Love to All
Pat