"Making Do"

My Aunt Mary, 85 years old, tells me her kids gave her a food dehydrator as a gift. A lifetime gardner and thrifty by nature, she has canned, dried, frozen, and otherwise preserved food all her life.

I ordered a book for her on uses of, and recipes for, dried tomatoes, as she has a bumper crop this year and won't waste one of them. In return, I got a lesson in "making do," how one accomplishes things by using the resources at hand.

She tells me that in years past, when she has produce to dry, she has placed it on trays in her car on sunny days, windows rolled up. The heat in the car dries the food at a nice pace, and the windows keep out insects and birds during the process.

I imagine the car was pretty ripe after drying fruit, but a day or two with the windows down took care of it. The point is not that we should all rush out to dry food in our vehicles. It is, rather, that this way of thinking, of making do, is very often a money saver and ecologically sound.

I hope Aunt Mary enjoys not having to lug trays of tomatoes to the car this year, and I thank her for the reminder that there is frequently another way of thinking something through.

Together Yes would very much like to hear your own stories about "making do." On our website, we learn from one another. Visit our website at www.tgryes.org and send us an email by using the Contact Us button.