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Thursday, September 22, 2022

My Grandmother's Ball of String


Opening a 25-lb sack of dried lentils, I carefully clipped the string in just the right spot so I could pull it off in a long piece, coiling it up afterward. I use this string to truss whole chickens, tie up plants in the garden, and tie bundles of grape leaves for the freezer. 

My grandmother's kitchen drawer had a ball of string that she'd saved from sacks and packages to reuse at a later time. Any newly received string would be wrapped around the ball. And the ball would grow and shrink throughout the year, depending on if she was accumulating new string or using up her stash. She used the string to tie packages to be mailed for the holidays (back when you could use string for packages), to tie the legs together of whole poultry to be roasted, to tie up roasts to form a compact lump of meat for even roasting, to tie paper-wrapped sandwiches for the lunches of my grandfather, my uncles, and my mother, to tie waxed paper squares on top of opened cans of food as makeshift lids, and to mark straight lines in the vegetable garden so her seeds would form neat rows. It seemed that string had endless uses. 

In my grandmother's time, a lot of packages came either tied with string or the opening sewn shut with string. I come across far fewer sources of free string than she did. However, I do find extra large sacks (25 or 50-lbs) of dried beans and lentils, rice, and onions sewn closed with string. And I always save that string for reuse.


I'm finishing up the summer gardening season, and until I opened this sack of lentils, all of my string had been used in tying up plants to their support stakes. I have now replenished my stash of string, enough for several roasting chickens or perhaps a Thanksgiving turkey.

Did your mother or grandmother have a ball of string in a drawer for reusing?

16 comments:

  1. I don't recall my mom or grandma having a ball of string. However, I could very easily believe that my grandpa had one, though I don't recall seeing one. He saved EVERYTHING, and I mean everything.

    Curious about using it on chickens or turkeys, though. I've never done that. I don't recall my mom or grandma ever cooking a whole chicken, so maybe that's why. And they didn't do it on turkeys. We've "harvested" our last two batches of chickens ourselves, and do try to position the legs the way we want them (for fitting in the pan or slow cooker) while doing the shrinkwrap stage. What does the string do?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Cat,
      I tie the legs together so the whole bird makes a neat, compact bundle and roasts more evenly. When I don't tie the legs, the legs cook too quickly and are overdone when the rest of the chicken or turkey is done. But, shrink-wrapping your harvested birds may help in that regard. Commercial turkeys often have a metal, heavy wire attached to the bird that will hold the legs down and together, but not always.
      You must have a freezer full of backyard-rasied chickens now! Great job!

      Delete
  2. I don't remember a ball of string, either. I DO remember a junk drawer full of rubber bands obtained from various places, and I also find myself saving rubber bands.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      I save rubber bands, too and twist ties and bread bag clips. They all come in handy. My mother's junk drawer was an interesting place to rummage through. All sorts of handy odds and ends. We don't have a place for a junk drawer in our kitchen, so our bits and bobs are scattered throughout the kitchen.

      Delete
  3. Since I began junk journaling, trash is now treasure. My husband asks permission before throwing anything away. Of course I have a ball of string and much more. We hardly have trash and can buy a smaller 10 gal sized waste bag instead of the more expensive 13 gal kitchen size. Recently I've been making journals from the scrappiest papers including junk mail and old scribbled notes like our grocery lists, calendars, project ideas and plans, etc. I use it as a substrate, if need be, I gesso over the scribbles. Makes interesting background that is faintly readable.

    Have a good weekend,
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Laura,
      It is amazing how much you can downsize your garbage pickup by recycling and up cycling as much as possible. I was thinking about what actually goes into our garbage. It's plastic wrap that comes on meat and now some produce, as well as new non-food items. It's bones from meat (although I am thinking about trying to make my own bone meal for the garden). It's the parts of containers that are not recyclable for whatever reason. And it's broken items that can't bear repaired or recycled. Most of us can recycle a lot of what used to get thrown in the garbage. But I do think your efforts to epicycle trash into junk journals takes this to a whole new level. It's better to make something out of recyclables at home than to use the energy to commercially transform recyclables into brand new products, I think. My garden pots made from the bottom half of milk jugs is an example from my own life. I thought about buying potting containers, then realized I had an endless supply of square plastic containers just the right size for growing under lights indoors.

      Can you send me an email with photos of your recent junk journals?

      Delete
    2. Sure, I'll send a picture of some of the things I've made from trash. Mostly paper trash like junk mail, envelopes, cracker and kleenex boxes, toilet paper roll tissue wrapper and scrap fabrics that most sane people throw away.

      Laura

      Delete
    3. Thank you so much, Laura!

      Delete
  4. I remember our ball of string. Also packages wrapped and tied up with string when you shopped in a department store. It seemed to have stopped in the late 60’s early 70’s with th3 advent of plastics(bags). Ten Thousand Villages sells balls of jute made in India for all the reasons mentioned to use string.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Teresa,
      I have very faint memories of my mother buying something that was wrapped and tied with string to carry home. The string was the carrying handle.

      thank you for mentioning Ten Thousand Villages. I looked at the site and saw a lot of beautiful handmade items for sale. I'll check it out more thoroughly in just a bit. Thank you!

      Delete
  5. I save string occasionally, but not often. However, I do love pulling the strings from those big bags. It is quite satisfying when you get the whole length off at once. I'm with everyone else that I can't get rid of a rubber band unless it is dried out. I never saw my grandmother's ball of string, but I'm sure she had one. She saved everything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      It is satisfying, isn't it, to pull that string and get it off in one piece?
      Rubber bands are another item that I hang on to, especially those fat ones that come on broccoli bundles. Those seem to last the longest of all of my recycled rubber bands.

      Delete
  6. Mom and Dad had a drawer for twist ties, rubber bands, string and all kinds of goodies. I still have a drawer full of odds and ends and I save most of my string but that goes in the garage on the gardening shelf. I also love getting a bag with the string on them. Dad taught me that the double strand goes away from you and the single strand goes toward you and then find the starting point and you can get the whole thing to unwind itself by only pulling the single strand. I don't even have to make a cut first.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      Thank you for that great tip on pulling the entire string off in one go!
      Twist ties -- yes! Another must-save item for me. I keep a cup of them in the cupboard above my main kitchen work surface. Indispensable for keeping bags of food closed.

      Delete
  7. I use a piece of chicken skin or green onion to truss a chicken instead of using any string since a) I don't know if they're food grade and b) fewer things to the landfill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Farhana,
      Oh, that's interesting! Good point on suitability of reusing string for cooking purposes. I'd like to try trussing a chicken with something edible. Thank you for your comment!

      Delete

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