Andrew Mercer's Blog

Delicious Pickled Beets

andrew — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:25:38 +0000

I pickled some beets this past weekend. They actually turned out to be pretty delicious so I think I will need to pickle some more before winter sets in. Here are the steps that I took:

*NOTE*: I used about 10 large beets and they filled 10 small mason jars (not sure of the metric size) which worked out to be approximately two cups of diced beets per jar which gave me approx. 5 quarts of beets.
*NOTE*: For every quart of beets, use 1 cup of sugar, 3/4 cups of vinegar, 3/4 cups beet juice and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
*NOTE*: 4 cups = 1 quart

1. Harvest or purchase beets from local farmer.
2. Wash and sterilize mason jars.
3. Wash and trim the beets (take the ends and any dirty stuff off)
4. Submerge beets in water and boil until tender (approx. 25 – 30 minutes).
5. Save the beet juice that occurs as a result and place aside in a bowl.
6. Cut ends and peel skins off the beets. Place them aside in a bowl.
7. Mix approx. 3 & 3/4 cups of beet juice, 3 & 3/4 cups of white vinegar 2.5 teaspoons of salt and 5 cups of white sugar together in a bowl. Heat over the stove for approx. 10 minutes to make sure the sugar dissolves.
8. Cut beets and place in mason jars, measuring approx. 4 cups of beets per mason jar.
9. Fill mason jars with hot brine (juice, vinegar and sugar) until beets are submerged. Place caps on jars and turn only one notch.
10. Place mason jars in hot water until the jars are hot (not too hot or it will break).
11. Remove jars from hot water and fully tighten the lids.
12. Once the jars have cooled, they should seal themselves (you will hear the lid pop).

Does anyone have any alternative methods of making pickled beets? I’d love to hear them!

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

Newfoundland Poetry

andrew — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:52:27 +0000

Shadows and Echoes: The Man and His Poetry by R.A. Parsons was very enjoyable with its Newfoundland centered rhythm which served me personally as a sample of good poetry, a Newfoundland cultural experience as well as a bit of a Newfoundland history lesson. This selection included prefaces by several prominent people from St. John’s from the fifties, sixties and seventies and it was cool to be brought back to those decades and hear these men introduce Parsons’ work. I’ll be ordering a few more anthologies of Parsons’ in the near future.

How To Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension was also really good. I particularly enjoyed the section on how to read poetry and it served me well when it was time to read Parsons. It actually inspired me to read more poetry as well as gave me a solid reading plan should I decide to use it that includes several different books written by people with a wide variety of world views.

The past couple of weeks I’ve been reading, watching films and working with computers. I brought back to life two of my older computers and am currently multi booting Debian, Linux From Scratch, Gentoo and Slackware as well as triple booting FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. It has actually been fairly painless and quite a fun experience doing this (maybe because I’m using Grub); interesting also to learn the different ways that each Linux distro handles basic tasks and configuration options.

I’ve watched the following movies recently:

Taxi Driver
Cape Fear
Goodfellas
Gangs of New York
Raging Bull
Dreamscape
The Black Dahlia

All very good movies especially Taxi Driver and Gangs of New York. I was extremely impressed (and surprised) at Robert DeNiro’s acting in Cape Fear – a must see for his performance alone. Dreamscape was interesting because it seems to have a similar storyline to the widely acclaimed Inception film recently released in theater. An odd choice of randomly selected films!

In the next couple of weeks I should be finishing up the following books:

The Unrandom Universe by Sigmund Brouwer (recommended to me)
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (finish up)

Also I plan to watch a bunch more Scorcese films as well as dip into some Hitchcock movies that I recently got hold of.

What’s everyone watching and/or reading right now?

What’s your favorite book of Newfoundland poetry?

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

Can’t Say That I’m Surprised

andrew — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:17:32 +0000

I knew that I was taking on a huge undertaking in attempting to read from front to back D.W. Prowse’s A History of Newfoundland and I knew that I might not, OK probably would not, make it through, so I’m not surprised that I’ve decided to back away for now. The book is a valuable resource and I think it is best suited for me right now as a reference when reading books written about Newfoundland history or culture. I’m still reading, although I’ve been leaning more towards watching films and writing up summaries (to keep the writing juices flowing – small, but better something than nothing in this case). Here is what is on my plate for the next week or so:

Shadows and Echoes: The Man and His Poetry by R.A. Parsons
How To Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension by James W. Sire

The first book is part of my Newfoundland reading list, but the second is a book that I have had since 2006 and have really wanted to read it, but have never gotten around to it. I saw it two nights ago on my bookshelf, realized that it was only less than 200 pages in length and decided to read it finally. Hoping to have it finished by end of tomorrow night.

Here are some movies that I have watched recently and have written summaries up about:

Shutter Island
Adventureland
Rendition
The Losers
Yes Man

Maybe I’ll post some of those summaries up, but maybe not. Will have to see.

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

Moving Along: Book Number Two

andrew — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:37:03 +0000

OK, so now that I’ve finished Ferryland: The Colony of Avalonia by B.D. Fardy (which was a very entertaining read; will revisit that one in the near future I think) it’s time to move on to the next book in my reading list; I think I will start the exhaustive, highly recommended work of D.W. Prowse: A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and foreign records. At first glance it appears to contain approx 700 pages of late 19th century/early 20th century English prose so I hope that I can make it through! I know that the value of the historical and culture content found inside is worth the extra work needed to get past any personal aesthetic hindrances that might arise so I shouldn’t have a problem …

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

My Knee – The King of the World

andrew — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:01:39 +0000

My son and I were relaxing outside today when he slouched down in his patio chair and playing with his Nana’s bracelet, put it on top of his knee said, “Look Daddy, my knee is King! King of the world!”

So that’s who’s in charge. That explains a lot.

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

The Women of Bouys Island, Ferryland

andrew — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:25:58 +0000

The history of Ferryland, much like the rest of Newfoundland, is genuinely surprising me with the calibre of the events that have taken place there. I’ve just read a bit about Bouys Island or Isle aux Bois, just off the coast of Ferryland harbour and its use as a defense against attacks. The island was heavily fortified starting at around 1743 and ending at around 1815, after the War of 1812.

The event that most caught my attention was during the year 1762. The French had attacked and captured St. John’s and were headed for Ferryland to do the same; the governor of Ferryland put the women and children onto Bouys Island, instructed them to defend the settlement if needed and the men started off for St. John’s to fight the French there. Sure enough, two French ships appeared in the harbour and what did the women do? They opened up the cannons, damaged one of the ships with their fire and forced the ships to leave! Amazing.

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

The Masterless Men of Ferryland

andrew — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 03:17:17 +0000

There is some part of me that knew there was a group of people (other than native Indians of course) that lived in this manner at some point time in Newfoundland, and now I’ve been enlightened a little bit about who they were! Apparently, the Society of Masterless Men was begun around the year 1750 on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula in and around Ferryland on the southern shore. It was started by a deserter from the British Royal Navy named Peter Kerrivan who with his society of men are said to have lived in the wilderness (lots of tuckamore!) surrounding the Butterpot Barrens for roughly 50 years. They lived off the land and traded with the settlements, but it is said that some times they raided and stole. However, they never stole from the poor or less wealthy, which is why they became known (probably due to legends) as akin to Robin Hood. Very interesting – I would definitely love to read more about these guys. Anyone know of any other books or resources that mention the Society of Masterless Men from Ferryland?

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

Schenectady Massacre, 1690

andrew — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:09:07 +0000

While reading Ferryland: The Colony of Avalonia by B.D. Fardy, I came across a mention of the massacre at Shenectady in New York in 1690 by Pierre le Moyne Sieur d’Iberville’s posse of French-Canadian and Huron Indians. It is reported* that along with virtually the entire town being destroyed, there was also a lot of casualties including 10 women and 12 children. This is an event that I would like to know more about, only I can’t seem to find any books that go more into depth on the subject at the moment. (Maybe the History of Canada by William Kingsford, but his books are getting rare as far as I can tell). Any suggestions?

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenectady_massacre

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

Ferryland, NF & Baltimore, MD: The Calvert Connection

andrew — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:20:56 +0000

I’m currently reading Ferryland: The Colony of Avalonia by B.D. Fardy and I found it interesting that there is a connection between Ferryland, Newfoundland and Baltimore, Maryland – they were both founded by the same man: Lord Baltimore a.k.a. George Calvert (technically, George Calvert’s son, Cecil’s (the second Lord Baltimore) name appears on the title of Maryland [Mary's Land] because George, the first Lord Baltimore died days before the title was granted after years of petitioning for it). This is great because I’ve always been interested in the history of the Eastern United States (I read George Washington in the American Revolution by James Thomas Flexner and found it absolutely amazing!). This may gave rise to another theme in regards to my monthly reading list once I have finished with Newfoundland! Of course I don’t think I will be “finished” with reading books about Newfoundland anytime soon, so I may possibly be working on both at the same time.

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net

New Reading List: Newfoundland Theme

andrew — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:28:28 +0000

Three months since my last blog post …. jeez.

I didn’t get through the books listed in my last reading-list-related blog post and I chose to back burner some of the titles listed in exchange for some different ones. I’ve decided to read a variety of books that I’m hoping will help me better understand Newfoundland history and culture so the new list of books together form a bit of a Newfoundland centred theme. Here is the new list:

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (half-way finished)
A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial, and foreign records by D.W. Prowse
Ferryland: The Colony of Avalonia by B.D. Fardy
A Question of Time by J.F. Cuff
Shadows and Echoes: The Man and His Poetry by R.A. Parsons
The Newfoundland Quarterly: Its Evolution Over an 85 Year Period

Books from March that I completed:
Death On The Ice by Cassie Brown*
The Sound And The Fury by William Faulkner
Random Passage by Bernice Morgan*
Haunted Shores: True Ghost Stories Of Newfoundland And Labrador by Dale Jarvis*

Hopefully I’ll get some time to review my trip back to Newfoundland because it was pretty amazing.

* Related to Newfoundland history and culture.

Andrew Mercer | andrew@andrewmercer.net