Science In The Barn!

This is the time of year I spend a lot of time convincing people to can tomato sauce. Our tomatoes are in. It's, like, time to do that. For many of these folks, canning vegetables is either a brand new idea or a tedious chore they gave up years ago. And I manage to convince a fair number of them to give it a try.

Anyway, because of that (I think), one of our lovely customers gave me some clearjel for canning today. I've never used clearjel before, though I know it's common, and he swears by it, and was kind enough to bring me some to play around with.

I think he meant for us to use it in the kitchen. But instead, we began playing around with it in the barn. Clearjel is a modified corn type product that acts a bit like pectin or gelatin, and it reminded Matt of this powdered creamer experiment his high school chemistry teacher had shown him.

So he got out the propane torch, set it up on the barn floor, and proceeded to blow some of the clearjel powder through the flame.

Nothing happened, and we were both a little disappointed.

We've just watched our first episode of "Breaking Bad", you see, and were hoping for something really amazing.

Turns out, clearjel is not nearly as flammable as instant coffee creamer.

However, I'm sure it will make some great peach jam!

Farming requires daily encounters with applied science. But not often this kind. It was fun to branch out, even if there was no cool explosive result.