Another Bread Fail?

 ...Or at least call it a less-than-optimal rise.  I baked another 100% whole wheat loaf, this time with Red Fife wheat, which is (so far) my favorite.  Here's the result:

It's not exactly a failed loaf; it's just more dense than normal. The comparison loaf is 100% white flour, which is always very fluffy. The rare 100% whole wheat splitting top crust was nowhere to be seen.  Still, I have had worse experiences.

 I think in this case the flour may have been slightly too hydrated, and the stones of my grinder may have snuck apart on me and may need adjustment again.  That was a main factor behind the epic Emmer disaster. The other factor was over-hydration, and the two may go together.  Under-ground wheat = less water needed for making the sponge.  If one does not adjust for that, it's a soggy, grainy mess that doesn't rise.  I'll try again, but will go back to 50% for a while in the meantime.

Apricot Sludge

 The title may not be very appetizing.  However, it's a reasonable way to characterize what I found when I recently opened a jar of apricots that were canned a few years ago. Would 'Viscous Apricot Syrup' be any better?

I've written before about canning apricots.  It's a pretty straightforward process.  And I have written before about the storage life of canned food.  It's more than a year.

These apricots were canned in the summer of 2016, so were about four years old when opened.  As you can see, they're a little darker than when fresh, but the flavor was fine.  What may or may not be easy to see is that the syrup has turned into more of a gel:

I assume this is the action of the pectin, present at varying levels in many or most fruits.  There are no problems with quality, either of the syrup or of the fruit itself.  I don't know how long canned fruit is good for, but it seems to stretch at least four years.  As I've noted before, as well, I've opened four-year-old jars of peach preserves, too, and found them to be fine.  One exception is some sugar-free peach preserves I made with Whey Low one time; I didn't write about the effort at the time, but I followed my normal process, except substituting Whey Low for sugar.  The Whey Low, after about three years, had granulated, making the preserves somewhat disturbingly crunchy (although the flavor was okay).

I haven't seen this same gelling process with pears, which have more pectin, but I don't have any that have been canned for as long as the apricots.  The same thing may happen with them, as well, if they are on the shelf for a couple more years.

Patching Clothes, Three Years Later

 Almost three years ago I wrote about a pair of jeans that had a tear in the knee that I fixed.  Here's how the patch looks now:

As you can see, it's still holding up pretty well, despite some additional fuzziness as the surrounding areas fray a bit because they weren't completely stitched down.  The jeans accumulated another small tear this last summer, which was easily secured without a patch:

Other than that, they're still going strong.  They get worn and washed almost weekly, so they have about 150 additional washings at this point.  If a garment is too badly worn or torn, it might not be worth saving.  However, an evaluation is called for--being able to keep things in service longer is well worth the relatively small amount of effort it takes (sometimes).