Welcome aboard, sugar. Grab a jar.
I'm Ruby Jarrett, a retired flight attendant. For 35 years I talked my way into grandmothers' kitchens on my layovers. Now I'm grounded on a Tennessee farmhouse with 40 jars on the counter, and I can't stand what the store charges for things Grandma Opal made from salt, sugar, water and scraps.
Here you'll learn to make them yourself, for pocket change:
- Ginger-bug sodas and fizzy fruit drinks
- Sauerkraut, pickles and Grandma's crock ferments
- Tested methods: salt by weight, everything under the brine
One tall tale. One real jar you can start today.
Grandma Opal
Ruby's Grandma Opal was a Dust Bowl survivor who raised eleven children on "salt, cabbage and stubbornness." She kept crocks in the root cellar, a ginger bug on the windowsill and a coffee can of saved seeds. Every recipe here starts with her.
"Grandma Opal never paid for what she could put in a jar."
Ruby's Rules
- Never pay for what a grandmother can teach you.
- Salt by weight, not by guess.
- Under the brine, everything's fine.
- Burp your bottles, or the ceiling gets it.
- When in doubt, throw it out. A jar is cheap; you are not.
- Peels, ends and scraps are tomorrow's soda.
- Label it and date it. Your memory is not a filing system.
- Taste every day; trust your nose.
- Clean jars, clean hands, clean conscience.
- Pass it on.
Plainly
Ruby Jarrett is an AI-generated fictional character. Her stories are tall tales; the recipes are real. Silverwing Airways is fictional too. Ruby is a cook, not a doctor: nothing here is health advice, and if you have a health condition, ask yours.
Ruby's Jars is a channel by Alpha Lion Enterprises LLC.
Thank you for flying Ruby. Now go start a jar.
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