Seasonal Obsessional Disorder

12 years ago

I think this should be a new psychiatric diagnosis. I clearly have the subtype "cooking and preserving". Why else would I have just made 10 jars of peach/orange/ginger marmalade when I have 4 jars left over from last year and no one else in the family but me likes it? Why did I make 8 kinds of pickles when we really don't eat a lot of pickles? Why can't I rest until I figure out a use of every single zucchini?
And why is this so much fun? (S.O.D. has other subtypes, especially around Christmas: shopping, home decoration and my own, candy making.)
A similar issue that I found on another forum is 'allgoneophobia" - the refusal to use up something because THEN IT WOULD BE ALL GONE!! This is probably why I refuse to open the last jar of tomato chutney until I can start making more (even though we finished the penultimate jar in February). It probably also explains that jar of delicious seedless raspberry jam I can't bring myself to open.
Am I alone here? Or does anyone else have there issues?
Elaina

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Comments (9)

farmgrl23
12 years ago
Yes! I recently read a blog post about how I feel, its called Voices in August.. hehe

http://homejoys.blogspot.com/2014/08/hearing-voices-in-august.html
balloonflower
12 years ago
Count me in--I think I have some sort of subtype of "everything must be tried as jam". Did I really NEED to try 6 different flavors of peach jam this year?
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gmgdvm
12 years ago
Me, too.
My SIL and I have our own little SOD support group going, lol. Our slogan is: "It's a canning thing....you wouldn't understand!"
:-D
pixie_lou
12 years ago
Balloonflower - YES, you DID need 6 different variations of peach jam. Really. I can't believe you even have to ask the question. ;')
booberry85
12 years ago
SOD, I love it! I have managed to tone this down to only things I actually use for canning. The urge to can does start with berry season and goes through August (tomato season).

However, making Christmas cookies is a totally different story!!! I start in September figuring out what cookies to make, make a list of about 60 different cookies. Cut that down to about 15. I start baking a freezing cookies in October and the mania continues until Christmas Eve. Ridiculous! I do it every year though.
missrumphius
Original Author
12 years ago
Pixie - you are absolutely correct. A person needs 6 varieties of peach jam for the same reason the I needed to make 4 different recipes of sweet pickles.
Booberry85 - For me it is candy not cookies but the obsessive urge is the same. Last year I managed to limit myself to 20 different candies.
Then there is the candied fruit. Luckily since I mainly do citrus that obsession doesn't overlap with preserving.
There actually is a pay off in this. I have a very large extended family and no one has ever complained about the boxes of candy, jam, pickles, chutney,etc they receive each year.
Elaina
lpinkmountain
12 years ago
Yes, I have it. I can no longer enjoy September. Must get it all preserved! Please help me avoid putting up more green tomato pickles, I finally got up the gumption to throw out the batch I put up in 2006! ;)
gmgdvm
12 years ago
A subgroup of SOD is OCD....Obsessional Canning Disorder. How do you know if you have OCD? If you are LOOKING for excuses to can SOMETHING, even when it is not harvest season in your neck of the woods! (says the person who just this week canned black beans, chicken, chicken stock, and chili!)

And YES, it IS necessary to have multiples of products! I really NEEDED to do my 6 or 7 different types of salsa this year!

No, I don't have a canning obsession....why do you ask? ;-)
pattypan
12 years ago
how can anyone resist trying different flavors of all jams, it's so easy to put a teaspoon of one booze type per jar before filling. this year i took the used vanilla beans out of the home made vanilla and put them in the pot while cooking down the peach jam. waste nothing ! has anyone tried the wet and dry zings from nwedible.com ?
to add to the work, i just bought a pressure canner.....