Gleaning...

Over time, I've found that much of what I do & what has worked for me is gleaning.  To glean, basically means to take bit by bit.  I have taken classes, watched TV shows, listened to stories, read articles, etc... About 95% or more the information from those endeavors has been lost to some white noise & null void in the back of my mind.  But the remaining 5%, now that's another story.  

That information is well versed & used often.  It is what I found practical & pertinent among all the informative chaff.  When you collect information, it's like a harvest.  You gather heaps of info.  During the process, you can tell some of the material is bad & leave it to whatever else might want it.  But, after the gathering, the heaps must be sorted into bushels of actual information & not just useless bits of trivia & factoids.  From the bushels, the husks & other useless bits must be removed.  The process of sorting continues growing ever finer.  Until, you are left with actual, useful information.  From an acre of harvest, you may only get a bucket of good info.

Let's be a little more literal.  Today, we watched America's Test Kitchen.  We like this show a lot & not just for the recipes.  Often the actual recipes don't impress or interest us.  But, they also test products & equipment & those bits are very informative.  They discuss cooking techniques they developed & why they work.  Often the techniques are far more important than the actual recipes.    Today's show was about roasts.  I wasn't really interested in that part, but the side dish was fried, smashed, new potatoes.  This was an interesting recipe & easily translated into our style of cooking.

So, out of a 30 minute show on roasts, cuts of roasts, charcoal cooking & smoking, we focused on a five minute section on the side dish.  I'm sure the rest of it was great info for someone else, but not us.  We don't charcoal that much, if ever.  We don't have the $ to spend on a smoker & we don't eat roast that often.  

If someone gives you a hundred page magazine & you only have use or interest in a couple pages, you are not obligated to keep the rest of it.   Take what is useful to you & your life & let the rest go.  Maybe, someone else can use it.  There is too much info in the world for us to use it all, of even be interested in it.  So, we have to filter out what isn't relevant to our lives & get rid of it.

Life offers a lot, take what you need & let the rest flow on by...

Cya