I haven't heard that, but pectin is one of those wonderful natural ingredients that is an aid in jelly-making, though if you're really good at it you can achieve the exact state of firmness by cooking carefully (I am told). Pectin is used in a lot of foods where I don't want it (like yogurt - I prefer it to be cultured to the proper consistency, not thickened).

Congratulations on your apartment declutter! I paid off the SUV and am awaiting my title from the credit union where I hope they had it neatly filed and not buried under stuff. ;-)

We got between four and five inches of rain in the 24-hour period that concluded before dawn. It was a noisy night with more thunder (so an upset dog occasionally turned up outside my bedroom door). My emergency setup is pretty good but I need to add small food items that can be opened and eaten alone without having to open the fridge for some element (the cereal is on the counter but the milk is in the fridge, etc.) And can be eaten without cooking (though the small stove does work). I have cans of tuna, so maybe packets of mayonnaise and relish to mix small batches to eat on crackers. Shelf stable but not ultra processed foods. Tuna, sardines, olives, pickles, mayo, crackers, canned fruit . . . I'll start a list. Suggestions?

The mats by the back door need repositioning so the dogs spend longer on them; they've been tracking mud further into the house than usual. Lots of mopping ahead. There is an area near the house that doesn't drain well and in the middle of it a small tree suffering from the extra water so a small Y-shaped French drain needs to go in, extending about 12'. I'll pick up some bags of gravel this week and as the soil becomes workable I'll start a small trench, filling in with gravel to aid the drainage. The removed soil will be combined with compost and go in Smart Pots and one of the existing beds. Grass will grow over the gravel but water will still drain. I'd rather use my own yard soil than buy bags of topsoil that can be iffy and have pests and weed seeds.