Funny Vegetables

Check out this monster tomato!! It was the highlight of my morning. I've been canning for 12 hours now! Luckily, I'm done with the hard part. Now I can sit back and relax and just switch out the canner every so often. Yahoo!


These are my pitiful little onions...I'm still not sure exactly why they flowered instead of growing. They are so cute that I almost don't mind except that they're already gone! Don't they look almost like little purple light bulbs?

5 Roosters = Soup

Last night we took our 2 remaining turkeys and 5 roosters to the processor. The roosters were all Barred Hollands from the batch of heritage breed chickens I ordered in the spring. I had high hopes for the heritage breeds but the Barred Holland is not a winner in my book. The roos are very aggressive, much like the Barred Rock rooster that we gave away to our neighbor last year because he was beating up all the other birds. I watched them for quite awhile during feeding and the Holland roosters would grab feathers out of the other birds for no reason at all. The Buckeye hens were taking a real beating because they are so docile. I'm very happy with the Buckeyes and the Buff Chanteclers so far, more on that some other time.

I googled how to cut up a chicken and studied several of the results. Last time I attempted to cut up some hens it didn't go well. This time I removed both legs and both wings, then I cut the birds through the ribcage on each side. I discarded the back and neck and kept all of the other pieces to make canned chicken soup with. The five young roosters yielded 5 quart Ziploc bags of pieces. I removed all of the skin except that on the wings so it will be easy to pick the meat off later.

BTW, the computer is fixed (at least for now) so we're now back to regular programming. I've been a little unplugged from technology this week and strangely enough, I'm enjoying it. I've been trying some new organizational techniques to help me stay on track around here. So far, so good. Staying on top of things is so much easier than constantly trying to catch up but it still takes a lot of time.
Have you ever canned soup? Cut up chickens? If not, what are you canning or preserving right now?

A Weekend's Work

This is what I accomplished over Saturday and Sunday...


33 quarts of pears in all. They are chuck full of pears too since I hot packed them, the only one with much free space is that one there in the front since it was my last jar. Yesterday was my Grandma's birthday so I took 3 quarts back to her (they're from her tree!).


When pears were finally done I literally ran to my knitting...I was having withdrawals. I whipped up this little booty for my friend Maria. One more to go and I can seam them up and they'll be done.

I hope you had a great weekend. Back to work today for me. We'll be busy getting things done around here all week and then Friday morning we head out for vacation!! Wahoo!

Peaches, Pears, Beans, Oh My!

My Mom came last weekend and helped with the peaches, I think we got 19 quarts in all. That was from 1 1/2 bushels of "seconds" peaches and I would guess we lost about 1/2 bushel of them to rotten spots and bruises. I picked 2 bushels of pears at my grandma's on Sunday. The blueberries in our area are done already but there happened to be a blueberry farm near my grandma's that was still open so I stopped and picked almost 5 pounds of blueberries. Then I swung by our friends' house on the way home and picked a 5 gallon pail full of green and yellow beans. They said take all I wanted but that was plenty for me!!
Today is the day to catch up on all of this. I might renew our Netflix for the season so I can watch instant movies while I sit here peeling and slicing.






Have a great Saturday. Are you canning anything this weekend?

It Has Begun...(drumroll please)

What is IT? Canning season that is. And no, that's not why I've been missing. I've been missing because my blogging addiction has given way to a Ravelry addiction which has led me to begin knitting everyone's Christmas presents now, while I'm still motivated and sort of have the time.

I promise to post more soon. My order of peaches came in tonight which will lead directly in to apple and tomato seasons which might clash slightly with the vacation to who knows where that we're taking the week of Labor Day. That will all keep me busy but it will give me lots of blog worthy material too.

I leave you with this. Anyone who can tell what it is gets an imaginary pat on the back from me. :)

Today's To-Do List

Monday is my day off and I'm staying super busy! This is more for my purposes but in case you're interested, here's what is on my agenda:

-Can more green beans (they're on the stove now)
-Bake bread
-Call the builder
-Call the plumber
-Call on prices for an automatic cattle waterer
-Balance the checkbook/pay bills
-Find the title for a trailer we're selling
-Call the orchard to order peaches (Mmmm!)
-Scope out vacation destinations online (this is coming up fast!)
-Make the weekly menu plan
-Make granola bars if time allows
-Finish knitted baby shower gift and make progress on wedding gift

The bathroom needs to be painted and the landscape worked on but it is incredibly hot and humid/sticky so I won't be doing either of those things today. I'm hoping to bust through the rest of the list so I can just knit and work on the bread.

I'd love to hear what you're doing today! :)

Pressure Canning Green Beans

I spent the day with my Mom yesterday and she taught me how to pressure can for the first time ever. I went in to this completely blind and was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was. Now I have a new skill to add to my list! Yay! Thanks Mom!


While this is in no way meant to be a guide to pressure canning I'll share a few pics and the basic process. That way if you find someone to teach you it won't be so mystifying.

The black pot has a strainer in it and boiling water. The silver one is the pressure canner with a few inches of water in the bottom. We snapped the beans in 2-3 inch pieces and removed the ends. Next, we rinsed them under cool water and put them in the black pot of boiling water. Once the water comes back to a boil they stay in for 5 minutes. At that point we pulled out the strainer, allowed the water to drain back in to the pot, and poured the beans in to the plastic strainer in the sink.


Then it is time to put the beans in the jars. I used the end of a wooden spoon to arrange them and filled them almost to the neck of the jar. The jars will get very HOT. Duh, but I'm a little slow.


You use the liquid from the black pot to fill the jars. Leave about 1 inch of headspace. Wipe the rim clean, then place the lids and rings on as usual.

Here's the fun part!! Put them in the pressure canner and secure the lid. We used the canner's owner's manual and the Ball canning book to figure out the specifics. For our canner we need moderate steam coming out of the little hole on top for 7-10 minutes. At that point we put the little weight on top of that hole. Stick with me here... each recipe calls for certain pounds of pressure. For our canner the piece with the black top equals 5 pounds and each silver ring is five additional pounds. So we put one ring on the black piece and set that over the steam hole. When the pressure reaches 10 pounds the steam comes out forcefully enough to rock the little weight back and forth. Once the weight starts rocking your processing time begins. I set the timer for 25 minutes.



When the time is up you just turn off the burner and wait. There is a little button thing on top of the canner that sticks up as long as it is holding pressure. When the button drops the pressure is gone. Then you can tip the weight sideways to check it. If no steam comes out it is safe to remove the lid. It took a very long time for the jars to cool, much longer than jam from what I remember. Therefore it also took a long time for them to seal.

By the way, 5# of grean beans from my garden = 4 full quarts. Not bad! :)

Do you pressure can? Isn't it fun!? What is your favorite food to pressure can?

Free TV: Getting By Without Cable

We haven't had cable or satellite TV service since we moved to the farm almost 2 years ago. Brian had satellite at the old house and when we moved we called and "suspended" it. The company offered to install it at the farm for us but we moved in the midst of harvest season and knew we'd be way too busy to watch much TV. As we approach another fall we both agree that life without a TV bill is totally doable.

The Digital transition really threw a wrench in things. We used to get 5, 12, 19, 25, 28, 46, and 66. After the digital transition we get only half of those plus their "extra" channels (19 now has 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, often all with separate programming). We can still get most channels but we have to adjust the antenna constantly depending on what we want.

We've developed a few strategies that help us deal with the "welfare TV only" lifestyle.

First, we subscribe to Netflix during the winter months when we aren't busy and are stuck in the house the most. We do the 2 at a time plan for $14.83 per month. Wayyy cheaper than cable. We keep a notebook in the living room and when we see previews that we like we jot down movies. That way we keep a good list going in Netflix and see all the "new releases" when they come out to rent. I've been very happy with Netflix service. If I put a DVD in the mail on Wednesday we have a new movie on Friday so we have new movies at least every weekend. Plus they have a lot of movies available instantly over the computer. They even offer a lot of hard to find, interesting documentaries. When farm work picked up again this spring I called and canceled our account. They will save our list so we can pick up where we left off as soon as I call them back.

The other lifesaver is our computer. We have a wireless router so the computer often sits here with me while I knit or can. Here are some of my favorite websites to watch "TV" on:

-The major television network websites are the most reliable and have most of the current shows available. I have had excellent luck with ABC.com and they are very good about adding the newest episodes right away.

-Try some of the cable channel websites too. I've been playing around on TLC.com lately. I really enjoy 18 Kids and Counting and Jon & Kate Plus 8 (does anyone else follow them, BTW? I'm a big fan and am so sad that their marriage is suffering!). The shows tend to take awhile to load and pause a lot but there is good content there if you can connect. They have a lot of educational type things too not just reality TV drama.

-Here's a new favorite: Hulu.com. You can watch a ton of The Dave Ramsey Show on there. Right now I have that running in another tab since it is mostly a talk show anyway. I highly recommend it.

I'm not so much encouraging you to get high tech or spend all your time on the computer. However, if you spend as many hours as I do sitting or standing doing one continuous job it is sometimes nice to have something else going on.

Enjoy!! Just think - if you're spending $45 a month on TV you could pay a different bill with that or sock it to your debt...

Any other ideas for cutting bills or living without paid TV?

All In A Day's Work

I could hardly believe my eyes when we pulled up to my sister-in-law's house the other day. Across the road, bordering a field that my father-in-law owns, there were hundreds of cherries hanging from the trees. I held back my excitement long enough to ask if anyone picks those? All I got back was a funny look. They had never noticed the cherries!! That was last week and the cherries weren't quite ripe yet.


We did go up to the beach for the weekend but we came home first thing Sunday morning. I have a bad sunburn (stupid me!) so I certainly didn't want to lay on the beach anymore and we were both ready to go home. Brian went to cut hay and I headed over to pick cherries. The whopping total: 8 # 13 oz.!! That took me a good part of the morning. Back home I pitted them all. Since our 5 tv channels suck and I canceled Netflix I set up my labtop next to me and watched the first 4 weeks of Here Come The Newlyweds while I pitted. After experimenting with different methods, I liked using a drinking straw and popping the pits out the other side of the cherry. It still took forever.

When I finally had them all pitted I decided to make cherry pie filling. I used this recipe and expanded it to work with the 14 cups of berries I had. Then I canned it, processing pints for 35 minutes as the Ball canning book suggests.

Once the cherries were done I moved on to blueberries. What kind of idiot puts 18# of berries in one Foodsaver bag I don't know but that's what I had done a few years ago. I thawed the huge bag so that I could use some blueberries for my 4th of July pie. I expected them to taste bad after so long in the freezer but they were still quite good. Blueberry season is coming up again soon so I needed to use these up!

First project: 4 batches of blueberry muffins equaling just under 4 dozen muffins total. Those went on a rack to cool and then in to freezer bags for quick breakfasts. Next: 1 batch blueberry waffles, into the fridge for breakfasts this week.

Then I made two batches of blueberry pie filling. I used the recipe from the Ball canning book but altered it to be easier. I'll post my method in the next few days.


There were just enough blueberries to top off Brian's ice cream and keep a few in the fridge for desserts the rest of the week. I did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen while the last batch was processing so that by around 10 PM I was finally done. I was really tired and didn't relax much considering it was a Sunday but it feels great to have all this food put away

Total production for the day:

• Just shy of 4 dozen blueberry muffins (frozen)
  
• 9 pints blueberry pie filling
  
• 5 blueberry waffles
  
• 6 pints cherry pie filling

Umm... why does it feel like this list should be WAY longer?

What are you preserving right now? Have you every canned pie fillings? What berries are in season where you live?

A Year's Worth of Strawberries

Old bath towels are great for covering the countertops when canning. No worries about making a mess! This is where we were crushing the berries and that is all of the foam we scraped off after boiling.

Our filling station and some of the finished product.

This is called working double time.

I'm spending the day with my Mom and sister today. We met at our favorite berry farm just after 8 AM and started picking. 30 pounds of strawberries later we headed for home. My Mom hulled all those berries while my sister and I went to Meijer for more pectin. Of course we also stopped by the bathing suit section, etc., etc. but we finally made it back home.

That's when the fun began. We had a pretty good assembly line going. One would crush, one would stir 2 batches at a time, and the third would manage the canner and jars. We pumped out 2 batches before breaking to attend my cousin's graduation party. It was nice to see some family that I don't get to visit with very often.

Back at home the jam making continued. We also sliced some berries to freeze and left the 12# that we picked last week in the freezer for shortcake throughout the year.

All in all, here is our bounty:

25 pints jam
13 half pints jam
8 4 oz. jars jam
20 cups crushed, frozen berries
2 qts. sliced frozen
10 cups "foam" to use right away

If Brian and I used 1 pint every 2 weeks (which we won't) we would have enough for a whole year plus some for my Mom and sister (who don't use much) and plenty to give away. I'd say this was a success. :)

About half of the finished product.

Do you can your own jams or jellies? Do you do enough for a whole year? This time we went to the U-pick farm but I'm hoping to have enough of our own someday. Does anyone grow all of their own fruit for jam?

Canning Rhubarb, and more planting

I'm trying a new theory. Instead of eating within the seasons, how about preserving each season so I can have it all year long. Case in point: last year I made the heck out of rhubarb muffins for a couple months. I've been craving them for about 10 months now. I like to can as much as possible to save freezer space for meat so I thought I'd try canning rhubarb. It was the easiest canning experience ever!!

I had a bag of rhubarb that must have weighed 10 pounds. I could have run it through the food processor like I sometimes do but cut it up by hand instead. It is easier to work with and looks nicer. Plus, I didn't feel good and sitting in front of the TV with the cutting board for 2 hours made me feel like I accomplished something. Anyway, I chopped it in small 1/2-1 inch pieces.

Add 2-4 cups of sugar to each 16 cups of rhubarb. I used only 2 cups because I prefer a very light syrup. Toss together in a big bowl and let sit for at least a few hours. The natural juices will seep out and create it's own syrup.


After setting for awhile it is time to get the canner going and jars ready. Then heat the rhubarb and the juice in a pan until boiling. Boil for 30-60 seconds. Transfer to jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe the rim and seal. Process for 15 minutes.

The Ball canning book says that each 16 cup batch will produce 8 pints. I had about 40 cups but only ended up with 13 pints, not the 20 I expected. The rhubarb must have cooked down quite a bit. There was not a lot of syrup but all the jars sealed and I expect them to store well. I already opened 1 jar to make muffins and I was very happy with the product. I'll share the rhubarb muffin recipe as soon as I find the one I used last year.

In other news, I planted out some more seedlings tonight. 35 Waltham 29 broccoli and 17 more Amish Paste tomatoes, bring the total AP tomatoes up to 25 surviving.

Tomorrow is my early day at work so off to bed I go. Enjoy! :)