Homestead time.

Finally am not in limbo an able to share my life again. For a good long while I had to be very mum about things because we were trying to get moves in place and ready on our time frame rather than due to the choices of others.

We are now the happy owners of over 20 acres in North East Washington State. We are within spitting distance of the canadian border. We have pasture and timber. We are withing a few hunderd yards of a large lake. We have a pond. The house is smaller and one story making things much easier on me. We are finally able to really homestead. Grow and raise and make and be. I get to put my knowledge to use. I get to improve my health. I get to get back to writing. My girls are in schools with only 400 kids. The nearest town where they go to school has a population of 3000. It's awesome. So look forward to some posts on my new chapter. I plan to explore so much. Making my own soaps and body products due to my chem sensitivity, growing a garden, canning it all, hunting more, shooting more. Very excited.

absentee blogger

Yes, that is me. I am sorry. I have been crazy busy the last few...umm...months...? My boys started school and I stupidly thought this would give me soooo much free time. Yeah, that didn't happen. I am up by 6 to get my middle schooler (gasp) off to school. As soon as he walks out the door, I have to wake the younger two and listen to them fight as they get ready. I really hate mornings. By the time they are out the door I am exhausted.

I have also been canning. and canning and canning. We had an early freeze this year so I spent an hour and a half outside in a snowstorm picking tomatoes and the rest of the garden produce. Luckily a friend came to help or it would have taken me all day. We picked 16 pumpkins, four watermelons, two cantaloupes and 430 tomatoes. Yes, you read that right. I have 430 tomatoes in various stages of ripeness on my kitchen table. Salsa anyone? I have already done two batches of salsa but neither of them really came out. One was too sweet (it also called for several of my cucumbers), the second called for over a cup of vinegar and that is all you can taste. Sooooo.......this next batch will use the second recipe but cut the vinegar wayyyyyy down.

I canned my peas and carrots together because I didn't have enough of either to bother canning. I got a batch of green beans done and two quarts of tomatoes.

I did end up being a judge for the fair and there was a judges category (whoot) so I entered. I won three blue ribbons! We were up all night judging the hundreds of jars and had to come early the next day to award the ribbons.

The chickens are all molting and the yard looks like a fowl massacre with feathers EVERYWHERE. I wish they didn't do that right before the weather turns freezing cold. Mr Chicken and my chicks are completely clueless as to how to use the cat door we installed on the coop. My older hens are used to it and go in and out several times a day. It is too cold to leave the big door open and it is driving me crazy to have to let them out every morning and catch them every night to put them back in the coop. I hope they figure this out sooner rather than later.

I already gave you the update on the bees. Kind of. I have just gotten scared enough of them that I don't really go out there unless the smoker is fired up and I am in full beekeeper gear. That is just such a pain in the butt that I usually don't get around to it. Plus, my little photographers are not willing to get that close either. It doesn't help that my oldest son is allergic to bee stings.

So there are all of my excuses. I am going to try harder to keep up with this but if I disappear for a while again, I am sorry.

Canned!

No, I didn't get fired. You have to have a paying job in order to get fired. Everything I do, I do as a volunteer.

I am trying to work up the ambition to do some canning today. I have a huge amount of green beans that need to be processed. I also have several large cucumbers that I am thinking about turning into relish. They are too big for pickles so dill relish it is. I have eight tomatoes with five or so more that will be ready tomorrow. My jalapeno plant is producing pretty well...for it's size. My peppers were really small plants this year and i didn't get much off them. I think I will have to buy some peppers but I plan on making salsa once my tomatoes really get going. If I get enough, I also want to do spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes. Hrmmm, I might have to buy more tomatoes too, lol.

I had a bunch of peas I was going to can...but I ate them. The corn is alive with bees so we should get a good harvest there as well. My cucumbers are going to go bonkers here in about a week (?). The onions are getting really big too. I am going to have tons of fun with the garden this year. My kitchen is most likely going to look like a war zone from now until November though. Oh well, Hubby will just have to get over it. Think a loaf of zucchini bread will help?

Helping at the fair

I was asked a few days ago if I would help with the canning department at the fair. I am unsure exactly what I will be doing but as long as I don't have to judge, I am happy to help. Especially since I can myself, I am really looking forward to seeing what kind of things other people can and how to dress it up for fair. I will take lots of pics and let you all k now how it goes!

Canning chili rocks!

If you prep you should can or at least know how to. You probably can the usuals of veggies and jams. Peaches and green beans. Did you know some of your favorite things can be canned too? I can chili, spaghetti sauce, and even tortilla soup often. I make huge batches every time I cook these family favorites and jar the majority of it. It can take a little extra time but it is so worth it in the food storage and for nights when I don't want to fuss. You would be surprised at what you can put in a jar!

I've happily joined the canning ranks!

Last night I completed my second batch of canning goodness. I've had my pressure cooker/canner since Christmas but had not cracked it open until a couple weeks ago. I am going to go and help my SIL when she goes into the hospital to have her 7th baby. The rest of the kids need watching so I'll go up to help with that and to be there for the first few days after she comes home. SO I got to thinking about meals. I am picky. I mean if you looked up the definition of picky eater my picture would glare at you in technicolor glory. Anyway I figured if I made some things and took them with me then I would know I have food I like. Yes I am that picky.

So before the sick invaded our lives I made a huge batch of Spaghetti sauce. I used a couple scoops and made us some stuffed pasta shells and the rest went into 6 quart jars. I called one of my besties, Maggy, to walk me through it as she and my other best gal pal, Gracie, have walked this mine riddled path before. So she walks me through it and a couple hours later I have 6 beautifully sealed jars of spaghetti sauce heaven.

Last night I once again made a giant batch of food in my 8 quart pot. I decided to do tortilla soup this time. It turned out genius. 6 jars of this and it is just awesome. I didn't even call for help this time though as I was getting the child in bed and heard the occasional click I was petrified I would go down stairs and find broken bottles. My food luck held however and pretty jars doth a canner make!

Next I plan to try Chili. I've cleared a whole cupboard of my kitchen and plan too fill it with all sorts of yummy goodies.

Up to my elbows in apples

My neighbor paid my boys to pick and deliver around 70 lbs of apples to me. I had no idea this was happening untill they pulled a wagon right into my kitchen and started unloading them. I quickly called my mother and got her apple pie filling recipe. I have made 18 quarts so far. I plan on making a few more and them moving on to apple butter. There are still three more trees to pick so I should have plenty. If anyone else has an urge to do anything anywhere near this big of a scale, I would strongly recommend an apple peeler. I bought one that peels, cores and slices the apple in seconds. It cut my prep time in 1/3. It is going to be a good Thanksgiving : )

Tips from Clara

Here are Clara the depression cooks tip on how to survive hard times...

Oh, the bounty of Summer

I've been canning a good amount of fruit lately. Mostly in the form of jams and pie fillings. In the next two weeks, both blueberries and raspberries will be in season. I have several things planned for both those berries, but I'm having a bit of trouble deciding what else I'd like to can. I didn't can aspargus like I wanted to, and frankly I'm a bit scared of my dilly beans (as in eating them without dying).

I get that canning fresh fruit now, you have it (in some form at least) during the winter. Obviously veggies and things are more $$ during the winter, and usually have been shipped in somewhere. But not being a child of canning (aka, my family didn't can anything) I'm really on the fence about how much canning to try for my first year. Is canned corn from home really that different then from the store?

If you can produce, fruits or meat (or meals like soups even) what to you see as the pros? Cons?

Jam-A-Thon Part 1

We have a local strawberry farm that is a-maz-ing. It seems like summer doesn't start until they open for the season. Saturday morning, and old friend (we'll call her... Tessa) who I've been planning to do some canning which called and asked if I wanted to grab some strawberries and have a jamming day. I agreed, and Project Jam-A-Thon began.

I picked up the berries, and overestimated as usual, so I ended up buying 2 flat of strawberries. Which if you aren't familiar, is a whole lot of strawberries. I figure it's about 25 pounds altogether. We then realized I only had 12 pint jars on hand, and put in a call to Tessa's mom who said we'd need at least 24 jars to finish the job.

Got the extra jars and some more pectin and went to work. And let me tell you, canning with two people is so much easier. We finished 2 batches, and Tessa had to split, so I finished off as much as I could alone. I ended up using all the jars and still having a half flat of strawberries. We also tried a Strawberry Vanilla recipe I found in my Ball Preserving Book, so that should be interesting.

Canning is Cool

Or at least it took an article from the New York Post for my sister to decide I hadn't completely lost my marbles.

Returned for a Quick Trip

I just got back from a on the fly trip to Northern California to my mom. It was pretty much a whirlwind, but we managed to see some family (including an adorable niece I had yet to see) and even squeezed in a couple hours in the Bay Area.

Today I'm playing catch up, but I plan on posting quite a bit more this week. In the gauntlet is attempt #1 at Spaghetti Sauce (I'm doing Attempt #2 tonight or tomorrow), canning said sauce, whipping up some buffalo meatballs, hopefully canning (and maybe pickling) some asparagus and anything else I can think of.

Strawberry season is coming any day, and a Jam-A-Thon is in the works. Hopefully I'll be canning quite a bit as the newest veggies and fruits came in over the next several weeks.

Attack of the Dilly Beans

So I picked up about 2.5 lbs of Green Beans on Friday and decided to make my first attempt at pickling. Or pickling of sorts anyway. A friend had suggested I make pickled green beans, aka Dilly Beans. It seems fairly simple, and in actuality it was. I found two different recipes, and they seem about the same, except they used different amount of beans, and one called for mustard seed (which I didn't have anyway). Of course, I had an amount that was between the two recipes (seriously, I can't win with this stuff) but since either way it involved doing a raw pack (putting the raw stuffs in the jar and covering with a syrup or brine) I figured I would just make a little bit more then I'd need, and then I wouldn't be short.

I trimmed and cut the beans, getting rid of any with bad spots or wilted bits (During this, I also had my jars heating on the stove). I started my brine mixture (water, vinegar and canning salt) pulled out the hot jars, but let the lids in my hot water. I packed the jars, adding a clove (or two if they were small) a few sprigs of dill and packed the green beans in on top. When the brine was ready I ladled it into the jars, popped on the hot lids (fresh from the hot water, and yes I usually burn my fingers) and screwed them down with the jar bands.


I hadn't ever used my canner as a water boiler before, so I called Gracie in a panic early in this process. She talked me down, and so I had a good idea had to do it before I started. I had the canner already heating up with an ungodly amount of water in it on the stove, and once the water hit 140 degrees (I just use a candy thermometer) I put my cans of beans in. Let it heat to a "rigorous boil" per my canner's booklet, boiled for the allotted time, and pulled the beans out of the hot water, shoving them in my usual corner to cool.

They seem to have turned out great! I haven't tried any yet (I'm letting them 'stew' for bit to really season). The only thing I'm a little perturbed about is the shrinkage of the beans themselves. I shoved the cans full, yet I always seem to get a .5-1 inch of space once they are heated and sealed.

Is it Spring yet?

I know that it's April, but since Gracie and I have both had snow in the last week (stupid weather gods!) I really haven't been able to get a decent jump on the garden or anything remotely outside-ish. This weekend I plan on getting the composter my sister showed me, hopefully plant my starters from the Farmer's Market last weekend, and doing some (more) canning.

One good thing about staying around the area you grew up (especially when it's a very small town) is you know everybody. Seriously. Today I stopped at the grocery store because I wanted to can something besides strawberries and apples. I happened to have gone to school with one of the guys who works in the fruits and veggies and he told me that they had just gotten an excellent batch of green beans. I grabbed a bunch of those (it's probably several pounds to be honest) and also some baby dill. I actually found a mix of pickle spices also, so I'll probably try some with fresh herbs and some with the seasoning.

Once again, I will try and keep you up to date on my adventures and please, keep your fingers crossed for me.

The Spatula To End All Spatulas

Anyone who cooks regularly has faced the same dilemma. I like to call this Why-did-I-buy-this-piece-of-crap-itis. Everyone has that one kitchen utensil that they hate. My personal bane is the Spatula. I've had a bazillion of them; some melted (oops) some warped, some cracked and flecked (ew). On the beginning road of my canning adventure, I went to a kitchen store with my sister looking for non-reactive things for my jamming and pickling. I wanted a small spatula for tapping out bubbles, and anything I might need.

My sister shoved me past the regular culprits and tossed one of these in my hand. I don't remember her exact comment, but it was something along the lines of "I know this is kind of expensive, but seriously it's worth it. You won't regret it." I took it home, shoved it in the back of my utensil drawer with the rest of the useless spatulas. A few days ago, I needed to scrap an awkward size bowl and reached in the drawer, fished around blindly and pulled it back out. I'm sure I shrugged (or at least my brain did) and I went to scraping. It works like magic! It got out seriously every last drop. Then when I made the snicker doodles, I used it to mix the dough, and it worked amazing again. The tip is just flexible enough to allow you to scrape everything (Seriously, this thing is like a window squeegee) but it's stiff enough to use as a mixing spoon.

Highly, highly recommended from Maggie. Buy one, it's worth it!

Oh how I love you, Apple Butter

After the Adventures at the Farmer's Market I had several pounds of beautiful cameo and granny smith apples, the great intention of making apple butter, and a brand spanking new pressure canner. There are a few flaws in this though, as I don't had no idea how to make apple butter and have never canned anything in my life.

Luckily for me, both issues where solved pretty quickly. I found a Apple Butter recipe in my Canning for Dummies book, and started reading through. 8 Large apples (I had 10), check. Ground cinnamon? Check. Sugar, canning salt? Check and Check. Cinnamon sticks...Apple cider? Crap. 30 mins. and one trip to the grocer later, I'm ready to put the plan in action.

I peeled 5 apples with a vegetable peeler, and was working on a pretty good hand cramp when my mom called. I was complaining about the peeler I bought when she very sweetly reminded me that was why we always used knifes. I promptly defended my vegetable peeler, and as quietly as I could grabbed my parring knife.

I finally had all the apples peeled, cored and sliced. I brought 4 cups of cider to a boil, dumped in the sliced apples brought it to a simmer and walked away. No, really. I stirred every once in a while for 45 minutes. Then I tossed in the salt, sugar, cinnamon and the cinnamon stick and walked away. Again. Then I funneled it into hot jars (it made just about 3 pints) threw on the (hot) lids and bands, and poof. Apple Butter.

I decided to pressure cook it because 1) I'm terrified I'm going to poison my friends and family and 2) I wanted to get the hang of it so when the veggies come in, I'm not panicking. Got the canner set up fine, and didn't have a single problem with the actual process. Gracie and I purchased the same canner, and in place of a pressure gauge this particular model has a pressure regulator. Which to me if a fancy way to say "weighted plug". You pick the pressure level you need, set the rings and go. It worked great, and was it was comforting to hear it whistling away on the stove. After their allotted time in the steam, I pulled the jars out, set them aside and let them cool overnight. Tested the seals, and they seem perfect. Today a friend of mine is coming by to pick up his freezer jam, and I'm going to give him some of the apple butter and canned pears as well. He loves it, so I know he'll be a good critic on how to change around the recipe if I need to.

Ladies and gentleman, I'm pleased to announce Operation Can Like Mad is a go.

War of the Jams, The Frozen Finale

My second round of jam went much better then the first. I followed the plain ol' strawberry jam recipe from inside the box of pectin I bought. It went something like THIS.

I won't bore you with the gory details, seeing as I've done that for the last two posts. The fact of the matter is, I followed the recipe to the tee, didn't fudge with the amounts, and very carefully washing and sanitized everything in between batches. The results were wonderfully colored and textured jam that tastes as great as it looks.

Each batch (aka amount described for one package of pectic) yielded about 4 total pints. I chose to split them into both pint and half pint jars, and also into the screw-lid 2-cup Ziploc Tupperware things. I didn't bother with fancy-smancy jelly jars since this was mostly a test-run I plan to eat myself and pawn off on friends and family until I can perfect the method.

Today I grabbed some bread, toasted it in the oven (I'm a sucker for oven toast, don't ask me why. Well, that and I can't find my toaster) slathered it with whipped butter and smeared on some jam. This was the result...


The Boy and I managed to polish off the 4 pieces in about 15 seconds. Which left this...



All in all, I think the Freezer Jam experiment can be considered a success. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the other 6 pounds of strawberries.

War of the Jams, Part 2

So I gave up and tossed my original attempt at the strawberry freezer jam. I hate to do that, but I really had no way to salvage it.

For round 2 of the Jam War I wanted to be ready to battle. I went to the local big box store and stocked up on some things I decided I should have. A colander for washing/draining the fruit, dry good measuring cups, table/teaspoons, an egg timer and a veggie peeler. I'm trying to get everything in a non-reactive form (i.e, plastic, coated ceramic, or wood) so if I lose my mind and decide to make pickles I don't have to buy all new stuff. I also picked up Canning for Dummies which sadly didn't have an actual freezer jam section (their own loss, in my opinion).

I went to the still local, but much bigger grocery store, because frankly our little "Ma and Pa" mart is seriously lacking in the fresh fruits and veggies. I managed to pick up very very nice strawberries for about $2.50 a pound so I bought a lot more then I needed, but oh well. They also had a really good variety of jars from quart mason jars clear down to the fancy quilted jelly jars. Ironically, there was only about $1.00 difference in the flats of jars regardless of size.

I prefer wide mouth jars for just about everything you have to dig out. Sauces are one thing, but I hate trying to scrape around for that last bit of jelly and having it be just out of reach. And well, I like highest reward for the least amount of work. I picked up two flats of the wide mouth mason jars; one half-pint and one pint sized. I figure these are pretty good sizes for myself, and for smaller jars to give away to friends.

I was much more careful this time around about which pectin I chose, and I ended up just getting the regular ball "cook for 1 min" pectin. I trust something more when it has been used for decades, and I wasn't about to filch it again this time around.

I ended up making almost 20 jars of jam last night, and it turned out amazing. I'm very very proud of myself, and tomorrow I'll write a bit more to explain that process.

In the meantime, you can rest assured knowing that the Boy has been promised Belgium waffles in the morning.

Freezer Jam 1, Maggy 0

I headed to the local grocery store last night after work to grab some groceries I needed for dinner, and since my dad had informed me that they have strawberries on sale I figured I'd take a shot at the freezer jam. I wandered through the various aisles, scoring some great reusable twist seal containers (2 cups, perfect jam size IMO), a ginormous bag of sugar and worked my way down to the small canning section.

Now let's get this out right off, using pectin scares the hebee's out of me. I've had trouble making functional jello in the past. I can cook my pants off, and love every second of it. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants chef, I add what I want and what I think will work out. 99% of the time, it does. But the whole "this has to set properly, don't screw up the portions, yata yata" freaks me out a bit. So I'm scanning the aisle and see about 18 types of pectin, and my confidence is starting to shutter a bit. Then BAM! The miracle occurs! Right in front of my face is pectin just for freezer jam! Pre-portioned? Perfect! No cook? Even better! I throw a few packages in my cart and move on.

I get home and set to the task of cleaning and cutting the strawberries. Find a potato masher, and set to work making myself some crushed strawberries. This part was actually my favorite. Worked out quite a bit of aggression and was productive at the same time. I remember from when my grandma made freezer jam that's it's pretty straight forward. 2 cups sugar to each cup of fruit, let stand to soften, add pectin and POOF! Wonderful Freezer Jam. I mix the strawberries and sugar and set aside to work it's special magic. I grab the pectin, and start to read the directions.

I know what your thinking, I should have read them before I started all this. In hindsight I agree with that completely. The recipe on the box not only calls for Splenda (?!) but says to mix the sugar and pectin, then add the fruit. Um, a bit too late for that. After my initial moment of sheer panic, and keep reading, and notice in another recipe it says to mix the ingredients and just add the pectin, stirring for 3 mins.

I follow directions #2, and set the containers aside to chill out. I've also had some conflicting stuff with this, some says overnight, POS pectic package says 30 mins. I settled for a bedtime as a middle ground, and chuck them in the freezer about 9:30.

The next morning I realize I forgot to take pictures of this whole process (as was my plan) so I whip some out to do a mini photo shoot. At that point, I realize my jam endeavor was an epic fail. Not only has it not set at all, but the jam has completely separated into fruit on the top, goo in the middle, pectin/sugar goo on the bottom.


Although I'm sure my novice is slightly to blame for this, I was completely unimpressed with the Freezer Jam Pectin. The portion is great, but I didn't have 4 cups of fruit, I had 6. And it seemed that each container I had made about 1.25 cups of fruit. So unless I feel like tossing some of it (no way) or making a 12 cup batch, it was not actually helpful. The recipes on the back of the container called only for Splenda, and had no alternative amounts to people using good ol' white sugar.

Tonight, I'm going to the store (again) buying (more) strawberries, real honest to goodness pectic, pitching the old and starting over.

Canning for Dummies, or more specifically... Me.

One of the strongest memories I have from my early childhood is of my grandmother's strawberry freezer jam. Sadly, I wasn't smart enough to be interested in how she did it before she passed away, but now it seems to me like something I should know how to do.

I started out by google-ing 'freezer jam' and got a lot of mixed information. Lots of recipes, not enough of 'start with a jar, you idiot'. I stumbled around a bit until I found Canning Pantry and Canning Food Recipes. Both of these have fairly straight forward 'how-to' sections, and Canning Pantry has all the supplies you would need, from pressure cookers to jars themselves. Canning Food Recipes has (as obvious from the title) tons of recipes from basic fruits and veggies to salsa and spaghetti sauces.

Canning veggies and most fruits seems fairly straight forward once you have the supplies and a general know-how. Water Boiling and Pressure Canning seem to be the two big methods, the method varying with the PH level of whatever you are canning. the general pattern I'm seeing is: Fruit is water boiled, everything else (veggies, meat, dairy etc.) needs to be pressure cooked. The canners themselves run quite a gamete, from about $70-300. This doesn't include any of the extra supplies like jars, lids and such.

I would love to make my own spaghetti sauce, as it's something I use a lot, and frankly I'm sick of shelling out $5 a pop for a bottle of spaghetti sauce when I can make it myself for a fraction of the cost. The same goes for salsa and jams. Pickling also seems interesting and fairly simple, and who doesn't love a nice pickle?