Working on My Canning Skills

One of my biggest goals this year is to increase my canning skills and knowledge. I’ve made jam for years and began experimenting with simple recipes this year like adding fresh pineapple and making a strawberry pineapple jam. We also made applesauce this year from apples we picked off the trees on our property. The jams and the applesauce were done in a boiling water canner using regular metal lids, which is a pretty simple and straightforward process.

What I really want to get comfortable with is using a pressure canner and Tattler reusable canning lids. I received a great 23-quart Presto pressure canner for Christmas a year ago and have tried my hand at pressure canning a couple of times in the last year. One of those attempts was fresh corn we picked up at a local farmers market. From husking the corn to cutting it off the cob to filling jars and finally processing, we literally took the corn from the field to our pantry. The corn we got was a bi-color sweet variety and in the canning process it started to brown some. The flavor is still pretty good, though it does taste slightly overcooked, so I’m guessing the browning is due to the high sugar content of the corn itself.

There are several things I’d like to try to can, but at the top of my list has been canning beans. I am absolutely horrible about remembering to soak beans the night before I’d like to cook them and we like to eat beans in a multitude of dishes. I’ve read that beans are one of the easiest things to can and since CT and I both really like black beans, I figured they would be the best ones to try out.

The night before I was planning to can, I prepared about 3 pounds of black beans. I sorted through the beans to remove small stones and broken beans and then covered them in about 3 inches of water. They would need to soak for at least 12-14 hours to I started them soaking about 6pm knowing I would start the canning process shortly after breakfast the next morning.

The next morning I began my foray into canning beans by first collecting all of my supplies – pressure canner, racks (for stacking jars), funnel (for filling jars), jar lifter (for removing from canner), bubble remover, Tattler lids and rubber rings, and metal rings. The beans had soaked up most of the water from the night before and were ready to be drained and rinsed.

After rinsing the beans, they had to be cooked for about an hour prior to processing in the canner. I like adding seasoned beans to different dishes so I added some multi-purpose seasoning to the beans as they cooked. I used about 1 teaspoon per pound of beans. I brought the beans to boiling then lowered the temperature to a simmer for about an hour. \

To make canning a process that truly saves me money, I felt it was important to not only reuse jars, but to also reuse canning lids. The metal ones that come with the jars are meant for single use only and I don’t want to have to buy more lids every time I use up a metal one. I’ve read many good things about Tattler reusable canning lids that I decided to pick some up for use in my canning adventures. So while the beans were cooking, I started to prepare the lids and rings by sterilizing them in scalding water.

Once the beans were ready, I began filling the jars. I first added the beans leaving 1” headspace then added water the beans had cooked in and finally removed air bubbles by running a plastic utensil around the inside of the jar.

After I had all of the jars filled, I cleaned the rims with a wet cloth while checking for nicks and chips. I then placed a rubber gasket and lid on each jar and secured them with a metal ring. When canning with Tattler lids, this is one part of the canning process where the directions are slightly different than with metal lids. When canning with metal lids, the ring should be screwed down to finger tip tightness. When canning with Tattler lids, the ring is screwed down just to the point where resistance is met.

The jars were now ready to be added to the canner! While the beans were cooking I prepared the canner by heating about 3 quarts of water. (Unlike a water bath canner, jars in a pressure canner do not need to be covered with water.) By the time I was ready to add the jars, the water was simmering. I managed to fill a total of 10 jars of beans so I needed a rack for the bottom of the canner along with one to stack a second layer of jars.

With all of the jars in the canner, I locked the lid in place and watched for steam to start escaping from the vent. Once the steam was flowing, I waited for 10 minutes and then placed the weight over the vent. This allowed the pressure to begin building up in the canner. I watched as the pressure gradually rose and adjusted the heat on the stove so that once I reached 12lbs of pressure (we’re at about 2800’ elevation) I would be able to maintain that pressure for an hour and 15 minutes.

After the necessary time had passed, I turned the heat off on the stove and waited. I have read that the canner should be removed from the heat but due to its weight, the glass cooktop, and the room I had to maneuver, I simply let it sit where it was while the pressure went down. It is very important during this part of the process to allow the cooling to happen on its own. You NEVER want to remove the lid to the pressure canner until the pressure has completely gone down. The canner is ready to be opened when the pressure gauge reads zero and the stopper in front has dropped down. With the pressure down, I opened the canner and removed the jars. This is another point when canning with Tattler lids differs slightly from using metal lids. Since the rings were not tightened completely before processing, they are now screwed down to finger tip tightness, which only amounted to about an inch worth of turning.

I allowed the jars to sit for 24 hours before removing the rings. I checked to make sure each jar had sealed by lifting the jars by the lid and I had 100% success! This is only the second time I’ve used the Tattler lids. I am thrilled that all of the jars sealed. Now I’m looking forward to trying the beans and to canning more very soon!

Adding to the Family

Our first goal in moving to a homestead was to get chickens and I am proud to say that we have met that goal! One of our Christmas gifts was a chicken coop (with much guffawing from the giver) so we had a home for them. We had been debating back and forth about whether to get the hens now or wait until the spring until a neighbor came to us and said he had a friend who was giving away a flock of Rhode Island Reds and asked if we would like any. Knowing that we wanted chickens no matter when we got them we told him yes. So we headed down to a great local co-op where we purchased a feeder and waterer along with some feed and pine shavings. A couple days later the neighbor said his friend had already given away the chickens. So what were we going to do with all of these supplies? Well, we took to Craigslist where we found a local seller with a great reputation and off we went to get our chickens! We ended up getting 2 Marans that are already laying and 2 Rhode Island Reds, one that should start laying in about a month and the other in about 3 months.

   

 

The first confession I have to make when it comes to chicken raising is that it’s been nearly 3 weeks since I first began this post. A great deal has happened since we first brought the girls home and that leads to my second confession. We lost one of our beautiful new girls. The large Rhode Island Red in the first picture was lost to a predator six days after we brought her home. We were allowing the girls to range outside the coop in the fenced area, but the fenced area is not covered. We weren’t watching the girls when they were outside the coop, but we weren’t really thinking about possible predators either. I was just pulling in from school when CT met me at the car and told me we’d lost one of the chickens. We’re not 100% certain what happened, so we’ve tried to piece together a possibility from the evidence we found. CT had checked on the chickens about an hour and a half before I got home and they were fine then. Right before I got home, he heard our neighbors dogs barking madly in the vicinity of the coop. When he went up to the dogs to shoo them away, he found the chicken with most of her innards ripped out. We tried to find signs that the dogs had pulled her out but there were no holes or other gaps around the fencing of the run; however, there was a big pile of feathers outside the fencing near a corner of the coop. Our best guess is that a hawk tried to pick her up but found her to be more than she could handle and dropped her right outside the coop at which time the dogs found her. Whether it was the hawk or the dogs that killed her is unknown, but there is definitely a Cooper’s hawk hanging out in the trees around our place. Needless to say, the three remaining girls were immediately put back into the enclosed run area.

Our next learning experience with the girls has been the extreme cold weather we’ve been having. The weather was great for the first week and a half we had them here, then things turned really nasty. With heavy snow and subzero wind chills, we were very worried for the girls in their small coop. Since the coop is right next to the garage and it is fairly light and mobile, we decided to move them inside the garage (in the middle of a massive snow storm). It’s not a heated garage, but it is insulated and would provide shelter from the winds. We filled the bottom of the run with newspaper and pine shavings and so far they’ve been doing very well. We’re supposed to see a warm up by the end of the week so we’re hoping to get them moved back outside in a few days. I know they would probably appreciate being able to scratch the ground rather than cement.

The Marans have not begun laying since they were moved and with the stress of the weather and the coop being moved around, we expect it’s going to take a bit more time for them to begin laying again. The young Rhode Island Red (who I named Scarlet) is really showing a lot of personality. Whenever either CT or I go in with scratch, she has to first get her pick from the cup we have it in before we toss it into the run. And she’s teaching the Marans (who CT named Phoebe and Zoe) to do that too. Scarlet loves to be picked up and will gently pick at whatever treat I happen to be holding for her. The Marans are still apprehensive about being picked up, but they’re getting more and more comfortable with us.

Looking forward, we are making plans to build a large covered run so the girls have plenty of room to scratch to their heart’s content. We are also planning to expand the coop so that we can bring our total number of chickens up around 12-15. We’re going to order chicks to arrive sometime in the spring so that we can experience raising them from babies. We’ll also likely add a rooster so that next year we may try our hand at raising chickens from egg to adult. There is so much to learn and so many beautiful breeds that we’re certain we’ve only scratched the surface. Even with the loss of a chicken, we are truly enjoying the girls and look forward to when we can start making scrambled eggs using fresh eggs.

Until my next confessional, happy homesteading everyone!

Some Thoughts in a New Year

Another holiday season has come and gone and 2013 has drawn to a close. It’s almost 2 weeks into the new year so I suppose it’s high time I offered up some thoughts about where we’ve come from and where we’re heading. This past holiday season was an interesting one for CT and me and one that caused a lot of personal reflection. It could be because we’re getting older or maybe it’s just our move to the country, but we really began to see just how much the excess in our country has gotten out of hand. We’ve always realized it and it was a big part of our decision to move, but as we traveled to the Northern Virginia area to spend the holidays with family, it became even more apparent. Nevermind the sheer number of people in the area, forget the over-sized houses stacked almost on top of each other, it was the smaller, wasteful things that really got to me. The home that had lights on in the living area 24/7, yet not a single soul was ever seen in the room. The plethora of cars on the road with only one person in the car and traffic headaches to make even the most patient person contemplate road rage. It just felt like the excess was bombarding us from every angle. Now granted, Washington DC and the surrounding suburbs are most definitely the epitome of wastefulness in America (in more ways than one), but this year it seemed to be worse than ever.

If there’s been one thing we’ve learned in the last few months is that there are actually very few things we actually “need” to be comfortable and happy in life. Food and water are obviously given requirements. Depending on your location, water could potentially be free. Food can get pricey, but those costs can be lowered if you grow some of your own and shop smartly. Shelter is also a necessity but how much shelter does a person actually “need”? Our old house was a bit over 1600+ square feet and now we’re in about 1200 square feet and still have space we don’t use. So does one person, or even a couple, “need” to live in a 2500+ square foot house? Transportation in some form is a necessity for most people, but do two people “need” to have more than one or two cars? When one takes the time to evaluate priorities and decide what is necessary in life, it is easy to find many things that we think are necessities are actually luxuries. As we continue to whittle down the luxuries in our life to find the true necessities it becomes even more noticeable that our society has become brainwashed into believing that luxuries are actually necessities. We have less now that we did in our old home and I earn less teaching at this school than I did at my last, but overall we are happier and more comfortable than we have been in many years.

Like I said, maybe it’s just us getting older but when we left the area for our drive home, we couldn’t get out of the city quick enough and back to the peace and quiet of our mountain home. Although we still have a ways to go in weeding out all the luxuries we once thought were necessities, we are well on our way and we couldn’t be happier.