Canning :: Water Bath Vs. Pressure Canner

I made chicken stock yesterday, and was wondering if I could can it, rather than putting it in the freezer like I normally do. A quick look in my Ball Home Preserving book showed that yes, indeed, I could can chicken stock. (Which I'll share later.)

But it had to be done in the pressure canner, rather than just a water bath.

I never really knew why you had to do some things in the pressure canner while others could just be boiled until I started getting interested in canning things myself.

So here is what I've learned, just in case anyone else is curious.

Naturally high-acidity foods - like tomatoes and fruits (or recipes with tons of vinegar) -  can be water bathed because the acid will kill the botulism spore that would otherwise invade your body like a S.W.A.T team can swarm the house of an arms dealer on a coke bender. A water bath will heat up sufficiently for the rest of the germs the acid doesn't get.

Low-acidity foods - like vegetables and meats - need to be pressure canned because they don't have the added germ killing power of the acid, so they need the extra heat. Regular water-in-a-pot canning can't get hot enough to kill the beasties just by itself, since these foods need to be heated to 240 degrees to kill the botulism spore, and water only boils at 212 degrees (if you're at sea level. Lower if you're elevated higher than that). But by adding the extra pressure the water can super boil (basically), ensuring that your home made goodies are fine and safe to eat.

From the Ball Book of Home Preserving:

To safely preserve low-acid foods, a device called a pressure canner must be used. This equipment has a lid that is locked in place. As a result, when water in the canner is heated to the boiling point, it produces steam faster than the steam can escape from the vent and thus pressurizes the canner. The pressurized steam creates hotter temperatures, which surround the jars and cause the temperature of the food within to rise to 240 degrees.

So, be sure to check your recipes and follow whichever method they tell you to use. And if you're unsure of how to can your goodies, just remember that High acid = low temp, and low acid = high temp.

Because Botulism is never in fashion.

Happy Canning,
Meg

A Little Surprise

A little bit ago Staci at Life At Cobble Hill Farm was holding a giveaway. Just leave a comment and if you won, you got all the lovely things in the picture above - which are all handcrafted items from her corner of the world.

Well, I entered and then promptly forgot about it. Come last Saturday though, I see on her blog that I am the winner! One of her lovely hens did the honors and picked my name from the bowl.

I'm sharing this with you because not only was it a wonderful surprise to get this in the mail today, but I wish - oh how I wish - I could convey to you the heavenly smell that came from the box upon opening it. The mint scented and lemon verbena soaps together are to die for. In fact, I wish I could invite you all over just to wash your hands. It's all so wonderful. I'll be enjoying these gifts greatly.

A very cute touch

Thank you so much Staci (and Kessa the hen)!

~Meg

Things I've Learned About Gardening

Corn

- The promise of fresh, home grown produce requires patience. I do not possess patience.

Zucchinni

- Weeding must be done, lest the plants be suffocated.

- Always wear a hat. Always. You'll prevent sunburn, and look adorable!

Tomato

- Weeding by hand is easier done when the ground is damp.

Onion

- It's better to lay drip line before the plants are in, lest you squash the poor, unsuspecting lettuce.

Canteloupe

- Gardening is like raising children. Feed and water. Pray over it continuously. Hope they grow big and strong and produce plentiful offspring. Prevent the bad weeds from taking root. Do all you can, and wait to see how it turns out.

Happy Planting,
Meg

Thoughts on Work (and Education) - A Sort of Rant

One of the things I've been amazed to find out in my adult life is how it's become almost a taboo to work hard. People who use their back to get things done are looked down upon. When did hard work become such a shameful thing?

I come from a very long line of women who work(ed) hard on a regular basis. Every day. My father and his father and those before him busted their backs to get where they are. And my husband is one of the hardest working people I know, never stopping for anything and never complaining. And we have a great sense of pride in the fact that the things we have, we have worked hard for.

I think we have gotten to an age where we worship at the Altar of Education (and money). The best thing you can do with your life is graduate college with some fancy degree so you can earn billions of dollars. But you know what I've noticed? Those people that have those pieces of paper get out into the world and don't know how to work. (I have to be completely honest here and tell you I've only completed some college - but I sure do know how to work.)

As a mother raising children I've found it to be especially sad, or disturbing, that a lot of parents (from what I've witnessed) aren't concerned with teaching their children how to actually live. Laundry? Umm, how? Cook? That's what the microwave is for! Be happy to sweep floors just to earn a living? Not on your life.

We push "higher" education, spending thousands of dollars or, worse yet, plummeting ourselves and our children into debt to serve what purpose? Most people who get their degrees either get to the end and realize they don't want to do what they were taught, or they can't find the work in that field so they must go somewhere else to get a paycheck, usually something "below" them because it requires one to work hard.

And that's wrong! Horrible! Ugh, I have this fancy piece of paper that should allow me to sit on my butt and command people to do things, but I'm stuck here using my back to earn a living. Greed. That's the motivation.

Whatever happened to parents who trained their children in the way they work? What happened to apprentices? What happened to just being proud of the fact that you've worked hard for the little bit you have and not worrying about spending the next 4-10 years of your life in more school without actually living your life.

I think I heard it put best on a podcast I enjoy called Homemakers by Choice. Are we teaching our children to go to college to seek knowledge (as we should) or teaching them to go to college to seek money?

I'm all for learning as much as you possibly can about anything. Push yourself, become more knowledgeable. Ben and I have both thought about going back to school. And I'll of course be encouraging my children to go to college once we get to that point. But if they decide not to? I won't force them, and I won't be upset if they don't. Because we'll have taught them how to work. Honest to goodness work. How to live and enjoy life, no matter their education level. And we'll have taught them that in the end, that's all that matters.

Not that pretty piece of paper on the wall.

Workin' hard,
Meg

P.S. - I in no way mean this as an attack on people who do seek higher education. I applaud those who have expanded their brains and lives! I've just become frustrated that college is now the meaning of life and we look down upon just living simply and quietly and working hard.

Back To Basics :: Canning

Not my picture.

When I was a little girl (she says like it was a terribly long time ago), I remember canning fruits and "vegebles" - as my kiddos call them - with my mom and grandmother. It was just a part of my younger life.

We would buy boxes and boxes and boxes of corn from a distribution center (I think) somewhere out of town. We would get green beans either from the garden or somewhere else, and we would spend hours snapping them. We would get boxes of apples as well and I loved making the little piles of apple skin "spaghetti" - even though it took forever to get them all peeled. We had peaches, and would go to a "Pick Your Own" cherry orchard to get the wonderfully red fruit. Then we would spend all day cooking and canning.

I think the biggest memory I have is of my baby brother sitting in the open door of the dishwasher eating a cob of fresh corn. We have a picture of him there, grinning back at the camera with corn milk dribbling down his chin.

I wish now that I had paid better attention back then. We stopped canning sometime in my early teens. I'm not sure why. Maybe it just wasn't worth it when you could just go down to the store for "fresh" (I question the validity of that sometimes) anything now. Or maybe it was because our house was always under construction in some fashion or another, and the work took up too much time. Or something else took up too much time. I don't know. I'll have to ask my Mimi.

Anyways, I think because it was instilled in me in such a young age, this is why I can now and I have no fear of it, really. I read people talking about being scared of canning, and that's just something I grew up with! Granted, I haven't done nearly as much as I've wanted to in the last years. And I haven't wanted to in the last years as much as I do now. The extent of my canning as a young adult and homemaker so far has mostly been jams and jellies, with a batch of my paternal great grandmother's chili sauce thrown in.

For my birthday a few years ago Mimi gave me the best present she has ever given me. And probably the best one she ever will. A gift that was not just a thing, but a memory, and an addition that would be most helpful in the way I want to live my life taking care of my family and being self-sufficient.

She gifted me with a pressure canner and The Ball Book of Home Preserving.

Now, the year she gave it to me I was so busy having little babies, and we were in a small apartment that didn't really allow for a garden. Thus no immense amount of produce to preserve. So I put the book away, and only pulled out the canner a few times to make the aforementioned jams and jellies - and that wonderful sweet chili sauce.

However, this year we've planted our garden and I'm very, very excited to can things this year. I have plans for not only jams and chili sauce, but tomato sauce, relish, hot sauce, maybe some pie filings - whatever I can get my little paws on. I'd like to supplement with the Farmer's market and stock our pantry with so much canned food I have to give it away just so it gets eaten.

I'll be posting a few recipes here and there as I preserve my way through this year's harvest (my own and other's). And I want to encourage everyone reading this to either give canning a shot if you never have before, or pick it back up if it's been forgotten.

Try a new recipe. Can something you've never canned before. Set a goal of preserving one month's worth of food - or more! Or just try a small batch of jelly.

Believe me, it's so worth it. And there's nothing better than running out of something and all you have to do is walk to the pantry and get another jar.

Happy Preserving,
Meg