I Do So Want One of These!

I took this image from the site where I drool over it, Kitchen Krafts, but they are a bit pricey. This one, with the spigot, is $299.95 and without the spigot is about 40 bucks less. That is certainly the price or more for a very good pressure canner.

Why do I want this? Because I have a ceramic glass stove top.

For those who may be just getting into canning or are thinking about it, a ceramic glass stove top, especially that Star Trek looking thing I have, are not suitable to anything that doesn't have a flat bottom. They also have weight restrictions.

There is only one canner that I know of that is specifically for use with those type of stoves and it is the WalMart Presto version, the smaller one that can hold 7 quart jars, not the huge one. But that is a pressure canner. I also used it as a water bath canner this past year because no one said I couldn't. :)

The difference is the weight. To use that Presto as a water bath canner I put a LOT more weight in it to get the water an inch above the top of the jars. The result is that I feared I would crack my stove and did very little in the way of Quart Jar processing out of fear.

This little puppy above will eliminate that problem by allowing me to water bath can right on the counter top and hold water at a steady heat so that I can minimize time between batches and process more efficiently.

What do you all think? Anyone ever used one? Like 'em, hate 'em? Anything I should know about them?

As to why I have an electric stove and all that, well, when my house was being built I wanted an E* plus house and so it wound up being all electric but very efficiently so. Give and take, I guess :)

Dinner in Winter...Almost Like Summer

During the summer I posted lots of pictures of the results of my initial canning efforts. Jewel-like colors and so beautiful. Of course, I was excited to have done it and feeling very satisfied with the outcome. But how did it really turn out, you might wonder? How many exploded, rotted or otherwise didn't make it? How did stuff taste? Was it really better?

Not a single one went bad...not one jar out of all those dozens and dozens.

But...I'll admit that I was very dubious of eating my own jarred up food. I'd read so often of the dire dangers of doing anything even slightly wrong, that I'd surely die of botulism or at least get seriously ill that I had myself paranoid beyond belief.

It took a serious act of faith to open up the first non-acid food that I'd jarred myself. Tomatoes and things like that, acid foods, I didn't worry about since those aren't potential carriers. And those were delicious like you wouldn't believe. But corn, green beans...things like that?

Before I opened the first ones, I brought them up, examined them with every light on, held them up by just the little lid to be sure they were still in a vacuum, shook them and then held them up again. Listened for the pop when I opened them and then looked at them again.

It smelled just the same as the day I packed it, so fresh and clean. I added the corn to the goulash (sp?) I was making and then stood, paranoid but determined, until it was ready.

Oh my, how delicious it was! It has a texture, almost a crispness, that it does when it is very fresh and on the cob that no store bought version is going to give you.

After that, it was field day with the jars. Now, I still take reasonable precautions and check things like the seal and discoloration, but I do that with stuff I buy in cans too so there is nothing new there.

Currently, I'm starting to run out of things and am ever so sad to see them go.

As a step towards a greater sustainability in my life, I could hardly have done anything better. Growing your own food in season is great, but making it last after the season is the best.

Just think of this: Fresh food gets trucked an unknown distance to a factory where it is processed at high temps using large quantities of water and cleaning solutions, put into cans that use large quantities of metals, paper or plastics (for those single serve things). It is then trucked out, even right to the place it may have grown. Then you drive your car to pick them up at the store and then toss that can and paper right into the garbage, (or recycling if you have it). What a mess for a single can of green beans.

For my jar of green beans: I grow them, enjoying them right from the vine and having extra, I clean them, jar them in glass jars I'll re-use countless times, process them on my energy efficient stove and then open them whenever without going to any store. In fact, the only thing I use is one part of a 2 piece lid that has to be recycled and water. That's it.

You tell me which is the best one for our little green and blue planetary body?

But as I start new seeds for this year, I'm keeping all that in mind and this year, I'll have twice as much to go in the jars!

Peppers, Peach Jelly and Squash Dog Cookies

Yeah, I know, not exactly an exciting title but I'm pretty excited about the subjects right now.

My "hot" peppers, which aren't really hot at all but very low on that scale, are on a bit of a hiatus right now because I've harvested this round. Believe me, I'm watching each blossom like a hawk! This is my final bowl of Spanish Spice, Godfather and Poblano peppers, already cut and ready for the pan. They were absolutely fantastic. There aren't enough stars to give my true recommendation of both the Godfather and the Spanish Spice. Yes, they are hybrid seeds, but my goodness are they fantastic.

When I finally...finally...finished the peach jelly I was amazed at how beautiful it turned out. It is a lovely rose color and the smell is a true fresh peach smell. And the taste..well, let's just say there is no way this one is going to last long! I made 17 jars, note there is already one gone!

Of course, there are bound to be questions on it because it is Peach skin jelly that also includes all the sections and segments that were just a tad too ripe for canning or had a bruise or what not. In other words, the stuff we usually throw into the compost bin when canning up peaches.

The question that naturally comes up for those like me who like our food organic is the effect of using skins because peaches are one of the most affected by pesticides seeping into the fruit from the skin. Well, I can highly recommend the recipe but only on the condition that the peaches used are organic. Even if you aren't normally an organophile, (that looks a bit naughty), peaches are one of the few fruits that you really should consider it for. Soft skin fruits in general really soak up the pesticides sprayed on them.

Okay, sermon over! Well cleaned peach skins with anything sketchy cut out and all those segments that are just slurpy ripe (once you've eaten your fill, of course), work fantastically. Here is the link to the recipe. This recipe has been successfully used by many folks on various homesteading and canning boards I'm on for multiple years, so I feel very confident with it with one glaring exception. Peach pits are, in fact, toxic and while it is probably okay in this recipe, I've left them out and so has everyone else I've personally contacted who makes it.

Now for the wonderful and accidental dog cookie find. We call them cookies because they look and feel like cookies but all they are is dehydrated slices of yellow squash. Yep..that's it. While my dogs turn their Beagley noses at squash in any other form not already soaked in chicken broth, these they go bonkers over. I found out because I heard the tell-tale sound of dog paws sliding on the edge of the counter, a classic sign of a dog that is attempting to counter surf for anything remotely edible near the edge of the counter. This was immediately followed by the alarming sound of crunching. After running into the kitchen with visions of dealing with doggie diarrhea from chocolate ingestion playing in my mind, I find Boscoe eagerly snarfing down these. Now I use them as the ultimate bait and they work.

You don't need to do anything to them really. Just slice about 1/4 inch thick, steam blanch for a few minutes, layer in dehydrater and let it do it's thing. Remove and bag up as serious treatage. If you do this, let me know your results.

For all those of you out there who have pet beds in your house that outnumber your dogs 10 to 1, this snap and the gratification of it should be recognizable. The greatest beds we buy and lug home proudly often result in turned up noses and put upon looks as they settle on the floor rather than touch that bed. Finally, finally, I brought home a bed that meets the standard. This one I took with my cell phone so the quality isn't great. I took it the day before Boscoe's surgery. Isn't he cute and happy looking? And he still really loves this bed!

Canning Weekend...Results are Awesome!

What a weekend! I suppose most people might consider this a sort of drudgery, but not me. To me, this is fun and productive. Most of all, I know how much I'm going to love opening this stuff up in the dead of winter and enjoying food that tastes like summer.

I took a day of vacation on Friday so I could go to the spa for a nice massage and facial. Ya, ya..I know..self indulgence. It was great, by the way. But I also wanted to do my canning starting on Thursday night in order to get it all done. Rough calculations showed I would need all that time in order to still be able to do my regular chores, garden work and get the laundry done.

I started with tomatoes, corn and peaches to can and dehydrate. I'm still dehydrating potatoes and onions and will be all week. This is what my corn supply looked like (I'd already removed some but it is close). I include that because it is amazing how few jars come from such large amounts. Most people sort of take for granted cans of corn. After all, you go to the grocery, it is one of the cheaper cans so you pick up a few and it is a relatively boring addition to most family meals.


After shucking, removing silks as much as possible, carefully cutting the kernels from the cobs and then processing, you wind up with about 3.5 ears per pint or 6 to 7 ears per quart of corn. Next time you're in the grocery, think about what an amazing bargain that can of corn is.

I also combined the tomatoes from my garden with a half bushel from a local farm I like and canned those up in quarters and made a couple of pints of sauce. I gave a few away and also enjoyed some lovely tomato sandwiches, of course. Don't they look pretty when they are cooking for canning up.


When working with the builder to make sure that this house was ultra energy efficient, I made the decision to use all electric. One of the huge downsides to this is that I have a smooth glass ceramic cooktop, which is fine for cooking but bad for canning. Weight limits on it mean that I have to use the smallest good pressure canner out there and can process only 9 pints or 5 quarts at a time to be sure I won't crack it.


Hot work, yes, but aren't the results just awesome. From left to right we have peach halves and quarters in a very light honey cinnamon syrup, honey spiced peaches, corn, tomato wedges and halves and off to the far right is the start of the dehydrated things. What you are missing from that picture are the quarts and pints of dehydrated stuff, like peaches, which I'll use for breads and such during the winter. And...


...also about 16 jars of peach jelly. Shown below are the pots of the skins and sections of peaches that were just a bit too ripe for canning. Those make a wonderful jelly, but it does require cooking and then sitting overnight, using up my pans and stove. That means it gets made last and my whole house smells of peaches and will for another day.

And there is no way I would leave you all without a Beagle to brighten your day. Here Gigi has just finished eating a treat, leaving a mess, and looking a tad mournful that it is gone. Just a good example of why I always keep the couch covered in a white sheet in the evenings!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend! I'm really enjoying reading your emails on how your gardens are doing, so keep them coming!

Garden is Good!

Now, in case you didn't see that the first time....

Yes!! Those are the tomatoes I got today and that doesn't include the peppers, eggplants, green beans, stevia or grape tomatoes. Hola...we have good stuff here.

Oh, and please excuse how I look because it was 96 degrees outside with 83% humidity and I was working hard. Remember, focus on the tomatoes...

As much as that is, it still isn't enough to for a full canning batch, so I'm headed off to my favorite farm to get 6 dozen ears of very sweet corn, a half bushel of just-picked peaches and a half bushel more tomatoes. Between that and my harvest today and tomorrow, I should have enough for a nice big batch of canning.

Preserving the Bounty

Aside from learning the fine art of canning, I'm trying other things too. I'd like to have foods be as independent of energy using devices as possible, of course, but some vegetables simply can't be canned well. Or if they can be, the taste and texture is appalling.

Squash is one such vegetable, particularly yellow summer squash.

My solution is to dehydrate them. Dehydrating has a lot going for it. Whatever you dehydrate can be rehydrated and then used like fresh, well, for the most part! For some things it is better to use them in casseroles or breads or other things where the food is cooked with other things. My intention is to use this stuff in the dog food over the winter since I make home-made.

For me there is a further benefit. I live in a hurricane zone and it is pretty unlikely that a bunch of jars are going to weather a direct hit, should my house get rattled, while a vacuum sealed packet of a dehydrated veggie should be just fine.

Here is what it looks like to dehydrate squash. You might notice that one of the squash in this snap is orange. I didn't use that one, it is just an experiment of mine. Some of my bits turned a bit brown so I took those out. Not sure if it matters, but better safe than sorry!



Give it a try!
And, as usual, a delightful snap of a beagle to brighten your day. Here GiGi is enjoying ruining a freshly dried load of towels by making a burrow of them. Ah well, it is worth it to see her so happy!

Canning Success...and a Failure.

I know I haven't posted in a few days but this time I have a very good reason! I've been canning. Yes, canning!

Last weekend my best friend and I went to the strawberry fields to a U-Pick place and I got 18.94 lbs of absolutely gorgeous strawberries with the express idea to can them into jams and to freeze some for use when they aren't in season.

It took forever to get them all washed and hulled. I used the cookie sheet method to quick freeze about 4 quarts of them and the rest went for jams.

The regular recipe in the Ball Book called for so much sugar that I wasn't really thrilled. I did it though and got 8 pints...of syrup. It just didn't set and it is far too sweet for me. I'm not at all looking forward to re-making that jam but I do plan on it in a week or so.

Next I scoured and asked and googled until I reached a consensus on how to make jam with less sugar. Honestly, if jam just tasted like flavored sugar, what is the point?

I settled on 2 batches with Pectin and one back of "slow jam" from a recipe I got from someone online. The 2 batches with Pectin are gorgeous. Tart-sweet, full of the fresh strawberry flavor and firm in texture. Perfect!

The slow jam isn't done yet but I'll report on that progress.

My goal is to not use sugar or sugar substitutes and no purchased products. I know you're shaking your head out there but it must be possible since jam was made before commercial pectin or wide distribution of sugar. I intend to figure that out!

All told, I've gotten 18 jars of jam (or jammy syrup) with a few more to go in this new recipe. Pretty good for 18.94 pounds of berries!

And to close out with my Beagle picture for the day, here is my man Boscoe in back of our house after he was brought up short by the shoreline while chasing after ducks. While that sounds bad, he is actually trying to play with them. Silly Boscoe!