Posted on 08/23/2013 1:53:26 PM PDT by greeneyes
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Yes, do get the ball book of canning and preserving. It’s my bible. When I first got married, I did a lot of water bath canning. It is great for naturally acid fruit or stuff that can be acidified.
That would be all kinds of pickled stuff, cukes, zukes, squash, beets etc. Since many of tomatoes are a bit lacking these days, I always add a little lemon juice to each jar to ensure that there is enough to use the water bath canner and keep the buggers at bay.
Non-acidic stuff like green beans and corn, or meats will require pressure cooking unless you want to pickle them. Hubby tells me the pressure cookers are easy to use and have lots of saftety features-takes no brains to use. I’m like - fine you use it then.
So I get everything ready and packed into jars, then turn it over to him for processing.
If you don’t want to use a pressure cooker, then you can dehydrate, freeze, and use a root storage type setup in the ground.
Along with dehydrating and making jerkey out of meat, you can use the salting and smoking methods of the 1800s and still used into the 20th century.
I think 3 chickens to lay eggs would be a great way to have home grown protein. I love fresh eggs. You can grow the food to feed chickens, they give you good fertilizer for the garden, clean up the area by eating insects, give you lovely eggs to eat, and shells are great to add calcium to your compost.
Perfect protein to eat with your homegrown beans and other produce, and they don’t take up much space. Lots of cities will allow a few pet chickens.
(((((BLUSH)))) Thanks so much. I do try, but it’s really all of you who make the thread a success. All I do throw out the first pitch. You guys take it from there.LOL
You can do quarts of some stuff. The times are different, and the amount of acid added is sometimes different. If you use the ball book recipes, you can’t go wrong.
Sometimes local stores and online sites have good sales after the season ends. Just keep an eye out.
Since I discovered stevia I am sugar free except for holidays. I started weaning myself about 3 years ago. I drink tea black or with a squeeze of lemon.
Don’t drink sodas, unless it is a special occasion, and then I mix it with club soda or it tastes too sweet. I use a little unsweetened juice mixed with club soad when I get to missing the soda Fizz.
I used stevia quit a bit in the early days of weaning, but now I just use it when I make lemonade or something like that that is very tart.
That big water bath canner makes an excellent laundry tub in an emergency situation too. I used it all the time when I first got married, because we were too poor to go to the laundromat, or buy a washing machine.
I never stay in the same room. It’s a safety thing. Totally unnecessary these days, but old habits die hard.
We are having trouble with our peach trees too. They are just dying. My lemons are having an issue. By the time the turn yellow, about 1/4th has turned kinda gray and no good.
Have no idea what it is.
I had to dump idea of dehydrating. Johnny says it’s too damp here to do it.
Too bad. Even if you used a dehydrator, and then packed it mylar bags with dessicant?
What he is saying is, it won’t dry out enough to start with. It is possible he is wrong but he’s usually right, however, he doesn’t live here. I don’t know anyone who has one. Maybe I could look at customer comments on Amazon and some will say where they live. I had even picked the good one I wanted, then dumped the idea when Johnny said that.
Pressure canners are very expensive and if I could dry instead, I would.
GREAT! Glad it’s working out for you.
Thanks! I added some wild grape leaves to my dills.
Well, if you can get a dehydrator real cheap maybe. I put a lot of faith in Johhny. You probably can’t do it in the sun light like indians did.
Howver, you do have airconditioning which takes up some of the humidity. And using a dehydrator inside, maybe even the oven if you need to. Put it in a bag with dessicant or white rice it might work.
Let me ask you this. Can you make your own croutons? If you can, you ought to be able to dry othere stuff good enough to preserve it for a while especially if it’s packed after it cools with dessicant.
But I am no expert on dehydration either. Maybe a little experiment is just the thing to see how it works in your area?
Marcella, I believe, gave you a link to buy the Egyptian onions.
The Fall before last, we got ours at the “yard waste” section of the local landfill! Somebody had tossed out 50 of them, and they were still fresh. We planted those, and they have done quite well. We’re borderline Zones 5 & 4, so I would go with a Fall planting, then mulch for the winter. Keep them well fed, etc., like any other onions.
We’re not at all fanatical about “organic”, though we try to follow organic principles, as much as feasible. Unless I can’t avoid it, I don’t spend extra to get ‘organic’ seed or plants, if they are perennial; except for certifications or sales, organic seeds won’t have any real advantage over non-organic. IMHO, the ‘organicness’, and any benefit, will depend upon your own germination & growing practices; not the seed source. Talking heirlooms/open-pollinated; not spliced & diced GMO ‘pest resistant’ seeds/plants!
In our pickles (see this week’s tread) we used the small top-onions in the jars. The smaller ones went in whole, with just with the tops & bottoms trimmed, and skinned; the larger ones got either halved or quartered.
We’ll use more of those in our upcoming pickled carrots; and have also minced them for deviled eggs, egg foo yung; and more coarsely cut, in macaroni & potato salads.
The bottoms have been used in salads, omelets stir-frys, and on sandwiches. Right now, they are hot. BEFORE they set a new crop of tops, they are much sweeter.
We have minced and used the green tops of the sprouting upper bulblets as if they were green onion tops.
One thing we (*I*, mea culpa) didn’t do, since these were foundlings, was pick a spot we want for their “forever home”; so, instead of 50, I’ll have to move 150-200 into a new, prepared bed; then keep an eye out for any strays that come up in the ‘temporary’ spot they got shoved into.
Thank you for taking the time to talk on walking onions. We are definitely going to plant some of these in the fall (yes, I was given a source)... thanks again!
Dear greeneyes,
“(((((BLUSH)))) Thanks so much. I do try, but it’s really all of you who make the thread a success. All I do throw out the first pitch. You guys take it from there.LOL”
You are welcome, but at the risk of deepening your blush, I must comment on your reply.
While that is true that you “take the first pitch” - it is NOT true that you “just only” take the first pitch. You are very gracious to reply to those who come to the thread if they have a question or issue. You tend the thread, and therefore, you tend to us on the thread! All of that, small as it may seem, takes time and energy.
I will agree with you that I love the give and take among the thread participants, who are very amazing in their own right - and all I’m saying is that I recognize, and I’m sure others do too, that your “first pitch” and tending do help create an atmosphere where the give and take can easily take place.
I’m not seeking to inordinately stroke your ego here, but to give you specific acknowledgement and appreciation for a job well done...and the encouragement to keep on doing it, as circumstances in your life allow.
The bottom line here is that you need to know you and your efforts are noticed and appreciated by at least this thread participant and I’m sure others as well.
I dehydrate all the time. Our humidity is close to yours if not actually as high as during the summer. I put the dehydrated stuff (I usually powderize it in a blender) into mason jars with one of those little dessicant packets. It’s done fine for me.
For my tomatoes, for example, I dehydrate them until they’re done according to the manual that came with my dehydrator, then I seal them in a ziploc freezer bag and freeze them for a few hours before they hit the blender. Allow them to come to close to room temp before you open the bag. You have to work fast though, they will absorb moisture while you’re working with them. Do a few at a time and reseal the bag between batches.
Another thing that *might* work (I have NOT tried this) is putting the powder in a ziploc bag with dessicant packet, stuffing that in a quart mason jar and then using the food saver vacuum on that to seal the jar.
I’ve also read that some people freeze the produce before they dehydrate to cause it to dump water and save dehydrator time. This would work especially well if you didn’t care about the appearance of the finished stuff. Like if you were making powder from it.
I dehydrate mushrooms, for example, all the time. Ditto the sale bananas from the grocery store. And giant bags of vidalia onions for vidalia onion powder (yummy!).
YMMV.
Absolute and enthusiastic concurral!!!!!
Thanks so much. Accolades are always appreciated.LOL
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