Time to Catch up!
A little update on the Lyme Disease, I feel like a new human! In the beginning of last week I wasn't feeling so good. I still had headaches and one day it was like the flu but with no fever, I thought I was dying! This Saturday I woke up and just felt great, I am still getting tired but don't feel as weak as I did before. I am crossing my fingers I am over the hump with this. I am still taking it easy, just because I really do not know if I'm done with this. So let's get to the farm, shall we!
I will have to say since I had gotten sick, both Ayla and Wyatt have stepped up here at Cranberry Acre to help with the farm work. Wyatt still hates going into the pasture to feed the goats and chickens scraps, but he still does it.
Kids went out and picked the beans from the garden with a little guidance from me. I figured at least I could can some beans while I waited to get better!
Canning Beans
Since so many people are getting back into canning and preserving, I decided to give you some instructions on canning beans! First you need to get you a Pressure Canner. DO NOT USE A WATER BOILER ! Since this is a low acid item you need a pressure canner to ensure you kill everything that could have gotten in your beans while processing. This will be your most expensive purchase for canning. One thing that is helpful, please read the manual. I know a lot of people skim through manuals but for your safety, I would read the first few pages, so you can be familiar with the cooker.
I sterilize my jars the night before. Either boil them in a pan for 10 to 15 min or I put them in my dishwasher on the sterilize selection and then go to bed!
Make sure you wash your beans. I then will snip the ends of the bean with my finger nail and break into 1 inch pieces, which you will place in either a pint jar or a quart jar. We do pints so we don't waste anything when we make them for dinner.
My pressure cooker is big enough to do 8 jars, so I only get 8 done at a time when canning. While I am filling may jars, I have a pan of lids and caps boiling on the stove so they will be sterilized when I am ready for them!
Now if you are like me, I hunt down at the end of the canning season for stuff like this! Usually you can find this at stores for around $1.00 at the end of the season.
You will use 1/2 a teaspoon for pint jars and 1 teaspoon for quart jars of preserving salt, for each jar.
Boil some water, I use my tea kettle, and fill the jars with the boiling water. Fill the jars till there is about 1 inch, of what they call head space this is from the top of the jar down to your beans!
Now when screwing down your tops you need to be careful. If you tighten down, your jars will explode in your canner. I will loosely put them on by tightening the lid then backing off a little, so it barely grabs the jar. It will take you time to figure this method out, but I still do a 1-2-3 count and back the lid back a little, move. It's funny to watch, but that is how I learned so this is how I will teach!
Let the fun begin! I usually will bring some work to the kitchen so I'm not killing time watching the dial on the Pressure Canner. While I am preparing everything, I usually have the pressure canner warming. You will add 3 quarts of water, at least this Presto canner uses that. Other canners may have other specifications, so like I said "Read the manual!" If you start the burner while you are prepping, you will have less time in the kitchen watching a pot boil. Now some people are comfortable with walking away from the canner, I am not! I will now and always, wait for my canner to be done, before leaving it alone in my kitchen.
Now lets look at the top of the canner. You will see 4 objects, one is your pressure dial, the black button in the front, is for when and if you get to much pressure in the can, this will allow it to escape instead of blowing up your kitchen, to the left is a silver tower looking object that releases stem( you will add an object to this to trap the stem), and in the very back is a silver button looking object. Know your pressure cooker! This is a Presto, which is very different then using a Mirro canner that rattles at you.
Now this object is a cap! When you see a steady stream of stem coming from the silver tower looking object you will place this on top of it to trap the stem and then allow pressure to build in the canner.
Your lid will eventually look like this when it is caning your beans, but yes on top of your canner pot!
Okay so now we know the caner, so now you need to load the canner with your jars, making sure they do not touch( sometimes the jars will rattle around and break if too close).
On my Presto canner, there are arrows that show you how to put on your lid and lock it down. Like I said " Read your manuals"!
Should look this on your stove! I turn my burner to high and wait for a steady stream of stem to come out of that silver tower object on the left. When this happens I put the black cap on top of it. Sometimes you will see water come out of the black button, do not be alarmed it is normal.
You now sit and wait for the silver button to pop up. When this happens the pressure in your canner will start to rise.
When the pressure rises I will bump the burner down a little and watch how fast it is rising. If rising to fast then I back down farther, not enough I turn it up a little more. Everyone's burners are different, so you will have to be the judge on how to set your burner.
Now for canning beans you need a steady pressure of 11 pounds.
For pints you want to be at 11 pounds for 20 min.
For quart jars you want to be at 11 pounds for 25 min.
Now this is when I stay in the kitchen and do some knitting or other stuff, because I am watching the pressure dial for changes. After your time is up for either pints or quarts, turn off the burner and remove the canner from the burner. Be careful because that pot will be very hot!
DO NOT TOUCH IT AFTER YOU REMOVE IT FROM THE BURNER!
The canner is not done with what it is doing and is still dangerous, so go do something while it cools. You know when it is safe to remove the lid after these chains of events:
1.) the pressure is down to zero on the dial
2.) the silver button is back down
When these two things are done, then you remove the black cap from the silver tower looking thing and wait for whatever stem is left in there to come out, then crack the lid open!
You will hear your jars still bubbling , this is okay, remove the jars from the canner with the canning tongs and place the jars on a towel to cool.
Make sure you do not put these jars in front of an open window! If they cool to fast sometimes the jars will crack, so just leave them to cool on a counter or table. Soon you will hear the most beautiful sound, the popping of lids as they seal themselves! Now every once in a while you have some jars that do not seal, you can re process or just put in the fridge and enjoy them that week. It is up to you, just do not press that lid down, forcing it to pop. If you force it down, then it has not sealed right and you have air in the jar that causes bacteria to form and some are very deadly. So either eat that jar in the next few days or reprocess that jar!
When the jars are cooled, gently tighten the jar lids and place in a cool dark area for keeping!
Hope this helped a little for beginners of canning!
So what do you do on a rainy day?
Well the goats stayed in the barn while Ms. Ayla.....
played with water balloons with her brother Wyatt! I guess you are already wet so why not?
One of our baby chicks is weak again. It is one of the same chicks that wasn't doing so well before, so we have her back in the Laundry Room while she recovers from whatever is getting her down. Poor little girl.
JoJo
What are looking at?
Our pretty little Silkie chicks! They are so darn cute, I just want to pinch them all the time. They are funny, at night if you ask them if they want to go to bed? Well Coal will go to their cage and Ms. Copper looks for a way out! Just like kids.
Oh the babies are growing! I can't tell them apart much anymore. I believe this is Ms. Chocolate, but I would have to ask Ayla for sure.
I could sit and watch the babies for hours. This one was so fascinated with the squash plant that is taking over the chicken yard, it jumps in the air and grabs the plant. I really don't know if she thinks she will escape that way, but she tries!
I was out taking pictures and Ms. Silver was happy to help, right by my feet, watching every move, I think she hates that I have let the babies into the chicken yard, because she is not allowed right now due to her grumpy attitude the past few days with them.
Ms. Red, Bless her heart, has no opinion on the matter as long as she gets fed, everything is okay!
Our Sparrows hatched another clutch of babies. So darn cute. They flutter around and try to get in the chicken yard with the babies, but the babies do not appreciate their company.
I was doing dishes and saw this out my window. Ms. Griffin going up a tree. She is the only one able to do this and she is so pleased with her talent.
My first German Pink tomato!!! Yes the little things amuse me
and I have ....
New ceramic chickens!!!! These poor little guys didn't have a match so I took them home with the rest of my mis matched set of chicken shakers.
Things here at Cranberry Acre are getting back on their feet. The garden is a mess but it is producing fine. Just becomes a great big game of hide and seek! With me being able to do a little more maybe I can fix areas of the garden soon. I am back in my sewing room, so I will have new items on my Etsy store! Getting back to normal, I like it.
