Ball Blue Book, The Canning Bible

One of the most important items to own when preserving is the Ball Blue Book.  The Blue Book covers canning, freezing, dehydrating and is a planning guide.  I've been canning for years but I always use the book to make sure I remember the exact time I need to can an item.  No one who preserves food should be without this wonderful book.

Bread and Butter Pickles

On International Can-It-Forward Day and for my review of the green canning jars I decided to do pickles.  I made 6 quarts and 1 pint of Bread and Butter Pickles using the Ball Flex Batch Mix.  I love the flex batch mix because you can do a little or do a lot.  I thought pickles would look really good in the green jars and that is why I made them.  As you can see they turned out beautiful and would make a nice gift with a ribbon tied around the neck of the jar.

Complete Details On International Can-It-Forward Day

Please click on the link below to get complete details on International Can-It-Forward Day.


http://www.freshpreserving.com/community/events/can-it-forward

International Can-It-Forward Day Giveway

Here's your chance to win the complete bundle of items from Jarden Home Brands that include the following items:

The New Limited Edition Spring Green Heritage Collection Jars  6 wide mouth quarts and 6 pints
Fresh Herb Keeper
Dry Herb Jars
Frozen Herb Starters
5 Blade Herb Scissors
Ball Blue Book

All you have to do to get your name entered into the drawing is to leave a comment on any of the International Can-It-Forward posts and tell me which item you would use first and why.  The contest starts now and ends Saturday August 16th at midnight.  I will draw one winner Sunday morning

International Can-It-Forward Day

I will be participating in International Can-It-Forward Day on Saturday August 16th.  I have the following items from Jarden Home Brands that I will be evaluating and Jarden will be giving one of my readers the same items to evaluate.

The New Limited Edition Spring Green Heritage Collection Jars  6 wide mouth quarts and 6 pints
Fresh Herb Keeper
Dry Herb Jars
Frozen Herb Starters
5 Blade Herb Scissors
Ball Blue Book

Watch my blog for a review on each item. Also watch my blog tomorrow Thursday 8/14/14 on how you can win the above package of items.

Canning Season I'm Ready for You

Someone brought in 34 dozen regular mouth canning jars seals, still in their boxes, all unopened and gave them to Ron.  I am almost ready for gardening, have all my seeds, onion bulbs and seed potatoes and will purchase a few plants.  In the next week I will get in some lettuce for me and the chickens and get the onions in the ground.  After that comes the Yukon Gold potatoes, beets and peas then the warm weather crops will have to wait a while yet.  Then the best part comes, the canning and I am ready for it.

Canning Potatoes

Today Ron and I canned 67 pints of red potatoes, just a little over 50 lbs.  Ron said he thought he was in the Army and on KP duty.  Next I will dehydrate hash brown potatoes and then can potatoes, carrots and onions together for when we have roast.  We bought 100 lbs on Saturday afternoon at 50 lbs for $8.99.
We canned about 100 lbs last year as plain potatoes, roast mix, vegetable soup mix and potato soup mix.  I have a few of the potato soup mix left and a a few of the vegetable soup mix left so I won't be making those this year.  Tomorrow I hope to get the hash brown potatoes started and that will take a couple days to do.  Dehydrated hash brown potatoes come in so handy and take so little space.

Busy Days

We got home from our 3 day road trip about 6:30 PM Sunday.  It took about an hour to unpack and put things away.  Got to bed about and got a good nights sleep.
Up early Monday morning and pulled the beets and picked a hug basket of green beans.  I sat out back and cut the tops off of the beets and snapped a colander full of beans.  The chickens got the beet greens and the green bean ends.  Cooked a soup pan full of the green beans and when they were just about done I added a pint of canned potatoes.  Ron and I had green beans to go with our grilled chicken breasts for supper Monday night.  Ian does not like green beans at all.
Today, Tuesday got up early and started canning the beets.  Didn't have a huge amount but did get 5 1/2 pints.  I worked on hanging more of the Amish and Mennonite clothes on hangers so they don't get all wrinkled.  Finally got everything hung with some wire hangers Ron brought home from work.  I have 200+ pieces of clothing items.  I took some pictures of a few miscellaneous items today and listed them on Etsy.  I listed 11 items and within 2 hours 3 of the items I listed sold to my very best buyer.
Tomorrow I hope to get some more items listed.  I have about 300 listings I need to put on Etsy and eBay.  I know it will take weeks to get done but that is OK.  I will have plenty to keep myself busy.

Canning Day

Ron and I got up early and canned the Yukon Gold potatoes I dug Monday.  We got 22 pints of potatoes, 6 quarts of what I call roast vegetable mix.  It has carrots, onions and potatoes in it and ready to add to a beef or pork roast.  I also canned 3 quarts of beef broth.  We had beef roast last night and had some broth left and when I got the roasts the other day I saved the fat I trimmed from a couple and added it to the broth along with some more water and cooked all night in the crock pot.  I strained it and canned it.  Love to add it to vegetable beef soup when I have it, gives it just a little extra flavor.
I want to do at least 18 more quarts of roast vegetable mix and about 5 more dozen pints of potatoes.  We take the potatoes, drain them, add butter and parsley and makes a nice side dish.  I've also used them to make potato salad, garlic potatoes and fried them.  They are perfect and so convenient to have.
I was so happy that I have 3 canners, 2 were going at the same time (that's all the stove will hold because they are so big) and while the first one was cooling I stuck the 3 one on the stove.  Makes for extra cleaning but saves oh so much time.

Potatoes Dug and Ready to be Canned

I planted only three 8' rolls of Yukon Gold potatoes and dug them early this morning.  I got about 20 lbs and will can them tomorrow or Wednesday.  I then picked some cucumbers and tomatoes and took some to the Post Office to share with the gals there.  We have a very small Post Office (village is only 250) and there are some very nice ladies.
We got a little rain today not that much to do any good but every drop I guess helps.  Picked several green peppers yesterday and hopefully we should have some eggplant by Saturday.
Going to have super nachos with some of the items from the garden tomorrow night, onions, peppers, tomatoes.  Love eating from the garden.

Chicken Stuff Done for the Weekend

Up early and strained the broth from the bones and picked off about 1 pint of chicken pieces.  Ron and I then canned 7 quarts and 2 pints of broth and 1 pint of chicken pieces.  We had 2 canners going at the same time so we were able to get it done much sooner than when I had only 1 canner.
After the canning we got out the Kitchen Aide mixer and the grinder attachments and ground 10.6 lbs of chicken. Nice amount of stuff from the 9 chickens.
I think there are about 15 or so more chickens that are not yet ready and most will be kept whole for baking or grilling.
For supper tonight we went to Gina's and Ali's for a cook out.  It was real nice and nice to get out and visit. The weather was perfect, in the 70's with a little breeze.  Ali makes a Turkish Salad that has cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, salt, lemon juice, vinegar, black olives and olive oil.  It is very good and Gina sent the leftovers home with me.  I will be eating that for my lunch tomorrow.  Of course he doesn't have a recipe he just use a little of this and a little of that.

Chicken Broth and Chicken Canning Day

Up early to can the 3 hens we dressed out Saturday.  I got 4 pints of chicken, 7 quarts and 5 pints of chicken broth.
We won't be doing chickens again for a couple of weeks because we will be going on a road trip starting Wednesday and returning the first of next week.  We will be going up to the Amish communities in Wisconsin and just driving some of the scenic roads.  We try to keep off of main roads and travel the side roads.  We always pick up a map of the scenic highways after we cross the state line and plan our route then.

The Chickens and Chicken Broth are Canned

First thing this morning I took the chicken out of the roaster, strained the broth and put it back into the roaster.  Added a little dehydrated celery and a pinch of dehydrated onions and cooked it for a while.  Then I removed the chicken from the bones.  This is one of my most hated jobs.  Got that done and got out 2 canners to get things canned.  I canned 7 quarts and 1 pint of chicken broth and 7 pints of chicken.  Not as much chicken as I was hoping to get.  Some laying hens are not big chickens so that is why they were small.

Picked 4 tomatoes and 8 cucumbers tonight.  The tomatoes are starting to turn now.  There are several that I will be able to pick this week.  Last night Ron and I pulled the onions and laid them out to dry.  We have a lot of nice sized yellow and white onions this year.  My red onions are pretty small.  I never get big red onions and they are my favorite.

Chicken and broth from the chickens we dressed out this weekend.

My Canning and Conveinent Mixes

I am so glad that last year I canned a lot of convenient types of items and made up some convenient mixes.  Yesterday I made a pot of Vegetable Beef Soup and used a jar of the soup veggies and a jar of tomatoes.  Since I retired we eat a bigger variety of meals because I have all the stuff ready to use.  If you remember in December I made up some stuffing mix so we could have stuffing through the year and not just at holiday times.  We've used 2 bags so far and when I get down to the last bag I will for sure be making more.  I didn't have a recipe but came up with my own and I have to say I did an excellent job.  There is nothing I will do different the next time I make it.  Both times I just poured the bag of stuffing in a baking dish, added a quart of turkey broth, mix it well and then put some butterfly pork chops on top.  I cover this with foil for the first hour and a half and then remove the foil for the last 20 minutes or so. You could also do this with chicken but Ron likes it better with chops.  Another thing that I canned was new potatoes and we use those all the time too.  The other night I poured the liquid off of a jar of potatoes, put them in a baking dish, drizzled some olive oil on them and then sprinkled them with garlic powder, salt and pepper and baked them for about an hour.  Oh so good and easy.   My favorite is the potatoes and carrot mixture, I use when we have roast or when I make stew.  All you have to do is cook the meat in the crock pot and about 2 hours before you eat add the jar of potatoes and carrots.  Before I canned these things we ate a lot of meat and very few veggies with them.

Using the Leftovers

This past week I cooked an 18 lb turkey and a half a ham.  We ate turkey and ham for 5 days and that is all we could take.  We love both things but after 5 days it was time for a change.  I made 2 ham and cheese braids, 2 turkey and cheese braids and froze those for later.  I canned 7 quarts of turkey broth, 5 pints of turkey pieces and 5 pints of ham pieces.  Turkey and ham all used up and nothing went to waste.

Fruit Rollups

Last week I ordered some non stick drying sheets for my Excalibur Food Dehydrator.  I wanted to make some fruit roll-ups from some of the fruit I canned this summer.  They arrived on Tuesday and I put them to use right away.  So far I have made apple and pear/apple fruit roll-ups and they are super. A good way to get in some fruit and a good way to use up fruit.   I plan to take some of the peaches that I canned and run them through the blender to make some roll-ups.   Pure fruit, no additives and good for you. 

The dried fruit waiting to be be cut up.

2 half gallon jars of fruit roll-ups, these will be nice for the kids to snack on when there over.

Canning Pork & Beans

After reading the post on a blog I follow (Hickory Holler Farm)  I decided I would give making my own pork & beans a try.

http://hickeryhollerfarm.blogspot.com/2012/11/canning-pork-and-beans.html

I used some different spices but basically followed her recipe.  You can add your own favorite spices but make sure you process it at 11 lbs of pressure for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.  I am anxious to try these and also anxious to see how they turn out because the beans were not soaked or precooked.  I've saw on other blogs where they have canned beans with this method but have not tried it.  I used 4 lbs of pinto beans because that is what I had on hand and got 12 quarts.  I had some beef broth in the freezer I have been saving up and since there was some extra space in one of the canners I also canned 2 quarts of it.  When we have beef roast and there is some broth left after making gravy I put it in the freezer to use for other things.  I was glad to get the 3 containers out of the freezer, freezing it doesn't last as long as canning it.

After both canners were done I took a beautiful walk around the field out back.  It is December 3rd and 65 degrees out and very windy.  It is absolutely beautiful out, it feels more like March than December.

Each qt jar has 1 cup of beans, chopped onion, bacon and salt.

Divided the sauce among the jars.

Then filled with boiling water.

Both canners going which makes it sooooooo nice.

12 quarts of pork and beans, the 2 on the right are beef broth.

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2012/12/barn-hop-90.html

Turkey Leftovers

Yesterday I finally canned the leftover turkey and broth from Thanksgiving.  It's not that I've been too busy to do it, it's that I have been feeling "down".  I need to pull myself out of this deep hole and get back into the swing of things.
I divided the turkey among 4 quart jars and then added the broth.  I can use this for soup or noodles and will come in handy this winter.  Yesterday was also our first day not to have leftover turkey since Thanksgiving.  I know we were getting tired of turkey but it was so easy to rely on it.  I was hoping to get a couple of turkeys to can but didn't get that done.  I will keep watching for some sales and hopefully get some to can.
I used one of the 17 quart canners I got at an auction to do this canning and it was wonderful, small means it heats up faster and cools down faster than my 23 quart canner.  It also was much easier to handle with having my left hand still in the brace.  Love those bargains.

4 quarts of turkey with broth.



http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2012/12/barn-hop-90.html

A Must Read for Canners

If you can, please take some time and read the below post.  Patrice in my opinion is a wonderful writer and she has wrote an excellent article on canning.  I've heard some say "well this is what my grandmother did it" or "I have done it for years like this and have never had any problems".  The USDA has a lot of research behind what it says and employs food scientists to do nothing but test recipes and safe practices.   Please be safe and follow the guidelines they publish when you can.

http://www.rural-revolution.com/2012/11/the-invincible-canner.html

Canning Cranberries

Yesterday I picked up 10 bags of Ocean Spray Cranberries for 99 cents a bag, some cranberry juice, 4 oranges and a can of frozen orange juice.  First batch I made cranberry sauce; and used the following ingredients:
4 bags of cranberries rinsed and bad ones picked out
4 cups of cranberry juice, you can use any liquid you choose
4 cups of sugar

Put the cranberries and liquid in large pan, bring too boil and boil about 10 minutes or until the cranberries are soft.  I then ran them through the food mill to create a sauce, I took the "waste" and ran it back through the mill to make sure nothing went to waste.  Put the sauce back in the pan, added 4 cups  of sugar and returned to a rolling boil for 1 minute.  Cranberries are high in natural pectin so nothing is needed to make it jell.  Put in jars and processed for 15 minutes.  I got 12 half pints and a small bowl for Thanksgiving.

Second batch I made cranberry orange sauce and used the following:
6 bags of cranberries
4 lg oranges
1 lg can of frozen orange juice and then cranberry juice to make 6 cups of liquid
4 cups sugar
6 Tbsp no sugar needed pectin

Washed the oranges and then cut them up in chunks, added the liquid and brought this to a boil and boiled 5 minutes.  Then I added the washed cranberries and cooked this mixture until the cranberries were soft, about 10  minutes.  I put this mixture through the food mill and again ran the "waste" through again to cut down on waste.  Put the sauce back in the pan and added 6 Tbsp of pectin, with the addition of the oranges and orange juice I needed added pectin so it would jell.  Brought this to a boil and then added the sugar, returned to a boil and boiled 1 minute.  Put in jars and processed for 15 minutes.  I got 4 pints, 8 half pints, 3 quarter pints and a nice bowl for Thanksgiving.

Of course I tasted both and both are very good.  For the liquid you can use water, or any flavor of juice.  If you use honey or any other sweetener you will need to add pectin to make it jell.

Cranberries washed and ready to make sauce.

Cooked cranberries going through the Kitchen-Aid food mill.

Ingredients for the cranberry orange sauce.

Cut up oranges with the liquid ready to cook.

This is the waste from 10 bags of cranberries and 4 oranges, not much went to waste.  Feed this to the chickens.

Pectin used for the cranberry orange sauce.

Finished product, cranberry sauce on the left and cranberry orange sauce on the right.

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2012/12/barn-hop-90.html