Canning - First try!

So I got a canner. Mary had long ago acquired many canning jars that have been resting comfortably in the crawlspace under the house. But now that the garden is in, and the Farmer's Markets are full of beautiful produce, it is time to start preserving some of this local bounty.

So I got a canner. And I had to learn how to use it. I figured it couldn't be all that difficult, just takes some time, right? Right. Lots of time. But I think, like most things, when I get the hang of it, it will take less and less effort to make things happen.

Here is a picture of what I was doing today. (Click on the picture for a larger image)


The first 3 jars are green and wax beans from my garden, picked just before they were canned. The next five jars are corn, then there are 10 jars of blackberry jam, and 7 quart jars of dill pickles. Not bad for the first day's canning. It wasn't too difficult, and I made several trips to the internet to look up recipes and procedures. Here is my favorite canning/preserving website.

Thank you Mary for helping to pick the wild blackberries to go into the jam!

And how does doing my own canning lead to a simple life? It might not, if it isn't something you are passionate about doing. But for me, sustaining my family with healthful, local food is important. And choosing to do things that might at first be a bit more challenging, but less so as you get into the groove actually does make my life much more simple.

Berry Pickin'

While Mary and I were eating dinner, she asked if I would go for a walk with her after. She went on to say that we could go to the berry patch and pick some during our walk. I love her so much! We garbed ourselves in long pants and long sleeve shirts and big hats and went out a-pickin'! All told we hauled in about 96 ounces of berries in a little over an hour.

We have several spots where we pick berries, and we just about cleaned out the place we went this evening. At least until the new ones ripen up.

We came home and added them to our freezer stash.

We went to our local grocery store, and bought pectin so that we can make up some blackberry jam. Since you can easily make jam from frozen berries, this won't be a problem.

Oh, and my pressure canner arrived today! Combined with Mary's large stash of mason jars stored up under the house, we are just about set to preserve lots of food for the winter time!
And the Farmer's Market is tomorrow morning. And Sunday afternoon, if we want to drive all the way over to the mall.

Garden Plenty

I work full time. That is 40 hours per week. 8 hours per day. And I still find time to garden.

I came home from work today, and checked my front yard squash plants. I got 7 good sized summer squashes. (I missed one of the yellow squashes and it grew to about 18 inches long, and 6 inches around. It was too tough to eat, but the worms will like it!)
I went around to the side yard, and harvested a half-basket of beans. Then thought that some steamed Swiss Chard would be good with dinner too, so picked several leaves of it.

I came in the house and cleaned the food, prepared it and had it ready for when my dear Mary got home from visiting a friend. She brought 2 loaves of bread home with her, and we had that with the rest of the veggies.

Oh, and I had chilled beets from the farmer's market as well as sliced cucumbers in vinegar with home grown shallots.

Life is grand when you can eat what you grow yourself.

My garden doesn't provide enough to feed us all year long, but it surely provides lots to eat, and inexpensively also.

My garden is such, that once it gets going, there is very little need for hard work. In fact the hardest thing I did today was pull a few little clumps of crab-grass from a path. It is easier to pull after it gets big enough to notice. :)

Where do I find the time? Well, I don't watch TV much at all, and really enjoy the whole frugal, sustainable thing. It is easy to do, if you only take small steps toward your goal.

Berry Picking

I spent about 2 hours this evening picking berries. Blackberries.

Now let me paint the picture for you. I'm home alone, since Mary is visiting her sister. I have nothing to keep me inside. I dress in long pants and long sleeve shirt, preparing for the thorns and possible poison ivy to come.

The temperature outside was about 97 this evening. I drank lots of water, and put on my cowboy hat to keep the ticks off my head.

I slowly walked about a mile away from the house, over to the grounds of the college where the berry patches are. I enjoyed the silence. But reflecting on it, it wasn't silence. It was a flurry of sounds. Birds, insects, breeze rustling leaves. Frogs in the distance. A car going down the highway. An aircraft on final approach to BWI. All of this I took in, as my attention was drawn to those little and big wild blackberries. What a relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. Oh, and I must have eaten about 2 cups of the berries right off the brambles.

By the way, you have to focus on the berries, as well as keep the very prickery brambles from tearing into your skin as you pluck that juicy berry. My index finger and thumb are still purple from the juices of the over ripe berries. Those are the ones I ate, because they wouldn't have traveled well anyway.

I finished picking the ones I could get to and returned home to the garden. I harvested a zucchini from the plant in the front yard down near the road, and then walked around the house. I nibbled a couple of ripe blueberries from the bushes, and noticed that there are some strawberries ready too. I'll get them tomorrow. I continued to walk around, just enjoying what I see. Tomatoes that are coming on, Swiss chard ready to pick. Salad greens for lots of salad.
What's this? A few beans peaking out from under their leaves. So I went inside and got a basket to catch the few beans. I went around behind the trellis and my jaw dropped at the sight! There were bunches and bunches of beans back there. I could have sworn they weren't there yesterday! Anyway, I set about picking beans, and by the time I was done, there was a whole basket full. I brought it inside to the kitchen, washed, snapped, blanched and froze about a gallon of beans. I kept some aside for tomorrow evenings celebratory meal. Mary returns!

What I notice about this simple life that I've chosen, is that I have time to notice things. I have time to be with people I love. I have time to be with myself, without feeling rushed, or harried or stressed-out. This simple life isn't for everyone, but for me it works extremely well.

Gardens and Ticks

Yes, that's right. Ticks. I guess I had a DEER TICK sometime last week, because when Mary was giving me my haircut, she found a bulls eye rash on my scalp. I went to the Med folks and they gave me a 14 day course of antibiotics to hopefully kill off any Lyme bugs that are trying to take over my systems.

But other than that the garden is doing fantastically well. I have all the salad greens I could want. Fresh strawberries, green beans and swiss chard coming in. The blueberries are coming, but not too many this year. Hopefully more next year. I've planted kale again, so when the fall comes, we'll have greens then too.

I've been to the farmer's market and bought beets, watermelons, other melons and sweet corn. Lots of sweet corn. I froze 10 20 oz tubbies, then transferred the frozen corn to large zip bags. That is easier to store, and I get my tubbies back too.

The freezer is getting full, so... Mary and I are going to be "putting up" more food for the winter, and toward that goal, I've purchased a pressure cooker, and a pressure canner. I'll get the canning process down, and keep things going in small batches, as the farmers and I have produce to spare.

This weekend, I've been eating corn on the cob, fresh steamed beets, and okra and tomatoes. Wow. The food tastes so fresh and good. And is so filling.