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Beginnings of the Harvest

 School for me starts Monday! I've been trying so hard the past few days to prepare us for winter savings and to have fresh (kinda sorta we'll get to that) veggies and fruits! I got a new backpack and it's hanging up as a reminder of holy crap we will have no time to do ANYTHING.

 


 I love food. And everything that has to do with food... especially if I get to enjoy the process. That's how Austin is, and why we are so awesome together haha! I mean who else takes their law school day break and makes fresh mango sherbert with their wife? A real man that's what lol. A couple weeks ago, his mom gave us the retro ice cream recipe book that came with his grandma's ice cream maker we have. That's why Austin is the way he is... his mom is queen of homemaking and so was his grandma! I guess it rubbed off on him. And if you know my mom and family, same deal. Queens of homemaking everywhere. I'm determined to become one myself. Plus my dad taught me to love good food... and boy does that take time.




So Mango ice cream sherbert happened!

And so did wonderful fruits at farmer's markets and whole foods. I mean, we're a little sad our garden hasn't been producing too much but there's so much farm stuff around us and great resources....Who wouldn't want this to be their dinner? It's like dessert for dinner! Look at that colour!


Like I said before, fresh-kinda-sorta food. Well, canning. That's what. Home-done canning. You can control what goes in there, and it's a ton of savings. I think Austin and I in Idaho got to around $100-$90 a month on food after the initial canning and bulk-buying all our ingredients. Susan (Austin's mom) does cold-pack peaches with a much healthier method. 





If anyone wants to know how to do all this, leave a comment and I can do a post with instructions!
I was so excited by all these wonderful peaches, I got my bag of green beans out that day too! This was scary for me because they are low acid and need pressure canning. Remember the pineapple I canned? We needed a bigger pot to can the pineapple in, and a giant pot would cost us $60-$70. Well that's how much a friggin pressure cooker (that's the same size) would cost.... and we could do more than acidic stuff with the water-bathe method! But it also means you could kill yourself lol. Peaches would turn into Sploosh, beans would botulize.

And botulism if it will ever be in my body is only for dystonic treatment haha! (Botox is used for pain relief.) 

So I did it, and re-read and re-read and re-read to make sure I'd do this perfectly. I even youtubed some stuff because that's how I learned about pineapple and that worked! Here's the video I watched for this one .:Here:.

Okay shut up. I know... she reminds me of Prancercise.





The most rewarding thing is hearing all the pings! All my cans sealed and I had done it!


There will definitely be another trip to the big Cheyenne Farmer's Market this week!

xoxo, from Wyoming!

Comments

  1. Can you please post instructions for canning the peaches-I lucked into a bunch and am trying to reach my mom to get it, but haven't reached her yet!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marie! I will post them right here!

    Clean all the peaches very well (like the ones you see in my sink) and also clean all of your jars. Hot water and dishsoap! Do this all first while a giant pot of water (not your canning water) heats up to a boil.

    The next step is to blanch your peaches. Your water pot should be boiling, peaches clean, and a sink should be cleaned out and full of cold water. You can put in as many peaches will fit into the boiling water. Count for 30 seconds. Then pull them all out and quickly dump them into the cold water sink. Do this to all your peaches, and the skins should come right off!

    So now that your peaches are skinless, and your jars are clean, boil the lids to the jars in a little pot. This is to clean them.

    For each jar, (35 peaches did 7 quart jars) add 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon fruit fresh.

    Now you can slice the peaches into halves or quarters (we did halves) and stuff them in the jars. It's really important you leave an inch of the rim completely clear. Meaning, no peaches poking up past that rim! This is for expansion. When you reach that point, you can fill the jar with water. Again with 1 inch of the rim completely clear. This is usually where the lip is anyway with the screw swirls.

    When you've packed all your jars, clean the inside of that 1 inch rim, and the outside, and the lips. You also want to make sure that there are no chips or scratches or cracks or they will not seal.

    Your lids should be boiling by now! I use my magnetic grabber, and tightly seal the lids and rings on the jars.

    Now you can place the cans in the water bath to your pot's regulations. I have a picture of the cans in the pot up there somewhere. Bring them all to a boil, and when the boiling starts is when your 25 minutes starts. South Dakota I'm sure is the same as here.

    After 25 minutes, make sure you have a heat protected place to put the cans. You want to take them out and make sure you don't have to touch or move them again so you don't disturb the seal. Don't even be tempted to poke the caps to see if they pinged. They can take overnight! Speaking of which, they should remain still for 24 hours untouched even if "pinged". If you have a can that didn't "ping" you can waterbathe it again and all that fun stuff... or just eat it. That has never even happened to me yet out of 5 canning sessions.

    Call me if you need help!

    ReplyDelete

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