Canning Corn

We picked up 12 ears of corn from a roadside stand on our Saturday trip to collect our apples from Queener Farm.  It’s a beautiful drive down to Scio through Silverton, Stayton and Sublimity – rolling hills, tidy fields and beautiful old barns.

This morning I set about to shuck the corn and cut off the kernels (into a large wooden bowl which helps contain the kernels).  To each preheated pint jar, I added 1/2 t salt corn kernels to about 3/4″ from the top and then added boiling water to top them off.  Then I popped on the lids and rings and processed them for 55 minutes.  I have 6 pints in the canner now with more ready to go when those come out.

I also scraped the ‘milk’ off the cobs to make a pint or so of cream corn.

All of this for $3.00.

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Sweet Pickled Red Onions

Pickle Ingredients

• 2 cups of white vinegar
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of pickling spices.

Instructions

1. Combine the pickle ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar.
2. Thinly slice red onions and blanch in simmering water for two minutes
3. Drain the onions and pick into jars.
4. Cover the onions with the hot pickling liquid, leaving an appropriate head space.
5. I processed the half-pints for 15 minutes in the steam canner

** I had a little extra pickling liquid and a few green beans leftover in the refrigerator so I added a couple of half-pints of pickled green beans.

 

Pantry 2018

 

Frozen Berries

Cherry Pie Filling

Dill Pickle Relish

Pickled Radishes

Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Rhubarb Jam

Dehydrating Greens

Blueberry Crumble

Carrots

Dill for the Freezer

Pickled Beans

Pickled Onions

Canning

• Strawberry Rhubarb Jam – 6
• Rhubarb Jam – 6
• Strawberry Jam – 5
• Pickled Radishes – 1 medium, 2 large
• Dill Pickle Relish – 4 small, 2 medium
• Sour Cherry Pie Filling – 5 quarts
• Carrots – 8 pints
• Chicken broth – 6 pints
• Pickled Beans – 2 half-pints
• Pickled Onions – 5

Freezing

• Sour Pie Cherries – 2 containers
• Blueberry Crumble – 2 pans
• Columbia Star Blackberries – 2 containers
• Hedgerow Blackberries – 1 container
• Blackberry Cobbler – 1 pan
• Fresh Dill – 3 bags

Dehydrating

• Green Powder – 1 batch (5 trays)
• Sage – 1/2 tray
• Bay Leaves – 4

Ghee at home

When the cowshare is in milk we go to the farm and get a gallon or so a week.  That gives our family about 3 liters of milk and a healthy dose of cream.  Sometimes the cream is clotted, sometimes I culture it for Crème fraîche and sometimes I make butter.

We end up with quite a lot of butter in the refrigerator and freezer so I decided, about a year ago, to try making ghee.  With the milk solids no longer there, the ghee lasts for a long time just sitting out on the counter.  It’s great for cooking and smells like wonderful popcorn.

To make Ghee …..

I place the butter into a sauce pan over medium/low heat.

I let the butter melt and start to foam as the milk solids begin to separate.  The foam gets skimmed off into a container to use for cooking (within the next day or two)

With a bit more cooking, the ghee will foam a second time as the milk solids begin to brown and drop to the bottom of the pan, leaving the clear, golden ghee liquid.

Once the liquid ghee is clear, I remove the pan from the heat and filter the ghee through a couple of layers of fine cheesecloth into a bail-top jar for storage.

 

Summer Vacation Day 23: Beeswax Wraps

I purchased a beeswax fabric food wrap a few months ago and loved using it to wrap up my sandwiches for lunches at school.  The draw back was the price.  I had tried making some a few years ago using wax melted in the oven on a cookie tray – what a huge mess.  They were thick, not flexible enough and the tray was really difficult to clean.  I found a new method and it works really well…….

First, cut the fabric to the desired size using pinking shears to help prevent fraying.

Lay the fabric down on a sheet of parchment paper with an old bath town folded underneath to act as an ironing board.

Place shredded beeswax (I think this it should be beeswax so that it stays flexible when cooled) over the fabric.  I also found that using small piece of beeswax sheets for candlemaking worked well.

Lay a second sheet of parchment over the top and iron gently with a medium iron.

Iron gently, pressing sideways to distribute the wax into the unwaxed fabric.  When all of the fabric has been covered, remove and hang to dry.

20 Weeks of Food Storage – Week 2 – Sauce

This week $15.00 – – – Total spent $15.00

This was one of those weeks that I decided to start bulking up the pantry for emergencies, went to the grocery for one thing, and found a great deal on something different.  I went looking for beans or rice but the grocery was clearing out some pasta sauce – marked down from $3.94 to $1.00 each.  We went ahead and bought 15 jars for the pantry.

20 Weeks of Food Storage – Week 1 – Planning

I was popping around some blogs about preparing a food store and ran in to the WeeHavyn blog and her ideas about creating a food store, not for the end of times, but for a cushion against unforeseen happenings – house problems, unexpected bills, illnesses.

The basic idea is to make a list of items and amounts and, each week, to purchase and store those item.  I will also be using my store and replacing as need be.

I decided to use this week to take a look at what I already have in storage and figure out where my needs are.

We have quite a bit of flour stored away in canning jars – white, whole wheat, pastry.  I dry canned and sealed it in the oven so it should be good for quite a while.  We have about 35 quarts in total.

 

We also have a number of pints of tomato sauce – it looks like about 23 pints

My To Do List – from based on the article: 20 Items to Kick Start Your Food Storage Plan.

1.  20 pounds of Rice.
2.  20 pounds of Pinto Beans.
3.  20 cans of Vegetables.
4.  20 cans of Fruit.
5.  20 cans of Meat.
6.  4 pounds Oats.
7.  2 large jars of Peanut Butter.
8.  2 large jars of Tang or other powdered drink mix.
9.  5 pounds of Powdered Milk.
10.  5 pounds of Salt.
11.  10 pounds of Pancake Mix.
12.  2 pounds of Honey and 2 large jars of Jam.
13.  10 pounds of Pasta.
14.  10 cans or jars of Spaghetti Sauce.
15.  20 cans of Soup or Broth.
16.  1 large jug of Oil.
17.  Spices and Condiments.
18.  5 pounds of Coffee or 100 Tea Bags.
19. 2 large bags of Hard Candies.
20.  Mini LED Flashlight and Extra Batteries.