Canning 101

I've been saying for a LONG time now that I would like to learn how to can food. Well, yesterday I finally did it! We all went outside yesterday and picked the peaches off the last peach tree.

As usual, Sarah was a great helper.


But it didn't take long before she found a way to be rewarded for her hard work.


I never fully realized how time-consuming and messy canning was. My kitchen was a disaster. At one point I just had to step back and take a picture of the momentous process.

I had pot of boiling water to dunk the peaches in and a bowl of ice water to plunk them in so the skin would come off. I had a bowl to put the peelings in and another bowl of lemon water to keep the peeled peaches waiting. I had a cutting board for the peaches, a bowl for all the yucky spots, another bowl with lemon water to put the halved peaches in. Then I also had a pot to heat up the peeled, halved peaches, a pot of boiling water to cover the peaches once they were in the jars, and finally the pressure cooker that I used to boil the filled jars. Whew....

So, after six hours of work...yes, it took me six hours to do this. Apparently I am NOT a "natural" when it comes to canning. Anyhow, after six hours of work I ended up with...drumroll please....



FOUR, only FOUR quart jars of peaches! My children could eat one or two jars just by themselves in one sitting!

I will say that our peaches did have quite a few bad spots. With this being our first year growing an orchard, we definitely have some learning to do. Little worms did some damage and we also suffered from brown rot. If I hadn't had to cut off so much yuck then I'm sure the processing would've been faster and ended with a larger quantity. Oh well, I guess this is what has to be done if our family is going to have organic peaches. However, next year I might try dehydrating peach slices instead of canning!

Emergency Preparedness

Lately, Shawn and I have been spending some time discussing the many scenarios where emergency preparedness would be life-saving. First I have to admit that, while I write this post hoping that everyone seeing it will glean information from it, my primary reason for writing this is so that my own friends and family will be better prepared. I love them. I worry about them. So, I want to take this time and try to save them from discomfort, pain, and grief.

We became really motivated to start preparing for an emergency after the Ice Storm of 2009. After about the third day of the storm, Shawn made a trip in to Wal-Mart. What he saw in the store made us change the way we prepared for emergencies. He noticed that, after only three days, the shelves were already extremely bare. There were customers in the store openly crying because they were so overwhelmed by not having electricity for three days. He overheard a conversation where a lady was telling a friend that she'd heard a rumor that one neighborhood in town had power. The lady's family was trying to figure out if they knew anyone in that neighborhood so they could go stay with someone that had electricity. This lady was desparate to find someone, anyone, with electricity. One of Shawn's co-workers told him that most people in his neighborhood left to stay with others. He was pretty much the only person that stayed in their home. Shawn's co-worker personally had to run off a carload of men that were driving up and down the street looking for empty houses to loot. All of this happened after just a few days during the ice storm. We know some people that were without electricity for more than two weeks.

After that incident Shawn and I really started to work through what we would do if we were put into a desparate situation. I would really like it if my family and friends would start asking themselves the same questions and take actions to ensure that their families are taken care of in an emergency. As much as I would love to say, "If something bad happens, then you all just come to our place..we'll take care of you!" That response is really just not practical. You must be prepared to take care of your own family in case of an emergency.

So, if there's another ice storm this winter:
Do you have a reliable supply of drinking water?
Do you have a way of keeping your family warm if there's no electricity?
Do you have enough food to get through several weeks?
Do you have a way of cooking/preparing the food if electricity is out?
Can you protect your family and your home if looters come into your neighborhood?

If the BIG earthquake occurs:
What will you do for water if all the pipes are broken?
If the roads are impassable, are you able to survive with no outside assistance?
If your home is destroyed, do you have alternate shelter for your family?
If someone is injured, do you have the skills or tools necessary for treatment?

Like I said earlier, I would love it if we could provide sanctuary for everyone, but we just can't. Since I won't be able to help my family and friends during an actual emergency, this is my way of helping. I urge you to prepare now. If I can help you now with your preparations, please know that I am willing. Of course there's plenty more that you can prepare for besides ice storms and earthquakes. However, I think preparing for a natural disaster is a great starting point for most families.

Another Update

Since it seems that I'm incapable of posting with any type of regularity lately, I think it's more reasonable for me to just give updates from time to time. We've been on our property for six months now. I've discovered that this time of year is extremely busy if you're trying to grow a garden and keep an orchard alive! So, with that said, this is what we've been up to...

Andrew is turning into a great little homestead helper. (Isn't he a cutie!)


The chickens are now free-ranging in the afternoons. This photo was taken on their first day out of the pen. They spent that first day going no further than the shade of the barn, but now we often see them up by the house later in the evenings. I love that they're helping control the bugs around here and we've noticed that we're going through less grain feed than before.


Shawn spent several days cleaning out the root cellar. The previous owners left a lot of unwanted items behind when they left. So, after Shawn sorted through the old bicycles, mildewed clothing, Reader's Digests from the 70's and 80's, and jars of mysterious liquids...this is what we were left with.


We know that we have to find where water is coming in and fix the leak, then kill off the mold that's in there, possibly replace the shelving because of mold, and replace the exterior door. Just more stuff to add to the "To Do" list.

Shawn already managed to build a very nice woodshed and some crates to use in the root cellar. He loves building things with wood and is really quite good at it!

Finally, I'm pleased to show off our first ever potato harvest! For being our first year growing them, I thought that we had a pretty good crop. We're estimating that we have about 50 pounds of potatoes. The crates that Shawn built will stack one on top of another and we're putting them in my laundry room for now. The laundry room is on the north side of our earth-berm home, so it's built into the ground and stays pretty cool all the time.


Other than this we've been spending our time watering the orchard and garden since we haven't had any rain on our property for about two weeks. We're also trying to control the weeds in the garden by putting down newspaper and covering it with straw. Oh, the areas we already have done look SO much nicer! We're starting to pick blackberries and enjoy some on a daily basis. I'm researching putting in a fall garden. I have some empty space in the garden now where the potatoes were and I have several raised beds that will be empty once I pick the garlic and onions soon. I'd like to go ahead and put something in their place instead of letting it sit empty. We've also been spending a lot of time with the Sears repair man since the brand new Craftsman riding lawn mower that we purchased two months ago breaks down every single week...but that's a long rant that would be a whole post by itself. Needless to say, I'm starting to think that we should've saved our money and just invested in a couple of goats instead!

Anyhow, that's the most recent update and the closest I get to having an "excuse" for not posting more often. We're still loving our busy, sweaty, itchy, achy, productive lives as homesteaders!

Sharing Something With You

I found this blog post and enjoyed it very much. Like the author, I've found that becoming more self-sufficient and firm in my beliefs has been very empowering. Anyhow, I wanted to pass it along in the hopes that you would enjoy it too.

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2010/06/dont-be-scared.html

A Fermenting Party...What's That?

So, yesterday I had a great time when some friends came over here for a Fermenting Party. What's a Fermenting Party you ask? Well, according to us, it's when a group of crunchy-granola ladies get together to make sauerkraut, ginger carrots, and ginger beer. Foods served during the party included grassfed beef stew, black cherry kombucha, organic blueberries from the garden, and 70% Lindt chocolate. Talk during the Fermentation Party included words like: probiotics, bacteria, and yeast.

You know, when I go back and re-read the above paragraph it sure makes us sound a little nerdy or wierd or something, but that's ok...I had a great time. Oh, and of course I took pictures specifically for this blog post, so that adds to the nerdy factor too I suppose...oh well.

We started off by dragging in all the supplies that they brought along with them. Here Rachel and Amanda are starting to research the process we're about to start.


Here's our huge box of organic cabbage that we all went in together to purchase. A total of 21 heads of cabbage that travelled all the way from Oregon for us to enjoy.


We decided that it was good organic cabbage when we saw this healthy worm feasting on it. Surely, if it were doused in pesticides this little guy wouldn't be around.


Then we got to work processing the cabbage. Amanda worked nearly all day long with an adorable bundle of extra weight strapped to her back. Ava was so content throughout the whole process.


The food processor that Amanda borrowed from her Mom was a HUGE blessing. I can't imagine how long it would've taken us to do all that work by hand.




My job was to be the "sqoosher." This involved me adding sea salt to the cabbage and squeezing it to break down the fibers. At this point, Rachel went insane and decided that a picture of me had to be on the blog. So, here I am, in all my non-photogenic glory in the process of "sqooshing."


The kids enjoyed the party too.


More processing


More sqooshing


After all the hours (yes, hours!) of processing and sqooshing, getting to the point of filling our jars felt like a huge milestone for me. I thought the green cabbage, purple cabbage, and carrots all combined made it turn out real pretty.


When it was all said and done we had a total of 4 gallons of sauerkraut, 4 batches of ginger beer, and some ginger carrots. I'm really looking forward to the ginger beer. It certainly doesn't sound appealing to me, but the ladies assured me it's not really beer...it's more like ginger ale.


Then we had to take care of the clean up, but I'll spare you pictures of that. Take my word for it though, my kitchen wasn't pretty after the Fermenting Party.

Lessons learned for next time:
1) Start earlier! They arrived at my home around 1pm and we didn't finish until after 10pm. Granted, we did visit while we were working and that added to our time, but it also made it much more enjoyable and I wouldn't change that a bit. Next time though, I think I'll invite everyone over and just make a day of it.

2) Only use wide-mouth canning jars. It was harder to tamp down the sauerkraut in the regular-mouth jars. The wider opening allowed us to use our hands to tamp.

3) Bring more lids. We started getting creative at the end with finding methods of covering the jars for travelling home. We foraged for lids and once those were all gone we had to resort to plastic wrap and rubber bands!

We had such a good time that we're already planning another Fermenting Party for the fall. We'd also like to get together to make soap and process apples (assuming Shawn and I manage to keep everything alive until harvest!). Thank you ladies for coming over. I loved it and cannot wait to do it again!

This post has been linked to Real Food Wednesday. To get more information on preparing healthy foods for your family, click here.
http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/06/real-food-wednesday-6910.html/comment-page-1#comment-69125

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes...

Earlier today Shawn was telling Sam and Sarah the story of how God created everything. As he was describing the Garden of Eden with all of its plants and trees and flowers and animals, Sarah piped up and said quickly, "Be sure to watch out for snakes!" Knowing what we know about later events in the Garden of Eden, maybe she understands more than we give her credit for...

Then at lunchtime, we were reviewing with the kids. Shawn asked Sarah who created the Earth and outer space. She quickly replied that God did. Then he asked what the first man's name was. She quickly replied that it was Adam. Then he asked her where Adam lived. She thought for a moment and replied, "The farm of Eden." Close..

Then Shawn turned to Sam and started reviewing with him. Shawn started off by asking him who created the Earth. Sam replied, "Grandma Colette."

We had fun listening to the kids' accounts of Bible facts, but I still don't think any of the cute-ness today compares with when Sarah was sitting in the back of the van singing a church song. She sounded so cute singing: "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of...Grandma!"

So, Grandma Colette, you should be flattered. Sarah may get you confused with Jesus, but Sam gets you confused with God!

Where We've Been - Part 2

Here are some pictures that I took today around the homestead.

The blueberries have just started turning this week. I've been able to harvest several cups, but intend to really pick a bunch either this evening or tomorrow.


Here's a current picture of half of our garden. To the far end we have potatoes, blueberries, and okra. Then there are the strawberries, followed by corn and beans. I just pulled out the spinach and in its place I plan on putting green peppers. Then we'll also add some sweet potatoes to the raised bed next to the blueberries.


The Colorado Potato Beetle has been showing up on our potato plants, so we've been going out in the mornings and picking them off by hand. The birds tried to get into our strawberries and blueberries, but netting stopped that. Other than that, we've not noticed any pests in the garden. Hopefully it stays that way!

Here's the other side of the garden. Beyond the newly planted corn and beans, we have tomatoes. Carrots are in the two raised bed boxes to the right of the wheelbarrow. We still plan on putting pumpkins in the garden.


Apples are getting big


Peaches are growing nicely


We're REALLY looking forward to blackberries!


Small little beginnings of grapes


Pears are getting big


This is the picture of the Old Orchard. The previous homeowner attempted to put the orchard in this spot, but it didn't do well. Two large apple trees, two pear trees, and about fifteen small black walnut trees remain, but the rest of the orchard was moved to a different part of the property. There are also a few grape vines, but they're growing amongst weeds. It's going to take some work to get them cleared out.


This is the New Orchard. This is where the previous homeowner re-established the orchard and apparently it did better in this spot. To the far left there are onions and garlic in the raised beds, then three cherry trees, and three peach trees. I'm thinking of putting watermelon in the unused raised bed. In the center row is my asparagus patch that I'm starting to let fern out, then there are five apple trees. In the far right row there are hazelnut bushes, then the grape vines.


Finally, here are some pretties that are even more beautiful simply because they have required no work on my part!




So, yes we're busy and yes we're tired and yes we're sunburned and yes we're bug-bitten...but this work is so satisfying. It would be so much easier to just go to the store for all our food, but we love working towards self-sufficiency. For our first year of learning as we go I don't think it's going too awfully bad. I am looking forward to five years from now when we already have some knowledge and experience under our belts.

Adding in another picture...I went to the garden before supper and picked a few things. This is our first real harvest of blueberries with some leftover strawberries and cherries thrown in.