Home Economics

Beans, beans, the musical fruit. Wait. Beans aren't a fruit. Okay, never mind. We've canned a lot of beans this summer and hopefully there will be more to can in just a few days. We planted another crop near the end of summer and it looks promising.

These little munchkins can't be kept out of the kitchen, so why not put them all to work? They love helping, although a big bowl of beans can't get a bit monotonous. They don't always make it to the bottom of the bowl. The little ones tend to stray away after not too long.

While you and the children are snipping and cutting beans your jars should be in a pot or dishwasher being sterilized. Cut up all of beans then grab one of hot sterilized jars without burning yourself. I'm not good at that and my hands are pretty beat up from these jars among other things. Fill the jars with your beans.

We have this super amazing electric hot water dispenser. It's perfect for tea and oatmeal in the morning. The kids can make their own oatmeal in the morning and I can sleep in for a few more minutes. 

Using that hot water fill the jars leaving a 1-inch head space. We don't want any explosions in the canner.

You should also have your jars simmering on the stove in a small pot. We want to make sure they are sterilized and aren't carrying any bacteria on them.

Here, the jars are filled with beans and hot water and ready for the canner. You can also add a little salt to each jar if you'd like.

Place your jars in the canner. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least 2-3 inches.

Place the lid on your canner and let the water boil. You won't have the weights on the canner yet and should see a steady stream of steam coming out.

Once you place that little weight on your canner you want steady pressure. Since I live at high altitude I need to keep the pressure at 13 pounds.

When your processing time is finished let the pressure come all the way back down to zero. That will take awhile. Then remove the weight to release the rest of the pressure. Once that is done you can take the lid off the canner. Pull your jars out and just admire the beauty of your work. Set the jars on a kitchen towel to cool. The water inside may still be boiling. It's pretty cool to watch. Then listen for the popping sounds. It's like music to my ears to hear the jars sealing themselves! That's it. Pretty easy, don't you think?

Canning Green Beans

1. Prepare jars and lids for canning. Check for cracks, nicks and uneven rims. 

2. Wash green beans and trim ends. Cut beans into a uniform size.

3. Carefully fill canning jars with beans. Add 1 teaspoon of salt if desired. Fill jar with hot             boiling water leaving 1-inch headspace.

4. Wipe rim and threads of jar clean. Place sterilized lid on jar. Screw band down evenly and firmly. 

5. Place jars in pressure canner. Add boiling water if necessary. The water level should be about 1-inch above the jars.

6. Put lid on canner and turn to lock in place. Adjust heat; bring water to a boil. Leave vent open until steam has escaped steadily from vent for 10 minutes. Put weight on vent.

7. Bring pressure to 10 pounds, or 13 pounds if you’re in Denver. Keep pressure steady during entire processing period. Process pints for 20 minutes, quarts for 25 minutes. When processing is complete, turn off.

8. Let canner return to zero pressure naturally. Wait 2 minutes, then open vent. Unfasten lid. Remove lid. Let jars sit in canner 10 minutes to adjust to lower temperature. Remove jars from canner and set them upright on a dry towel to cool. Do not retighten bands. Let jars cool 12-24 hours.

9. After jars have cooled, check lids for a seal by pressing on the center of each lid. If the center is pulled down and does not flex, remove the band and gently try to lift the lid off with your fingertips. If the lid does not flex and you cannot lift if off, the lid has a good vacuum seal. Store in a cool, dry, dark place.

Ready for Winter?

Last month we finished up picking everything in the garden and ripping all the plants out just so Jared could plant winter rye grass. Instead of having and field of dirt we are now growing grass, but that is a different story for a different time. You may recall when, last month, we pulled up the garden.  Well the next day the four oldest kids helped me can peas and beans. First you start out with a load of clean, sterilized jars. It’s easiest to do this in the dishwasher.My boys thoroughly enjoyed filling jars with beans and peas.

Around here we raw pack the jars because it’s easy and the kids enjoy helping. Once the jars are filled with the vegetables I come along and fill them with hot water.

 

Then the jars are processed for about 35 minutes. If you plan on doing this be sure to check on processing times for your area. Living at high altitude the processing time will be a tad longer.

I have to thank our amazing church family (and friend, Elenita) for giving us so many canning supplies. You have no idea how incredibly appreciative we are for everything.  You helped make this year of gardening much easier on us. I know a lot of ladies from church have been saving jars and lids for years because the packaging shows. It’s been great to see how much you all paid for your lids compared to today.

      

I finally got around to organizing the kitchen cabinets a little. Jared was kind enough to build another pantry area in our basement. I have to say that this year of gardening was quite successful. We ended up with over 50 jars of pickles, 30 jars of green beans, 7 jars of peas (would  have been more if we weren’t gone for three weeks this summer), 7 jars of peaches, 6 jars of fruit cocktail, 24 jars of plum jelly (thanks for the plums Laura!), a ton of cantaloupe, zucchini, yellow squash, buttercup squash, tomatoes, onions, broccoli, corn (that we froze), and a couple pumpkins that have yet to ripen and will probably freeze now. It was quite the learning experience and we are now in the works to plan next year’s garden!

Tooty Fruity!!

If you are friends with me on Facebook then you know that this summer we did a ton of canning. Here’s one of our favorites thus far. We made fruit cocktail. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us Gail! We love it.The kids love helping in the kitchen, so I found the perfect projects for them. I didn’t have any cherry pitting tools, so I just found a few small dowel rods. They thought pitting cherries was so much fun. Hard to believe right? Thomas helped me peel the skins of the peaches and sort other fruit as well. He was so proud that he got to help. Once all the fruit was cut we simmered it in a light syrup. The fruity smell in the kitchen was fantastic.Then we jarred the fruit and syrup and processed the jars in the canner. Easy peasy. :) Okay, it was a lot of work, but I had great helpers. It was completely worth all of the hard work we put into it because now we have the best fruit cocktail saved up for winter. I only wish we had made more.

Colorado is known for their peaches, so we stocked up on some vine ripened peaches when they were ready. They are the best tasting peaches; juicy and succulent. It doesn’t get any better.

Here’s the fruit cocktail recipe that Gail so kindly shared with me. It’s definitely a keeper. Try it and your kids will be just like mine. One jar just isn’t enough at meal time. They ate it up like it was candy. Thank you again Gail!

Rosy Fruit Cocktail
Make a light or medium syrup (I just go to my Ball Blue book of canning and use theirs) to equal 5 1/4 cups. Keep hot, but not boiling.
You will need these fruits:
          1  2 lb. pineapple
          3 lbs. peaches
          3 lbs. pears
          1 lb. dark sweet cherries
          1 lb. seedless green grapes
Finely chop pineapple to make 3 cups.
Peel, pit, and cut peaches into cubes to make 8 1/2 cups.
Peel, core, and cut pears into cubes to make 6 1/2 cups.
Halve and pit cherries to make 2 1/2 cups
Remove stems from grapes and measure 3 cups.
Combine all fruit in a 4 - 6 quart Dutch oven or kettle.
Add hot syrup and bring to boiling.
Pack fruit in hot clear jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
Remove air bubbles with a knife, wipe rims and adjust lids.
Process filled jars in boiling water canner for 20 minutes (half pints or pints). At high altitude I added 10 more minutes.
Remove from canner and cool on racks.
Makes 9 pints.

Stay tuned for more recipes. I am so behind in posting recipes.

A Little Water Bath Canning

My friend Amy and I have been discussing canning, so I thought I’d post this for her.  Here you go, Amy.  I hope it helps a little.  Maybe it’ll help some other people too.  I’m no pro at this canning stuff, so for all of you who know what you’re doing please feel free to leave comments and tips for us.First you need a massive stock pot.  I like this one because I can fit seven jars in it at one time. I’m getting some salsa made up here.

 

A tool that I have grown to love is this funnel.  Actually, for me, it’s magical.  I didn’t use one last year.  I did a lot more cleaning last year.

This little lid lifting tool is pretty neat too.  I didn’t burn my fingers getting lids out of the hot bath they were sitting in.  It’s pretty much a magnet on a stick.  My kids liked playing with it.

Here, my jars are enjoying their nice hot water bath to seal their lids.  Once they sat in their bath for awhile I removed them with my jar lifting tool.  I highly recommend getting one of these.  You’ll have to trust me when I say you need one these.  Last year I used pot holders.  The pot holders got wet and the wetness was hot and still burned my hands.  Or if you don’t have much to can you can leave the jars in the water until the water cools.  Then you won’t need a jar lifter.

It’s kind of a fun tool to have anyway.   :) Maybe I’ll try and find some other good uses for it.

When it’s all said and done you end up with some beautiful jars filled with salsa and pasta sauce.  Come back later and maybe we’ll do some things with some apples.  I have a lot of those sitting around.

Tomatoes

We had twelve tomato plants this year. They ended up producing quite a bit of fruit, however they were slow to ripen. We were expecting a freeze at the beginning of October, so we ended up picking the remainder of our tomatoes while they were still green. We wrapped them in paper, stuck them in a box, and a few weeks later some of them had turned red. We have a few green ones left, so they are still in the box.

I like tomatoes, so when they went on sale at our local grocery store I went a little crazy. I bought 30 pounds and added them to what we already had. Then I got home and didn’t know what to do with them. I decided to do this:I boiled them. Look! The skin is already starting to come off.Then I stuck them in an ice cold water bath and peeled the skins off.Just hanging out in their ice cold water.

Those skins just wrinkle up and pretty much fall off on their own.

Yikes! Naked tomatoes!

Then I stuck them in a meat grinder.

If you’re the type of person with texture issues, then sticking them through the grinder is perfect for you. If you like chunkier tomatoes then don’t stick them through the grinder. You won’t like the texture.

I decided to make salsa and pasta sauce! Now we’ll see how long it all lasts.