I wasn’t expecting to do another post today – and certainly not another garden post – but I just had to! I’ve had two awesome things happen since my last post.
One is that I got an email confirming our back ordered seeds from Veseys has just been shipped! It’s only two packets of seeds; the cherry and grape tomato medley, and the third variety of bush beans we had ordered. Now, the only things left outstanding are the items that will be shipped in time for planting in our zone. I’m really glad I ordered all these back in December. Quite a few of the varieties we ordered have since gone out of stock.
Then there is the other exciting bit.
Have I mentioned I have an awesome brother?
Have I also mentioned he has an equally awesome wife?
I got a call from her this evening, asking me to check my email. She had sent me this photo.
You see, I had asked them to keep an eye out for a pressure canner for me and this evening, while on their way to a romantic dinner out, they stopped at a Canadian Tire. Because who can turn down a quick run into Canadian Tire?
They found a pressure canner (yes, I know; it says cooker, but it’s the same tool) in stock!
It’s even one that was on some of the “top 10” lists I’d been looking at. Plus, it’s on sale!
Did I want her to pick it up for me?
Yes. Yes, I did!
Then, just moments after we hung up the phone, she called back. Since she was there, in the canning supplies section anyhow, was there anything else I wanted?
She found a couple of boxes of wide mouth snap lids to pick up for me as well.
We are now all set for both hot water bath and pressure canning, this fall.
My sister in law is awesome!
The Re-Farmer
Update: So… about that pressure canner…
As Carolee pointed out in the comments, this is a pressure cooker. I have read about them being used as canners, found instructions for them, etc. It was in the canning section, being sold as a pressure canner. It should be good. At least for small jars, like we would be using. At that size, I knew we’d never fit quart jars in there, but we aren’t planning on pressure canning anything in that size.
However, I asked my sister in law to go through the instructions to see, and apparently there is NOTHING about using this model as a canner in the instructions. Which is a bit irritating, since that’s what it was being sold as.
In the end, we’re going to keep it, rather than ask them to return it. That was a really good sale price, and we will make use of it in other ways.
We’ve been looking online for pressure canners around the province. I found one in the city, selling for $450. Well beyond our budget. I found another in a closer hardware store that was smaller and more affordable, but it’s not in stock. I am trying to avoid using Amazon, so I tried looking at more direct sources and manufacturers. They’re all in the US which means that, with the dollar difference, shipping costs and hidden expenses, I just assume it will cost double what the listed price is. Some are still affordable, but… out of stock, of course.
We will keep looking, but if how things are now is anything to go by, it looks like we will be freezing, dehydrating and pickling vegetables, rather than canning them! I do want to can things like meat, chili, soups and stews, too, and for that, we will need a pressure canner. We’ve canned chili before, but that was to keep them in the fridge for quick meals. Which was really handy. I’ve also canned soup stock but, again, it had to be refrigerated and used fairly quickly. In the long term, I want to have shelf-stable produce, and there is no getting around needing a pressure canner to ensure the food stays safe. Ultimately, we can do without. We have alternatives.
Today was a day of moving forward on a few things, and even accomplishing some! :-D
First, the most important thing.
Potato Beetle status.
No, this is not Potato Beetle. Nostrildamus was posing so sweetly for me, I just had to take a photo.
Also, his eyes are quite clear. He’s just got them comfortably half shut as he enjoys the relative warmth of the cat house roof under his paws!
The Potato was not up to letting me take his picture, but he was very much up to showing up for warm water, following me as I did my rounds, and letting me carry him back to the house! :-)
I tucked him into the sun room with food and water, which I put on a scrap of rigid insulation, so he wouldn’t have to be on cold concrete while eating and drinking. He had quite the appetite!
Once back inside, I called the vet. I mentioned the photos I sent, and she went looking for them. Someone else had checked the email yesterday, so she didn’t know where it was at first. The only opening they had was for Friday, at which point, should we even bother bringing him in at all? It’s not like he’s going to get any stitches with the wound having had this long to heal on its own. She said she would get a doctor to look at the photos and would call me back.
When she did, she told me the doctor thinks it looks pretty good, from what he could see (which, admittedly, isn’t much!), but since this is an outdoor cat… well, they get pretty dirty, and that increases the risks of infection. We decided to book Potato Beetle for Friday, early afternoon, for a check up. They will likely not have to do anything, though I would not be averse to some slow release antibiotics, like they gave Butterscotch. One thing they will be able to do is examine Potato for other wounds. While carrying him, I tried to feel around as I pet him. I think I was feeling scabs through his fur in a few places.
So, that appointment is made. Since he would not be going in until Friday, I went into the sun room and opened the doors to let him out.
He had no interest in leaving, and just started eating some more.
I noticed the water bowl was starting to ice over, so I warmed up some water in the kettle and brought it over. He was still eating when I came in, but as soon as I added the warm water, he switched right over. Because the water in our hot water tank develops a smell after a while, we don’t use warm tap water for the cats. I had tried that, and they didn’t seem to like it, but they LOVE the water that’s been warmed in the kettle! When I come out with the container and set it on the ground so I can knock the ice out of the metal bowls and clean out the heated bowl, Ginger used to be the one I’d find drinking out of the container. He’d stop as I came over to take it and fill the water bowls. Now, it’s Potato Beetle that goes straight for the container, and he even keeps trying to drink while I pick it up to fill the bowls! He seemed to really, really like having food and water bowls all to himself.
Seeing how quickly ice formed on the water bowl – and that Potato wasn’t interested in going outside – I grabbed a box and made a little house for him, with an old pillow for a bed. We already have an old pillow on the floor under the swing bench that he has claimed, but the box would get warmer, just from his body heat. I set it up right next to the food and water bowls, so he could go from being on a pillow to walking on the piece of rigid insulation, and never have to walk on cold concrete, if he didn’t want to.
Then I headed out to do our shopping, along with my younger daughter. While we were gone, Potato’s water bowl got topped up with warm water a few times, and he still had zero interest in leaving the sun room!
Since we were using my mother’s car for our shopping, I didn’t get as much of the heavy stuff as we normally would, but I did get some kibble to top of the bin in the sun room. I added some of the new kibble to Potato’s food bowl, just to give him something different. He ate with gusto!
And wouldn’t leave the sun room.
So… he’s still there.
I wasn’t planning on keeping him locked up until his appointment, but he’s very content where he is now. We can look out the bathroom window and see him sitting on the swing bench, napping. Or looking back at us!
This wasn’t exactly the plan, but we’ll take it, I guess!
I also called up the garage about or van. Sure enough, he’d tried to return my call while I was with the tech service call for so long, trying to figure out what was going on with the software I’d just bought.
The van will be dropped off on Monday morning for him to check out. The only thing he suggested was topping up the power steering fluid. He seemed pleased when I told him it was full. At least we know there’s no leak! Once the van has been checked over and any repairs get done, I’ll finally be able to do a real monthly stock up trip. We haven’t been able to do one since the end of November!
As for the shopping, we only went to the Walmart in the nearer small city. My daughters had made their own shopping list, too. Aside from the stuff we usually get, I was able to pick up some Jiffy Pellet refills for our second tray, which is one of those self-watering pellet trays with a domed lid. I also picked up a plain tray, that will work well for when I use the repurposed K-cups to start seeds. They will all have drainage holes, and the tray will allow them to be watered from below.
I also picked up a case of 750ml, wide mouth canning jars. We currently have 250ml and 500ml jars with regular size mouths, plus more 500ml wide mouth jars. Little by little, as we are able, we will add to our stock of jars, plus get more snap lids. There was a water bath canner in stock, but I ended up just getting the metal rack for holding jars that will allow me to use one of our stock pots. It’s designed so that, if we were canning small, short jars, a second one can be placed on top of the jars and we could can two layers of small jars. I don’t expect to do that, but it’s an option. My daughters got me a set of canning tools for Christmas, so with the purchase of this rack, I now have all the tools needed to do water bath canning.
So, another area of progress!
I was unable to find a pressure canner, though. They didn’t seem to have any in stock anywhere. We have time to find one, though.
I have no idea what kind of harvest we will end up with at the end of the season, but I hope to be fully prepared to can plenty! We also intend to freeze some things, and dehydrate others, so we will have a variety of options, even if we don’t get a pressure canner. I did find myself ogling a dehydrator, but decided against it. For the amount I expect to be dehydrating this year, we can use our oven well enough. It’s not worth spending the money on, at this point, and we don’t have the space to store it right now. That is a purchase that has no urgency to it.
After we got home, I had one more thing that we can finally move forward on, though it’s far less pleasant to think about. I called the court office.
We finally have a court date for the restraining order we filed against our vandal.
It’s just a general session date, and there is a lot of backlog. Chances are, it’ll probably end up booked for a future hearing, but… I don’t know. This is for a restraining order, not a civil suit. Will the court just fly through the docket, like they did for the teleconference call for his vexatious litigation against me, that he clearly filed in retaliation for my applying for a restraining order? After all, my application is a criminal matter, not a civil matter.
Our vandal would have to call the court office to see if court dates were started up again or not. If he had called yesterday, that may have been the triggering event for him calling my mother three times, yesterday. One of his “usual” things that he rants about now is that my mother is trying to put him in jail. She has nothing to do with my application for a restraining order, though, so he’s just lashing out at her because he can’t lash out at me. I’ve had no direct communication from him for something like 2 years. He can’t intimidate me, but he can try and intimidate my mother. Thankfully, he doesn’t call her anywhere near as often as he used to. My siblings and I have been working to put a stop to that, which includes helping my mother understand some of her self-sabotaging behaviour. This is someone who was so very close to us, and she still feels she needs to treat him like family. She owes him nothing. He owes her (and my late father) everything.
Anyhow. The court date is in March, so that’s another step forward.
And now it’s time to check on Potato Beetle and make sure he’s settled in for the night. Something far more pleasant to think about than court dates!
During the summer, as my mother’s grapes ripened, I gathered them and froze them. I didn’t even bag them; just put them in bowls and stuck them in the freezer.
We’ve been nibbling on them, little by little, ever since. ;-)
I had originally planned to put them through the juicer, but for the amount we had, it just didn’t seem worth the effort. So I went back to something I wanted to try, earlier.
Making jelly.
This is a new thing for me – we made jam, when I was growing up, never jelly. I got the recipes and instructions from my copy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (affiliate link). It’s a great book for small batch canning, with recipes that are easily modified for quantity. I’m rather pleased with how it turned out!
The frozen grapes made for 5 cups. The first thing I had to do was extract the juice. For this you need a large, stainless steel saucepan (you need room for the boiling liquid to expand), a jelly bag or a colander or sieve lined with layers of cheese cloth, a deep bowl, and a way to hang the bag over it.
Grape Juice for jelly
Wash and drain the stem-less grapes. Place into saucepan with just enough water to prevent scorching – about 1/4-1/2 cup for every 4 cups of grapes. (For my 5 cups of frozen grapes, they were already washed, so I gave them a rinse, left them to thaw in my saucepan, then used about 1/2 cup of water.)
Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover loosely and boil gently. Stir often, crushing the grapes if needed (my frozen grapes split in the freezer, so it wasn’t really needed), until just softened – about 5-10 minutes.
Transfer into a dampened jelly bag or cheesecloth lined colander, over a deep bowl. Hang and allow to drip for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
That’s it! I used a large measuring cup as my bowl, and let it hang overnight. The 5 cups of frozen grapes yielded just under 2 cups of juice. I then put the pulp outside for the birds. :-) To make the jelly, you’ll need a stainless steel saucepan – this will bubble up a lot, so have one big enough to give it plenty of room – sterilized jars, rings and lids, a spoon to stir with, plus a cold spoon to do the gel test*, and a canning funnel.
Grape Jelly (based on Old-Fashioned Jellies, pg. 120, in the cookbook)
2 cups juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
(ratio of 3 cups sugar to 4 cups juice)
Combine juice and sugar in a large, stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Keep at a hard boil, stirring frequently, until mixture begins to sheet from a metal spoon*, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and test gel*. If gel stage has been reached, skim off foam.
Quickly pour hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar and screw on ring until finger-tip tight.
After this, you could can them, as per your canner’s instructions. I don’t have a canner, but the 2 cups of juice made barely 1 1/2 pints of jelly, which were left to cool overnight. They will be kept refrigerated, instead.
* Sheet test for gel
Dip a cold metal spoon into the boiling soft spread. Lift the spoon and hold it horizontally, edge down, and watch how the mixture drops. When the mixture reaches the gel stage, it will begin to “sheet”, with the jelly breaking off the spoon in a sheet or flake, rather than pouring or dripping.
We taste tested the jelly this morning.
Now, this is where I admit, I don’t actually like jams or jellies. I find them too sweet, and the texture off-putting.
I love this jelly! Using our own grapes, this jelly has a sweet-tart flavor that is just awesome. It also gelled really well.
Obviously, the flavor will always depend on the type of grapes used, but using grapes that had been frozen first would have changed the flavor was well.
I am hoping that, next year, I’ll be able to free up our grape vine from the spirea it’s surrounded by, and be able to trellis it, for increased productivity.
Over the years, I plan to get more, and different varieties, that can grow in our climate.
Last night, I made up some chili in the slow cooker, for ourselves and my mother when she gets home form the hospital. You can see my recipe here, though I slightly modified it this time. I added a rutabaga with the vegetables, an extra can of beans, and used two cans of crushed tomatoes, instead of one, plus tomato paste. I also skipped the cream. Lots of fibre and iron in here, which my mother will need for the next while.
This morning, I put up 12 pint sized jars of the chili.
I don’t have the equipment to pressure can these, but these are not intended for long term storage. Done this way, they should last 6 weeks or more, in the fridge.
I found a flat bottomed, rectangular roasting pain with rack while cleaning the Old Kitchen. It was the perfect size to hold all the jars. I put the jars on the rack and, after setting kettles to boil water to scald them, added hot tap water to the roasting rack, so there would be no chance of anything cracking. I scalded the lids and rings in a stainless steel bowl, then poured boiling water into all the jars to disinfect them all. I scalded my jar funnel, too. I am so glad I picked that thing up!!
Once the jars were scalded and emptied, I could use the roasting pan to carry them all together to the crock pot. I left the hot water in the pan. To fill the jars, I would put some chili in, then use a (scalded) fork to poke at it and get out any air pockets, fill it the rest of the way (with a half inch head space) then poke at it again to get rid of the air pockets. After removing the funnel, I popped a lid in place, then moved on to the next one. Using the roasting rack made it much more organized.
Once filled, I put on the rings, but did not tighten them all the way, then moved them all onto some paper towel to cool slowly. Once fully cooled, I’ll tighten the rings the rest of the way. Not too tight, though. I don’t want my mother to have a hard time opening them!
This took up about half of our 8 quart crock pot of chili.
The Re-Farmer 