Garden Robber

Dana plants a garden at the edge of the field just east of my house.  When school starts she seems to end any garden work.  Last year there were a lot of peppers on her plants in October when a frost was expected.  I talked to Derrick and asked if they were planning to pick before freezing or if they wanted me to do it.  He told me Dana was going to pick them.  I left it alone.  It froze and she had not picked the garden before hand.  It was a very hard freeze.  I was very upset that all was lost when it did not have to be.

This year seemed to be the same.  Since mid August I could not tell that Dana did anything with the garden.  During September, I watched the plants and their production.  When the first frost was forecast, I checked the garden again.  Nothing had been picked so I went out late in the afternoon and picked the 6 quart kettle full of peppers. 

I sorted the peppers by type and put in bags and into the freezer.  This will be wonderful during the winter or to make salsa later.  That night we did have a mild freeze.  Mom's garden in front of her house had damage.  I could not tell that Dana's garden was hurt, though.  Maybe I should not have picked and left them there to see if she would pick them later.  Last week we had another forecast for a freeze.  I checked the garden and there were more peppers and a few tomatoes also there.  I picked again.  This is what I got this time.

There was probably another 6 quarts of fresh veggies but I put them in other types of containers.  They are also going in the freezer.  Once again Mom's garden was hurt more but Dana's was not.  The freezes have been very mild so far this fall. 

 

I kept the twins last night.  Layne saw these sitting on my table and asked where I got them.  I told him I stole them from his mama's garden.  That did not concern him.  He just wanted to eat some of the little tomatoes.  So maybe I can count telling Layne I picked their garden and his reaction to that as a confession and forgiveness.  You think?  Well, if not, this is my confession.  I do not like to raise a garden but I love to can, freeze and dehydrate its produce.  I am the Garden Robber.

 

Rose

Happy birthday to me & Canning day

Saturday, March 1, was my 57th birthday.  Where did the time go.  I am now in my upper 50's.  I'm not sure I even qualify for middle aged any more.  I am kind of in between middle age and old age right not.  This seems pretty close to 60 to me.  I still do not feel like I am old enough (grown up enough) to get married or have children.  Maybe that 'grown up' feeling is more emotional than physical.  Physically the time for having children is long past for me.  I have 19 wonderful nieces and nephews who are not getting married and having families of their own.  I have 16 great nieces and nephews now also.  These are my kids.  I had many wonderful birthday wishes from them.  Maybe one day I will be 'grown up' enough to find that special man to share my life with.


Now for how I spend my birthday---
I bought a 25 pound bag of flour when in Wichita since I brought home some sourdough starter and a bread machine.  Remember, I live on a farm and you never know what kind of critters may get into this old farmhouse.  I have been reading about oven canning dry goods for long term storage so decided to try it.  I went to the barn to find some of the old canning jars that I got at Aunt Agnes's auction. I have blue and green tinted jars, square jars, a 1/2 gallon jar and a couple that must be 1 1/2 quarts.  Aren't these cute jars?

I filled the cleaned and sterilized jars with the flour and placed them in the oven at 200 degrees for one hour.  During the last 10 minutes I laid the canning flats on the pan in the oven to warm them up.  Taking one jar and flat at a time out of the oven, I placed the ring on the jar, hand tightened it down, and placed the jar on a folded towel to cool.  Within a half hour or so I heard each jar 'ping' as it sealed.  Who-hoo!! It worked!  This is how I did it. I had some flour left over so placed it in a Mylar bag that I had from some other food storage project.  I purchased a vacuum sealer food saver and wondered if it would work on the bag.  I gave it a try and it worked also. 

While the vacuum sealer was out I wondered if it really would seal a canning jar with a flat.  I had the attachments for it so decided to try it with chocolate chips.  Oh, my goodness, it worked too.  Here explains how I did this.


While I had a mess in my kitchen, (o.k. I admit my kitchen is always a mess) I decided to clean out my freezer some and took out 5 quart bags of home butchered and ground hamburger.  I browned this all up, added some salt and pepper, chopped some onions and ended up with a 6 quart dutch oven full of browned hamburger ready to can.  I drained the meat, packed it in jars, put on flats and rings then pressure canned it at 10 pounds for 90 minutes.  I did not cover the meat with juice but some do.  I like the texture better this was.  I really like this video and this blog post.
Here's the day's conquests.

I really had fun doing this.  Now I suppose I should clean up my kitchen. Ugg.
 Rose