A few days ago we canned up some dilly beans. These are basically pickled green beans, with some garlic and fresh dill. In some jars, we tossed in some jalapeno peppers. These are excellent in bloody mary’s, or just as a snack during football games, etc., which is mostly how we eat them.
Yesterday, I took one of my furlough days and made it a farm and family day. A beautiful warm, sunny day, high around 78 and breezy.
After cleaning up the kitchen, I spent about an hour in the garden picking green and wax beans. Got about 2 lbs., I’d say.
Came in and processed them by pressure canning. Beans do not have enough acid, so have to be pressure canned vs. boiling water bath like tomatoes or jams, etc. The result was 6 pints of beans stored up for winter. It feels good to think of those long cold winter evenings, and sitting down to a meal from our own garden. So our canning total so far is 6 pints dilly beans, 6 pints canned beans. This doesn’t count all the beans, peas, and black raspberries Karen has put in the freezer, too!
The whole process yesterday actually took about 4 hours, due to Curt stopping by in the middle to discuss progress on the tractor, and the frustratingly slow cooktop electric stove we have. Have I mentioned Karen and I hate that thing?
I have actually ordered a two burner propane stove, with legs and a wind baffle from Northern Tool (they don’t carry it in-store). It’s sold as a camping accessory. It should arrive this week. I can’t wait to get that and set it up outside for canning. This should help a lot, even if it doesn’t heat up the pots of water any faster (but I believe it will), it will keep the heat out of the kitchen during canning. I also want to find a used sink from the Habitat Re-Store and fashion up a sink and counter space area and create an outdoor kitchen. My hope is to make canning faster, closer to the source, less mess in the house, and of course, cooler, in both senses of the term.
Last week I dug some of our fingerling potatoes for the first time. These are yellow potatoes that grow to about three to four inches, max, and are designed to be eaten little. Oh my lord, they are so delicious. You can never know what a really fresh, tasty potato eating experience is like by getting them at the store, people. This Dairyland girl didn’t even want any butter on them!
And now we have a whole 20 ft. row of the things and they are ready now. I will start digging them today, and letting them dry a bit. I’m thinking about canning some of them. Karen is dubious. We will have lots and lots of storage potatoes in the basement, so I thought canning would be a good compliment. Might even can up some peas with some of them.
I mentioned the tractor. Sigh. It is now at Curt’s place. We drove it down there this last week. It did not, thankfully, do the screeching thing. But it did seem to be leaking fuel into the crankcase, indicating a seal, or o-ring, is bad on the fuel injection pump. He has a friend who works at a diesel injection place, and he has come by and taken the numbers off the pump so he can get the appropriate seal for it. He is due to come back on Saturday to work on it. Keep your fingers crossed. I miss my tractor, and I just want it to be healthy and happy. I got a wood stove free from a friend, but I can’t get it out of the back of my truck until the tractor is back home and running. So until my tractor is working, my truck is out of commission, parked in the garage protecting the woodstove…. Lol. Sometimes ya just gotta shake your head and laugh. Else you’ll get an ulcer.
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