Say hello to my little friend - the Progressive International Canning Scoop

Long day yesterday- I made 6 quarts of apple pie filling. The Backyard Farmer is spoiling me by offering delivery in my area. They brought me a big box of Fuji and Granny Smith apples last week along with some beautiful heirloom tomatoes and a bag for feed for the hens. Gotta love it.

I'm trying out a new recipe this year. It was quite tasty before it hit the jars so it should be pretty good in recipes. I found it here along with some good basic canning tips and a recipe for pie crust made without shortening (butter only).

Before I head of to work, I must tell you all about the. . .

Best. Canning. Tool. Ever.

Okay, so maybe I do like my jar lifter just as much for safety purposes, but this little beauty comes in a close second. I can't remember if I saw the Progressive International Canning Scoop on a blog or if it was an Amazon* suggestion but I am so glad I bought it. All the reviews for this were excellent. The shape is perfect for ladling fruit into your jars, but it's pointed enough at the end to be able to get out every last drop of liquid. It has a generous size bowl and a hook so you can hang it on the edge of your pot. It won't stain or rust. I love it! I used it to can apple pie filling yesterday and it made much less of a mess than my old ladle. Making jam will be so much easier with this in my canning arsenal.

*And yes, I am an Amazon Associate so if you go to Amazon thru a link on my blog to make your purchase, I do get a tiny fee. That doesn't raise your price at all, but it helps me with the occasional Amazon gift certificate. And I thank you for that!

Canning Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

A long night of canning - 5 quarts of pickles and 4 quarts of Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate

It was love at first sip for me and strawberry lemonade. Summer in the valley brings great prices on flats of strawberries at Superstition Ranch Market, and winter means friends are begging me to take lemons off their hands. What could be better than an inexpensive drink chock full of Vitamin C?

At any given time our freezer is overflowing with pureed strawberries, lemon juice, or my strawberry lemonade base. It got to the point that an entire shelf was dedicated to my favorite beverage. Since a second freezer is not possible, I needed a better way to store my strawberry lemonade concentrate. A search turned up this recipe from Ball, the canning company. I had all the ingredients on hand and I canned up a batch when I last made pickles. Other bloggers had success with quarts instead of pints and that's the way I went with the project. I did add about 7 minutes to the water bath processing time. Finally- more room in the freezer!

Holy Honeydew!

If you live in the East Valley you may have heard of The Backyard Farmer aka Veggies Delivered.com Someone mentioned them in a local Facebook group and I had to try them for myself. Local produce? Delivered to my door? They take PayPal? I couldn't get to their website fast enough.

The veggie and fruit selection is not bad, but even more fabulous- they also carry baked goods, canning supplies, bulk grains, homemade soaps, grass fed beef, and even animal feed. I can't list everything they carry so please check out their website for the full list. You'll be blown away. No kidding!

We purchase chicken feed and grains frequently so I know my prices. The organic grains are the same price as the place I had been buying it. The chicken feed was very close, buy hey - no hauling- they drop it off in my driveway! Veg and fruits are a bit more than Sprouts, but usually much bigger.

There are plenty of testimonials on their website, so please check it out. Personally, I am impressed. The honeydew in the photo above weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs for under $4. Selection varies weekly. Read the "Important Info" on their website for order deadlines and delivery dates. And yes, delivery is free, but there is a place to include a tip for the driver on your bill.

Encyclopedia of Country Living - 40th Anniversary Edition

When I first started reading blogs about growing my own food, the book that was mentioned most frequently was The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery.

As my interests expanded into raising chickens and sustainablity, people in the know were still pointing the Carla's book as a resource. Living in the 'burbs I thought that this book wasn't for me but boy was I wrong! Anyone from homesteader to apartment dweller can use the great tips and advice from Carla.

Leanna’s Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Leanna’s Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Ingredients

6 to 8 pounds cucumbers, scrubbed and sliced into ¼” thick rounds
10 fresh dill sprigs
2 tbsp dill seeds
1 large onion, thinly sliced
6 garlic cloves, sliced into thirds
1 quart water
3 cups white vinegar
1 cup Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canning/pickling salt

Directions

In a large pot, combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil; cook and stir just until salt is dissolved. Place a sprig of dill in the bottom of each sterilized canning jar.

Pack layers of cucumber and onions tightly into the jars, leaving ½ head space. Place garlic pieces and dill sprigs into the jars and sprinkle with dill seed.

Pour liquid mixture into jars to cover the cucumbers. Move the cucumbers around with a knife to release any air bubbles. Make sure the liquid covers the cucumbers, onions and dill completely.

Cover tightly and refrigerate for 48 hours. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Belated Christmas Present - An All American 921 Pressure Canner

After tons of research and opinions from message boards, I took the plunge and purchased a pressure canner with my Amazon gift cards and some cash I received for Christmas. This should give me lots of blogging topics in the future. The pressure canner I thought I'd get - the All American 915

The pressure canner I ended up buying- the All American 921 Not that much more money but it can hold more pint jars in one canning session.

I am so glad I went with this canner. You can double stack pint jars but it is still easy for me to lift on to the stove.

Is his mafia name Benji Bag O' Bay Leaves?

Ben and what's left of the bay leaves. . .

HuzBen was up early this morning making brine for a pork loin. When I see him putting the brine together I always yell, "Use lots of bay leaves!" Not that I have a special fondness for bay leaves, I don't. It's because I have no concept of weight and I purchased a 1 lb bag of bay leaves awhile back from the San Francisco Herb Co.

Imagine my shock when a giant bag the size of a couch pillow showed up with the rest of my order. "Good grief" I thought- "what IS this?" It was a lifetime supply of bay leaves - for my whole neighborhood! We started portioning out the contents into smaller bags and giving bay leaves away to friends and family like they were an end summer, over abundance of zucchini. We started leaving bay leaves as tips in restaurants and we opened up a bay leaf and lemonade stand in front of of our house. Okay, it didn't quite get that far - but almost.

So, if you're in the neighborhood and find youself with a lack a bay leaves, call me. And if you drop by to borrow a cup of sugar, you must take a bag of bay leaves too!

Put 'em Up

HuzBen spotted 'Put 'em Up' at the Phoenix Library and picked it up for me. I am so glad he did. The book is a guide to canning, dehrydrating, pickling, and freezing. There are some fabulous tips newbies but the book contains recipes that take you beyond the boring basics that have been around since grandma was canning her garden vegetables. I'll be ordering my own copy the next time we need something from Amazon.

Food storage options and recipes for fruits, veggies, and herbs are all covered, as well as ideas for garlic and onions. The chapter on citrus would be of interest to those of us in the east valley since it's so abundant here. I can't wait to try the recipes for Radish Relish and Asian Pickled Radishes since my radish patch is huge this winter.

Speaking of canning - did you know you can order canning jars and supplies via Ace Hardware's website and have them shipped to your local Ace? I looked everywhere for 4 oz canning jars and came up empty. (Please don't tell me about WaMart - I will not spend my money there) I found what I needed on Ace's website. You can also stop by your local Ace and they can order it for you (doing this keeps a higher percentage of money in your local area). There is no shipping charge and your items are ready for pick up in 2-3 days.

More Spices

After weeding the raised bed and cutting the grass I spent the morning organizing and labeling my bulk spices. Another project crossed off my "To Do" list.

Tackling The Pantry

With the Thanksgiving holiday over and having a long weekend to myself, I decided to catch up on some projects. Yesterday I finally tackled the pantry and labeled all of our food storage containers with my trusty P-Touch Label Maker. Getting this done was on my project list for 2008 so I am getting it in just under the wire.

We have a good size pantry for a house this small and quite a selection of Tupperware to help make the best use of the space. To "store what you use and use what you store" Tupperware is the best for long term storage IMHO. It is available in all shapes and sizes and it's designed to stack and store while taking up minimal space. Five gallon buckets and not designed to be opened and closed again and are not made to stack on each other.

I bake bread so we buy bulk items like wheat flour and whole grains from Sprouts. We're also made the switch to healthier brown rice this year to aid in our weight loss. Sprouts stocks short and long grain as well as brown arborio rice for making risotto. They have a rapid turnover so you know the bulk items are really fresh. Everything we buy goes into the freezer for a few days and then is put into Tupperware Modular Mates.

With their new labels I won't mistake pastry flour for bread flour ever again.

Next project - the office!

Food Storage - Where do I start?

Food Storage - Where do I start?

Food Storage has always been a common topic among East Valley women and not only at the local LDS churches. The Y2K scare served as preparation for a post 9/11 world where the Red Cross and the Office of Homeland Security are now preaching preparedness on television commercials.

There are many websites and message boards devoted to food storage and how to prepare for emergencies. One look at any food storage chart is enough to set a budget minded person's head spinning. It's best to just take a deep breath and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. If you purchase things over time it really won't be the daunting (and expensive) task that it seems.

Have a plan -

Find a food storage plan list on the Internet and edit it to suit the needs of your family. Keep in mind that the best thing you can do is store what you eat and eat what you store.

Set your budget-

Not everyone can afford to pay thousands of dollars for the ready-made food storage kits available at places like Walton Feed and Be Prepared.com. Believe it or not, if you are organized you can end up with a comprehensive food storage supply for only a small weekly cash investment.

One of the more popular strategies for building food storage is the ten dollar per week method. This is a great place to start but I honestly don't think anyone could live off these items for long. How many times a week can you endure tuna casserole? Still, this is a great base for your plan.

Need a bit more variety in your meals?

Luckily for us, Valley residents enjoy the benefit of having a great food storage purveyor on nearly every corner. Yes, that's right - it's Walgreen's!

The Walgreen's supplement in your Sunday newspaper has a wealth of items that no food storage supply should be without. Last week’s sale included several three for a dollar items; Jiffy Mixes, snack size Pringles, canned pineapple and sardines. Canned mushrooms were a bargain at two for a dollar. Always check the date on canned goods and don't get anything that expires in less than 2 years.

Our personal favorite is the one-pound, cooked, boneless, canned hams. They need no refrigeration until you open them and one ham is perfect for two people. We use them for sandwiches (both hot and cold), with cheese and broccoli as a baked potato topping, or diced and mixed into mac and cheese. The possibilities are endless.

The various dollar stores around the East Valley are another great source of non perishable items but you need to check your labels carefully! Stick to good that are from the U.S.A. Watch exparation dates and don't purchase anything dented.

Invest in a few "back to basics" cookbook or cookbook specifically written with food storage in mind. My favorite is Cookin' with Home Storage, available at Amazon. You can find many articles and recipes on the web, but be sure and print them and get them into a folder or binder. You might need them when there is no electricity and internet access is not available. Be sure to include recipes that can be made over an open fire, in a dutch oven, or on a BBQ grill in case of a power failure. Think about alternative cooking vessels as well. Non stick teflon pans and glass casserole dishes will not work in a camp fire or BBQ grill. Invest in some cast iron pans and a cast iron dutch oven. You can get these at most camping supply stores and some military surplus stores like Larada's.

With instability of the economy, rising food costs, and the ever present possibility of another terrorist attack, the important thing is to start building a food storage plan now. You don't need to buy everything in one week but you do need to have a plan and stick to it.