Canning & Pickling on the Weekend!

Oh boy did I have myself a good little time on Saturday and Sunday! I pickled and canned until I couldn't stand on my feet any longer and I loved every minute of it. I guess I missed the canner more than I thought because once I got it out and running, that's all she wrote for me! I stayed with it through 14 jars of squash and another 14 jars of green beans. Nothing goes to waste when there's a canner around and someone who is willing to use it. That would be me!

While I washed and chopped vegetables the cucumbers were softening up in their brine. There was so much going on in the kitchen that I barely had time to cook! LOL I started with the cucumbers because they have to soak for 3 hours before you can stuff them into the jars to begin the pickling process. I had about 10 lbs of cucumbers total but I only had enough vinegar to make one batch. That was Saturday - I did go out and get more vinegar on Sunday so I could make another batch!

My refrigerator has 16 jars of pickles stacked up in it and they have to be rotated (flipped upside-down)every day for 14 days in order to be ready to eat. Once they are ready, they are tangy, crunchy and just a little bit sweet tasting. They start out soaking in 2 quarts of water with turmeric sprinkled over them. You're supposed to stir them well at first and then come back every so often to stir them again.

When three hours has elapsed, you drain and rinse them and then into the jars they go. Each jar gets some mustard seed, dill seed, dill weed, garlic, a little bit of sugar and crushed red pepper. The red pepper is up to you but I wouldn't leave it out unless you just don't like it because it does add that extra little kick to the pickle flavor. I ran out of dill weed and couldn't find it at any of the stores I went to. Guess it's that time of year! Anyway, I just used some extra garlic for the second batch - hopefully, they'll come out tasting good even without the dill.

Neccy was the recipient of a jar of pickles last year and I'm pretty sure she liked them. She already put her name in for another jar this year...goodness, I didn't even know they were up for grabs!! LOL If anyone else at her house got to try one, I'd be very surprised! :) I'll just take that as a compliment :) LOL

So the beans and squash went into the canner for 25 minutes each and at 11 pounds of pressure. It's a little bit tricky trying to get the canner set at 11 pounds but once you get a feel for it, it's a piece of cake. The beans were snapped and washed and cut into pieces about and inch to two inches long. I put just a bit of canning salt in the jars and then filled them with boiling water. This is called cold-pack canning because the beans aren't cooked before they go in the canner. You can do it either way but I find they retain a little bit of crunch if you cold-pack them.

I've done beans before and they are very easy to can. You can even add onions and/or sliced potatoes if you like. I just do mine plain and then add whatever else I want when I get ready to eat them. I wish I could say these were the beans I grew myself but alas you're aware of the rabbit situation. I ended up having to get them from Ms. Hilda. She's a friend of ours who is 60 years old and still hoes, plants, weeds, and picks her entire garden. To give you an idea of how big it is, she has 131 tomato plants alone. With them are beans, four different kinds of peppers, squash, cucumbers, turnips, corn and possibly eggplant.

Now that's a lot of work. She grows the vegetables to sell to make extra money. She has tried to find a job but no one will hire her because of her age. Shoot!! She could easily out work me on my best day. She's very strong and quite fit and able to do most anything. She even chops wood for her wood stove. I wouldn't have a clue.

Back to the canning...I had enough beans to process one batch in quarts and then we stopped by Pee Wee's for a few minutes on Saturday and Darryl happened to have another "mess" of them in the back room. He said I was welcome to them if I wanted them so we loaded them up! This mess was just enough to fill 7 pints and that's how I ended up with a total of 14 jars of beans.

The squash jars are a combination of patty pan squash, yellow crookneck squash and zucchini squash. I chopped them up and stuffed them into jars and like the beans, I covered them with boiling water. I added a little bit of salt, adjusted the seals and lids and into the canner they went. They process for the same time as the beans do, which is 25 minutes, but you must still wait on the canner to get pressurized and then you must wait for the pressure to dissipate at the end. 

Sometimes those two elements take longer than the canning process itself. I'm always anxiously awaiting the drop of the pressure pipe indicating it is safe to open the canner. Beware though - there's lot of hot steam coming out from under that lid so always tip it so that the bottom leans away from you and try to set it down quickly so the steam doesn't come up and around it and potentially burn your hands. You'll only do it wrong once - trust me...lol!!! hahahahaha

While all that canning and pickling was going on, I still had beets to work with. I was going to roast them in the oven but with time running out on me I just boiled them as I always have and then slipped the skins from them and sliced them up. I put the prepared beets in the refrigerator to use in my salads this week for lunch. They are a deeply nutritious vegetable and I wish I had enough to ferment them. I've seen recipes for a fermented beet and apple relish that looks and sounds delicious! Well, to me anyway....maybe not you so much. Beets are very good for you though so if you haven't ever tried them, I suggest you do - but please try fresh for your first time. mmm mmm good - especially on a salad!!

I didn't get much housework done with all that food to take care of but I did get a couple loads of laundry out on the line. They dried so quickly it seemed they were done even faster than if they were in the dryer. The heat of the day mixed with a very slight breeze must have helped them on their way. They still smell of fresh mountain air and every time I wear a shirt that's been on the line, it reminds me of my sunny weekend on the farm.

I watched a gardening show on Sunday and was amazed to see a bush like the one we have outside our front door. I was torn between thinking it was a butterfly bush or a hydrangea. The show confirmed it to be a hydrangea as the plant they showed, was like ours with just a couple of exceptions. The flower on their plant is a double whereas ours is a single. The leaves on theirs are oak leaf shaped whereas ours look more like a typical hydrangea. They explained this difference in leaf shape is because when seeded in the wild, many varieties will cross-breed. This cross-breeding causes all sorts of new varieties that the garden community just can't keep up with.

While my plant's flowers look like the flowers of the oak leaf hydrangea the leaves look like that of another variety. Regardless, at least I now know it is a hydrangea after all!! That's the important part to me because knowing that, I also know how to propagate it. We'll see if I'm successful :) fingers crossed y'all!! lol

We had some Florida company this weekend when Connie & Bobby stopped by to spend a little time with us. They had been to Pigeon Forge, TN and over to Kentucky to visit with some of Connie's family. They stopped to see us Friday night before heading back to FL on Saturday.

We took them down to see the swimming hole and we stuck our feet in the creek to cool off...well, Bobby went in quite a bit deeper but he cooled off even still. They seemed to enjoy the ride in my big red bronco and we're hoping they'll be able to stay longer next time. We're also hoping the swimming hole will be filled with water by then - for now, it's still empty. The creek is there and it does a fine job of cooling us off! It's so cold it's hard to get in much deeper than your knees. Come see for yourself! LOL

Tonight is basket night for me! My farmer emailed to say she hoped we would see basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and lettuce along with "rattlesnake" green beans. They are called this because they have lines or markings on them that resemble the markings on a snake. You would think I'd be tired of all the green beans but we didn't eat any of the ones I canned - they're for winter when you can't get them. The ones from the basket we'll have for dinner tomorrow!

I know it's hot in FL right now but the weatherman here says it's going to be hotter in TN this week than it is there. Now that's just darn-right wrong!! LOL It's supposed to be 97, 98 and 99 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Whew that's hot! I was hoping we could go see the Nationwide race at the Nashville Speedway on Saturday but it sounds like it's going to be too hot even for that. Bummer! Tickets are only $25-$30 each and that's a pretty good deal for a race. Oh well, I'll keep you posted on whether or not we make the event.

As for me and cooking over the weekend, well I didn't do much of it at all. We had steaks for dinner Friday night, the roast beef sandwiches Saturday night and nothing at all last night. I was too pooped to pop, as they say, and couldn't stand on my feet for another minute. Neither of us seemed to mind and when bedtime rolled around, we were both ready to hit the sack. I slept like a baby and woke up automatically at 3:40 am. Just in time to get up and get ready for work :) :)

My jars are all still on the bar and my pickles will need to be flipped when I get home. We still haven't seen Ruger but we look for him whenever we leave the house. With temperatures in the upper nineties we aren't likely to be out and about much this week. That's okay. We're both perfectly content to stay right there at the cabin. Obviously, I know how to keep busy :)

"The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice."
- William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811 - 1863