This past few weeks I have been busy cleaning up the garden "left overs" and canning a few new recipes. Garden vegetable juice ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) Applesauce ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) this years and last years greenbeans ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) northen beans and pints of chicken ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) bean soup ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) bean soup in the making. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden )
As a Doomsday Prepper, I right now feel like giving a standing ovation over here! However, to keep things fresh for longer - I'd strongly advise on making a UV sterilizer chamber at home too, (to sterilize all the jars). It's nothing complicated, all you need is a wooden box in which all the glassware can be placed - Glue aluminium foil on the inside (for maximum reflection), and get a UV light tube from hospital supplies. It will work exactly as an ordinary 2 foot long and 40 Watt tube light, will even use the same electrical components and fixtures. So just mount it on the top side of the wooden box, and within 15 minutes, everything will become 100% free of all type of bacteria and and germs - Thus keeping the food from spoiling for a very long time.
Thanks SH. I aim to be self sufficient if need be. I think us stewbies would be the last "man" standing if we were to have a full fledged food catastrophe. A lot of us on here do the things our grandmas had to do in order to survive. We do it because we don't want to be dependent on anybody else to provide it for us. I butchered 26 meat chickens a few weeks ago and froze all of those. I keep encouraging my one son to "get out there" and hunt. I am willing to butcher what he brings home...except for fish. I hate that slimy yucky skin. I don't think of me as a prepper, but I am sure I am. My next project is learning how to make soap. Does that UV light make the jars keep the food even longer? I am slightly confused as to how that makes a difference when the heat gets up to 240-250f while canning. or is this for using after the food is canned?
That really good to know, as I too believe that one must always be as self sufficient as possible! And UV light will kill off even the toughest bacteria and germs, even the drug resistant superbugs. The UV sterilizer chamber can be bought online too. But if we make them ourselves - It will be at a quarter of the price. I just found these 2 pages where we can get an idea on how to do this ourselves. http://www.ehow.com/way_5852021_homemad ... lizer.html http://www.ask.com/question/how-to-buil ... sterilizer Basically, if your jars are already sterilized (with zero bacteria and germs) - Then obviously whatever you'll put in those jars will last almost twice as long. As there won't be any germs in there to spoil it. The food cooked on high heat will naturally be clean from majority of the germs anyway. But it's the sterilizing of the containers (the glass jars) that I'm talking of here. Also, another method to make food last even longer, is to seal your container (glass jars) with no oxygen in them. So doing this also isn't too hard. As all you need to do is produce some carbon dioxide - By mixing baking powder with vinegar in a plastic bucket. CO2 is heavier than air, so it will stay inside the bucket. Therefore if you fill up the jars inside that bucket - Very little oxygen will get trapped inside when you tighten the lid.
I'm glad I know all you Stewbies... because if doomsday came... I'd be out of food in about a week. Now... how do I travel around the globe at supper time in the midst of doomsday????
Hiya C--That's a really good supply that you've built-up there. Aside from your pantry looking impressive, what you have in the jars looks tasty as well. You are a busy girl, aren't you. Well done.
Looking good! I really need to learn how to can things. I rely on my freezer and I don't think we'll have electricity when doomsday comes.
Thanks for the info SH. I know they have the UV bulbs at the hospitals, as I have seen them and I had an air purifier for the house but it eventually wore out and there went the bulb, but I should do this just for my basement as it sometimes gets musty inside the cabinets and Kevins office gets really musty at times due to the water softener and pressure tank being in there.... Cheryl, come on up. I have been to Texas and I know it is a long drive, but you are welcome. Thanks S, I need to do some more and get all the shelves full, but that will come. day by day. I think we will be okay if we get snowed in. we won't go hungry anyhow. Netty, pressure canning is scary...at first, since it is the "unknown" new thing to get started on, but once you do it a few times it gets easier, not like honey bees where I got the "I don't want to do this again" for the first 5 years or so. find a mentor to do it if you are really interested. ask your friends if they do it and if they would let you help a few times to see if you want to invest int he equipment. I wouldn't be with out it. I have 5 pressure canners and use almost all of them regularly especially when doing greenbeans or even like the bean soup I made yesterday if I was doing a lot in a short amount of time. The heat needs to dissipate naturally so all the liquid doesn't boil out of the jar from the extreme temperature difference. So you take one off the stove and put the next one on right away. Ball displays at the grocery store have a "ball blue book" for sale especially during canning season. It is the "bible" of canning at this point. There are a few more canning books available, but this is the one to start with.
Cheryl, as long as you are willing to live off the garden and lots of eggs, you'd be more than welcome to come stay with us. I might ask you to weed a flowerbed or two . Carolyn, I love your "garden leftovers." That's what most of us call "harvest"! We make our own version of V-8 juice with bits and pieces of this and that. We have found it makes a great base for soups.
Thanks Jane. My garden leftovers is really a different "type" of gardening most people would find overwhelming, I think. I grow to sell so at the end of the season a bushel of beans was a "leftover" or all the tomatoes I made into juice. next up is the beets. I need to pull them as soon as there are enough to can. Those aren't leftovers, they never got started before the marketing season was over...oops! I did another 1/2 bu of tomatoes into juice today, but the bland kind for wimpy bellies...like Kevin's. The last veg. juice blend had a few hot peppers in it and it was good going in...not so coming out . EDITED for clear directions. The bean soup recipe was a "hit" though. I put 3/4 cup of DRIED northern beans into a quart jar, added some ham, celery and garlic, filled with water and processed for an hour and 35 min. This is processed in a pressure canner at 10#'s pressure for 95 minutes after the canner comes to the 10# level.
Just got first pressure canner 2 weeks ago. was afraid of them. Father's helper was not watching one. Blew hole in cement ceiling . Food every place. Al lways used water bath for canning. But got (lot) of apples. And lot quicker. And good way of make cheaper cut of meat tender.
KK, The older P. canners were a little more dangerous. The new ones have safety valves installed and you change the plug every time you change the gasket. I have three different types. One I have quite using as it doesn't have the newer safety valve like the others do. I have two National canners (very old style, but with the safety valves, an All American Canner, which uses NO gasket, and a Mirro. All of these have a weighted gauge on top that allows the "extra" pressure to vent without watching it relentlessly as you are canning. I can hear mine jiggling away downstairs as I type this...I don't think you can "blow" this type up as your fathers helper did. The overpressure plugs vent out of the canner first. You would probably make a mess with any liquid coming out of the jars along with the water from the canner, but no holes in the ceiling. You just still need to have a healthy respect while using it.
. QUOTE: The bean soup recipe was a "hit" though. I put 3/4 cup of DRIED northern beans into a quart jar, added some ham, celery and garlic, filled with water and processed for an hour and 35 min.[/quote] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carolyn, by 'processed for hour+35min' do you mean 'HOT-WATER BATH' method?... I tend to think the time indicates that but I don't really know.. I'm asking because I want to try this bean soup canning recipe.. Thanks, Hank.
Thanks for checking Henry before starting. This is in a pressure canner, not the hot water bath. I will go back and edit the section, though, just to be sure for others who are curious.
