Colorado

[Pozees]

I have never made dills before, I don't like them much, but friends and family do so I'm doing it this year. The ones I made a couple of days ago were easy enough. LOL, the hardest part was peeling the garlic. Wash cukes, put em in jars. Put spices and garlic in jars. Boil Vinegar & sugar mixture, pour over cukes, seal and water bath can. I got a lot of my recipes on the canning thread on here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/78434/what-are-you-canning-now I sort of compiled the ones I liked and do some every now and then. The ones I am starting are super easy, but take a long time. Deli Dills. Ya put the cukes into a crock (I use a 5 Gal plastic bucket) with spices. Pour over a vinegar/water/salt mixture, and except for skimming off the scum that forms after a week or so, you just let em sit for 3-6 weeks til they stop fermenting, them put in jars and water bath can.

I like the kinda canning that any idiot can do, LOL.

As someone who has never canned, I rank just below idiot One of these days I am intent on learning how - I even have a pressure cooker! Thanks for the link, I will check out that thread!

 

[Ashdoes]

Oh, since this is a chicken forum.  I'm here to announce I now have 5 egg layers.  One of my Wellies, who is now 24 weeks old FINALLY couldn't hold it in any longer, LOL.  Only 5 more to go and I'll have a fully laying flock.  Wheeeeeeeeeee.  Am now giving a dozen eggs a week to our local fire dept.  Would sure like to be able to up it to 2 dozen.

That is very cool, I never would have thought to do that. Do you just take them over or did you call and ask if they'd like them? I've been wondering, since I went and added 10 more chickens to my flock, what I would do with the extra eggs.

 

[gardendufus]

As someone who has never canned, I rank just below idiot One of these days I am intent on learning how - I even have a pressure cooker! Thanks for the link, I will check out that thread!

Pozee, if you decide to can, use caution and do your research. Heavily acid items such as fruits, pickles (stuff with vinegar) and some others, don't require pressure canning, only water bath (boiling covered in water for a length of time which is extended, usually around 25-30 minutes here because of our altitude. Most experienced canners, and all the books, say pressurized canning should be done in a pressure canner which is different than a pressure cooker. Not all people do this, but it's what I recommend after my research.

Canning is actually very easy, especially pickles and jams. It is just time consuming because of all the peeling, chopping, waiting for things to come to a boil, etc.

 

[gardendufus]

That is very cool, I never would have thought to do that. Do you just take them over or did you call and ask if they'd like them? I've been wondering, since I went and added 10 more chickens to my flock, what I would do with the extra eggs.

I just went by the first time I had an extra dozen, asked them if they wanted fresh eggs. LOL, they said another lady had been by selling them a few days before and if they decided they wanted them, they'd probably buy from her as she was first. When I explained that mine were free, they grinned real big and said they'd take any I wanted to give them. I wanted to ask first, cuz you never know what people think about accepting food from strangers. They also said they'd take any of my canning I decided was extra.

ETA: I can't take credit on the idea. Somewhere on this site someone else posted that they did this and bells went off in my head. I think it was a thread specifically about what to do with extra eggs. Lotsa peeps give them to homeless shelters and food banks. Seemed like a dozen eggs a week wouldn't make much impact, so I went for the fire dept which is all volunteer and only about 1/4 mile from my house.

 

[Pozees]

Pozee, if you decide to can, use caution and do your research. Heavily acid items such as fruits, pickles (stuff with vinegar) and some others, don't require pressure canning, only water bath (boiling covered in water for a length of time which is extended, usually around 25-30 minutes here because of our altitude. Most experienced canners, and all the books, say pressurized canning should be done in a pressure canner which is different than a pressure cooker. Not all people do this, but it's what I recommend after my research.

Canning is actually very easy, especially pickles and jams. It is just time consuming because of all the peeling, chopping, waiting for things to come to a boil, etc.

Ah, good to know about the difference between pressure cooker and pressure canner, thanks! Adjusting for altitude sure gets tricky - I have been using a bread maker to make all our bread for about a year and a half, and tried at least a half dozen different models, bought and sold a lot of used bread makers and still have at least one in the den closet - most of them just don't work well here, but of course the most expensive one available is the one that does, which I actually bought new, but from Kohl's so I knew they would take it back if it didn't work. Still have to adjust water, sugar, salt, and yeast but at this point I've settled on 3 recipes I use almost all the time, and I know how to adjust them. Totally worth it to know we are no longer consuming that set of preservatives and additives every day.

 

[gardendufus]

Totally worth it to know we are no longer consuming that set of preservatives and additives every day.

Exactly why I like to do my own garden and canning.

I have been using a bread maker to make all our bread for about a year and a half, and tried at least a half dozen different models, bought and sold a lot of used bread makers and still have at least one in the den closet - most of them just don't work well here, but of course the most expensive one available is the one that does, which I actually bought new, but from Kohl's so I knew they would take it back if it didn't work. Still have to adjust water, sugar, salt, and yeast but at this point I've settled on 3 recipes I use almost all the time, and I know how to adjust them.

Would like to know brand (so I can save up for it). And what adjustments you made. I have so far totally given up on bread making, which I used to do sans machine, but have had such horrid luck I gave it up.

 

[gardendufus]

So, thinking that we can't be the only ones having baking problems, I did a search for threads with High Altitude in the title. Got a whole 3 whopping returns. BUT, one of them referenced this site...which I like on first glance. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/p41.html

I was feeling bad about hijacking this thread, then realized this is in the SOCIAL section. Hehehehe

 

[ShysCreations]

The Brighton swap is tomorrow. Am bringing a trio of mille fleur cochins, silver laced cochin chicks, and marans cockerels. The marans are all coppers --1 each blue black & splash

 

[wsmith]

Got all the posts in for the work shelter, and started on the floor supports.

 

[dennarahl]

Got all the posts in for the work shelter, and started on the floor supports.

Yay! We didn't get as far as we had originally planned. The area we chose didn't turn out as level as we thought it was. One side was ground level and the other side was a foot and a half down. Whee! That was a ton of fun. Then we found out that a lot of the lumber that came in the kit is warped.

This is the last picture I took today, but we got further. This is the base that has had rebar put through it to help keep the shed from blowing away. The center has been dug out. The floor frame is on top of it and nailed down to the base and half of the plywood flooring is down.


Oh well, I'm looking forward to having my girls in their new home and being able to use their old home to raise the babies that are all currently living in the garage and bunny room.