Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

HEChicken the reason for leaving the vent open is to get all the excess air out so the heat rises faster. Once the steam starts I put my regulator on and adjust the heat when I get to the 10 pounds. Then cook them under pressure for 25 minutes. If you do them a lot longer they loose flavor. It actually has worked well for me especially if I have another load to get ready. I can pack the next 7 jars while the first batch pressure cooks. Non Acid foods require pressure cooking rather than a hot bath. I love home canned green beans. But the way my crop is going this year I doubt I'll be canning anything.
My son freezes his beans but I don't care for frozen green beans.

Oh I totally understand WHY. My point is that during that time the water is boiling which means the beans are cooking. And then from the time you put the pressure regulator on until it reaches pressure is another 10-15 minutes during which the water is still boiling so the beans are cooking. Then if you cook them under pressure for the recommended 25 minutes, when you add it up, you've been cooking the darned things for 45-50 minutes which in my opinion is WAAAAY too long, and cooks all the nutrients out of them.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Ahhh, I'm with Cherwill, Trish and Hechicken, we have been lucky to have lots of rain. The weeds sure enjoy it. We have had to harvest the squash about every other day. That was a surprise since they didn't look too good to me but sure produced them nicely. We also harvested some tomatoes. They don't look too well due to too much rain. The cherries look horrible. Lots of splitting cherries so the birds get great treats. No eggplants so far. I'm not too hopeful right now. The red onions are ok.

Hechicken, congrats on your first tomato!

Sharol, sorry about tyro lack of moisture. Maybe you will get some later. Sounds like Copper is doing well on the eggs. Fingers crossed that you'll have some chicks soon.

Trish, didn't sound like fun to fl chores in the rain. Can't imagine having to slip and slide in the mud to get the rabbit hutch on the truck. Just take it easy. Your leg can't take another fall!

Danz, just come on by to help me tile my front entrance! I've been meaning to do it but just keep procrastinating

Cherwill, my laundry is all dried. But I just another load out there. LOL.

 

[sharol]

Oh I totally understand WHY. My point is that during that time the water is boiling which means the beans are cooking. And then from the time you put the pressure regulator on until it reaches pressure is another 10-15 minutes during which the water is still boiling so the beans are cooking. Then if you cook them under pressure for the recommended 25 minutes, when you add it up, you've been cooking the darned things for 45-50 minutes which in my opinion is WAAAAY too long, and cooks all the nutrients out of them.

I agree about the mushy veggies. However, if it is taking your pressure cooker 10 minutes to reach pressure after it has vented, there may be a problem with it. I haven't used mine for a while, but as I recall, once the excess air is out and the regulator is back in position, it took little time to reach pressure. (again, it has been a couple or three years since I've tried to can anything but tomatoes.)

 

[chicken danz]

I like most veggies on the crisp not quite done end, but green beans are the one true exception. I like them well cooked.
I do hope I at least get enough to have green beans and new potatoes together. I love that combination. So far my plants are still growing so I'm waiting for them in hopes of getting a decent crop of potatoes. I noticed yesterday my onions are starting to fall so it won't be long before I harvest those.
I picked another tomato yesterday but it had a bad end so I tossed it. My watermelons decided to crowd the tomato plants and I haven't gotten back out there to get more wire up for them to grow up on. As soon as I can handle it I need to get that done. Next year I'd like to build wooden trellises for them to grow on. The major expense would be the wood for sure.
I got the pond cleaned and refilled and the ducks were so happy they were splashing water the full length of the pen. I also found that they like cucumbers. I had never gotten them to eat any produce I threw in there before. I'm glad I finally found something else they would eat. Now at least I know I could ship them without them dying of hunger and thirst along the way.
HEChicken I put my old rooster in the pen of light brahmas. I am sure he is fertile because he's produced hundreds of babies in the past. So at least I should finally get some chicks. But now I am concerned. The two boys weren't sparring at all. I am kind of concerned now if this younger one could be a hermaphrodite. He has all boy characteristics but I can't remember hearing him ever crow when I got to thinking about it. That would be my luck. I did find someone who has some show quality light brahmas though and I am buying some chicks from them. I must be nuts to buy more chicks especially this time of year. I have a few hundred I probably need to sell myself!!! If they survive shipping and then the following several weeks I'll probably just let the older girls go back to being layers again. So I guess I missed my opportunity to downsize again.
I woke up about 5 AM this morning and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and made coffee. I sure hope I don't run out of energy too early.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I wish some of you that have gotten so much rain would send a little this way. We get it north, south, east and west but it just seems to skip around us.
My garden is just getting started well but if we don't get rain there won't be anything left to harvest. Between that and the bugs its a mess. I did see one lone green bean yesterday. Not hardly worth picking was it?

I agree. We, too, could use more rain here. Despite having the 9th wettest June on record, we are still in an extreme drought. My DH and I went out for a walk to get the mail yesterday (mailbox 1/2 mile away) and by the time we got back, I had to hurry to get my chores done because a severe storm was tracking our direction. We ended up getting 0.14" of rain out of it, which isn't much but I'm not going to complain. There were reports with that storm of hail 2" in diameter (hen's egg size

). We have had SO MUCH large hail in this area recently. This isn't the first time we've missed it by just a few miles either.

My "garden" is still sitting in the window in my sunroom. My mother-in-law gave us some tomato starts and some pepper starts, but we haven't had the chance to plant them outside yet. I might end up having plants inside for the winter, just so we get something off of them.

 

[HEChicken]

I agree about the mushy veggies. However, if it is taking your pressure cooker 10 minutes to reach pressure after it has vented, there may be a problem with it. I haven't used mine for a while, but as I recall, once the excess air is out and the regulator is back in position, it took little time to reach pressure. (again, it has been a couple or three years since I've tried to can anything but tomatoes.)

Haha, well its been since last year since I last ran my canner too so maybe I'm remembering wrong. Mine is a pressure canner rather pressure cooker and is huge so I don't know if that makes the difference. My memory though is that I get it boiling, vent the steam for 10 mins, put the pressure regulator on and then it takes a little while for the pressure to build to the point where I start timing it. Its always worked exactly the same though, since the day I bought it brand new and there aren't really any "parts" in that process that could fail so I think it must work as it should - however long it takes!

I woke up about 5 AM this morning and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and made coffee. I sure hope I don't run out of energy too early.

I did that yesterday except I was awake at 3am. I finally got up around 4-4:30 and made coffee because I knew I wasn't going back to sleep. I crashed last night though!

 

[cherwill]

I wish I could send rain to those of you not getting much this year. It's been so nice here, except for the weeds, as HEChicken pointed out.

I can my beans, even though I know there's a lot of cooking involved. Mostly I don't like crisp-tender veggies. I like them raw, and I like them well cooked. Not overcooked, but just cooked enough. I freeze nearly everything possible, but I just don't like the texture of frozen beans. When I can them, I use the raw pack method. I have the water in the pressure canner already boiling when I put the jars in, so it only takes a minute or two for steam to come out the vent. From that point, it's 30 minutes of active cooking -- 10 to vent, and 20 under pressure. It takes less than a minute for my canner to come up to pressure. The tighter you can pack the beans, the better they'll withstand the cooking, I think. Mine have never come out mushy.

I had to close my windows this morning to keep the cool air in because the warm/hot air is on its way. I've sure enjoyed this last week.

Hope everyone is feeling well today and has a great weekend!

 

[Ralph Moyer]

I wish I had my camera yesterday evening when I did my evening chores, because it sure was a strange sight. A local egg customer had noticed that I didn't seem to have grasshoppers and said he was overrun with them. (He lives a little over 1 mile from me) So he gives me a gallon ice cream bucket crammed full of the little creatures. I open the lid and set it in the middle of about 100+ ducks and ducklings. They form a circle around the container and just stare at it. I dump out the grasshoppers in a pile and the ducks just keep staring at them. So I attempt to scatter the grasshoppers with my foot and some start hopping and flying. Within 5 seconds there were no grasshoppers! I guess the ducks just did not recognize a "sitting" grasshopper.

 

[chicken danz]

Quote: I hate it when I do that. But if I get awake that's it. There's no falling back to sleep after that.

I wish I could send rain to those of you not getting much this year. It's been so nice here, except for the weeds, as HEChicken pointed out.

I can my beans, even though I know there's a lot of cooking involved. Mostly I don't like crisp-tender veggies. I like them raw, and I like them well cooked. Not overcooked, but just cooked enough. I freeze nearly everything possible, but I just don't like the texture of frozen beans. When I can them, I use the raw pack method. I have the water in the pressure canner already boiling when I put the jars in, so it only takes a minute or two for steam to come out the vent. From that point, it's 30 minutes of active cooking -- 10 to vent, and 20 under pressure. It takes less than a minute for my canner to come up to pressure. The tighter you can pack the beans, the better they'll withstand the cooking, I think. Mine have never come out mushy.

I had to close my windows this morning to keep the cool air in because the warm/hot air is on its way. I've sure enjoyed this last week.

Hope everyone is feeling well today and has a great weekend!

I raw pack too and have hot water in the canner and pour boiling water over the beans in the jars. I also run the jars through the dishwasher hot rinse cycle before I use them so they are already hot.
I sold some chicks and some turkeys this morning. They were all well started and didn't need heat any more but I sold them cheap. I have to get some of these extras out of here.
I've been out trying to extend a pen for grow outs. It's probably more than I should tackle but I have to get some more of these babies moved outside. Wish I had another shelter for some of them. I'd set up another pen if I did. I may try to move a few of these juveniles in with older birds and see what happens. If they don't get along I'll just have to take them back out. I am so far behind in my work.
Better get back out there.

 

[Trish44]

Ralph that's hilarious! I'll bet that was a funny thing to watch.

Well operation nest box was pretty much a success today. We had a load of really nice used nest boxes brought down to Wichita for those who ordered them & most everyone but one showed up for theirs. I'm really happy with the one I got & all of them were very nice, the guy had really done an outstanding job restoring them.