Michigan

[Olive Hill]

Olive, Opa, how long can you keep homemade jams? I have some jars that are going on 3 years old.

As long as the seal is good, the jam is good. Over time it will discolor, the quality may be reduced, but as long as the seal is not compromised the safety shouldn't be either.

ETA: A cool, dark place is the best place to store your canned goods as the exposure to light and heat speeds the discoloration and may reduce quality.

This one contains tomatoes, peppers and garlic




I regularly can tomatoes with peppers and garlic, so I cn make chili quickly.

Maybe you are talking about a water bath? I use a pressure canner.

1) It's pressure canned.

2) It's a tested recipe.

Like I said, I go off book in my own kitchen. But I think it's important to give people all the information, especially when they are new to canning. They should know that the safety of canning depends on the acidity and density of the food they're canning and they should know that if it's not a tested recipe or contains certain types of food their risk of botulism increases. Once they understand the principles of home canning they should certainly feel free to do as they please. I would simply hate for someone new to canning to read that sauce recipe, think Chicken Grandma had been canning it (or that it is considered safe to can) see that most spaghetti sauces are water bathed and go to town with it.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Eeyore, I think it would work fine as a coop too. Farmerboy has a coop that is enclosed with plastic during the winter.

Yes, I cover my coop with greenhouse plastic, and I did not have any birds with frostbites. The Family's votes are in and the heifer's name is- Bella!

 

[M.sue]

Wow, I love all the talk about canning. You can tell everyone wants summer to be here. We still have some canned tomatoes & juice left from last year and they should last till the this canning season starts. My DH always spices up a couple of batches also for his chili, hot sauce, and what not. He has a passion for peppers.....hot ones and we always plant a variety. Strawberry freezer jam is one of my childhood favorites and my kids like it too.

Fuzzybutt......thanks for sharing the information you found, I always bookmark important stuff like that or file it in my chicken binder. Liked the video too!

Question For The Seasoned Experts: My Bantam Roo is a year old now and really coming into his own. I have noticed on my little bantam hen that she has a little bald spot on the top of her head right behind her comb and the same for one of the Black Sex Links. Also one BSL has some feathers missing or I should say worn spots on her side from him mounting her. I know these normal signs of doing the tango but was wondering do I need to pull him from the flock? Is it OK leave him in there? There have been no signs of roughness like blood except for the baldness & missing feathers. He has 10 all to himself but seems to prefer these 3.

 

[EeyoreD]

Wow, I love all the talk about canning. You can tell everyone wants summer to be here.

Well I don't know about anyone else but I sure am. I just taught myself to can last year (and just had a garden in last year - I moved from city/no yard to country last May) and now I can't imagine NOT canning. SUCH a sense of satisfaction and such great tasting stuff.

Thanks Farmerboy! It looks like I'll be just fine with a hoop house then. It really was what I wanted but I wasn't sure it would work up here. You all with your hoop runs and Farmerboy's plastic palace (I mean that in the greatest regard) reassures me.

Olive, I think you're absolutely right. As earlier mentioned I'm very new to canning. But knowing the details and risks is very important. I've tinkered, I'll admit. But I knew the risks, reasons and mitigators when I did. (add more acid, skim more fat, etc) I wish I had an NBC "The More You Know" animated gif...

 

[M.sue]

Quote:
Love it, that is the name of one of the ponies my DD rides....she is also black and a beauty!!

 

[Juise]

I want to make sure I understood this right:

What you are saying is that it is safe to use garlic, onions, peppers, and oils, etc. if you are pressure canning, just not if you are using warm bath?

I did my own canning for the first time last year, but didn't end up doing all that I wanted, just tomatoes and apples. I used to help can all the time growing up, but last year was the first that I did the entire process on my own / needed to actually have a clue what I was doing. All my previous canning was really just following one direction or another, doing parts of the process, but not having to understand the whole thing, if you know what I mean.

 

[Olive Hill]

FOR SALE: Proven American Guinea Hog Breeding Stock

Normally we only sell young breeding stock, but I need to make way for some up-and-coming breeding stock in some of our other breeds so I have a couple of proven sows and one breeding-age gilt we're parting with. Both sows have 100% weaning rates on pasture and in dirt pens, with large (for AGH) litter sizes of 6-8 piglets. The gilt is the daughter of one of the sows and was retained for our breeding program -- we keep only the best of the best and this girl is it, I expect her weaning rate and litter sizes to be right up there with her mother's. All boars we've used in our program have been exceedingly docile and easy to handle. In fact, both the father to this gilt and the boar we're using now have taken on the job of "babysitter" and do well even with piglets just a few days of age. All can be sold bred with registration permission for the litters to get your breeding program off to a kickstart. (I need to monitor to be sure, but I believe all three are bred now.)

I'm offering these gals to our previous clients and friends and family at a discounted rate before putting them on the open market. I would like to see them in a responsible breeding program and figured most BYCers would probably fit that bill. If anyone is interested in getting started with a rare, heritage breed of pig please PM me and we can talk details.

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote: Olive Hill

Yup, too true. I like the USDA books (found on the web) which cover meat, veggies fish and, well everything cannable (not cannibal) and also the Ball blue book. Once you've been canning a while, you end up pretty much memorising it all. And, the USDA has dry as well as wet canning!

 

[M.sue]

Well I don't know about anyone else but I sure am. I just taught myself to can last year (and just had a garden in last year - I moved from city/no yard to country last May) and now I can't imagine NOT canning. SUCH a sense of satisfaction and such great tasting stuff.


Olive, I think you're absolutely right. As earlier mentioned I'm very new to canning. But knowing the details and risks is very important. I've tinkered, I'll admit. But I knew the risks, reasons and mitigators when I did. (add more acid, skim more fat, etc) I wish I had an NBC "The More You Know" animated gif...

The satisfaction & taste is the great reward but what I like most about it is that I know where it came from!!

Add more acid, leave it out.....this has always been a dispute between my DH & DM when canning the tomatoes. One says to add it because you need it there's not enough in the tomatoes alone, the other says leave it out because there is plenty. I always get a kick it out of this because it's like Old Pro verses Newbie.

 

[Opa]

I wish I had an NBC "The More You Know" animated gif...