What did you do in the garden today?

[littledog]

I would love to have a tractor.

So would we - Mr. Dog especially.

 

[WthrLady]

Last night's canning report.
Blue lids- 4 quarts went into the pressure canner
100% seal rate

 

[Farmer13]

Look how far we have come.
https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/canning/exhibits/show/equipment/jars
My Wife & I started canning back in 70.

We made pickles & kraut in jars with Zinc & Glass lids with red rubber seals.
Many old Farm stands had wooden barrels with sour heads & cucumbers, just lift the stone remove the wooden cover & bag your cabbage heads & pickles.

I have been eating what we grew, traded or bought that we canned, dried, or froze
& I am still here. Must not be such a big deal if 2 farmers could do it & survive all these years LOL.

If your new to putting food up. Don't over think it, you are just killing the germs & storing it so it won't go bad. The very few times our canned goods spoiled a real change in look & smell was present. When in doubt, Throw it out.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning all. The promised rain is drizzling out. I will be watering the gardens shortly. I'm bad, I put some water on my fig tree and I'm guessing it just needed to be watered. My backyard just finished drying out enough to mow it and I've missed the signs that the gardens were thirsty. I'm just a little nervous about watering now. The last time I watered everything we had 4 inches of rain dumped on us. Bambi stopped by again last night. Nothing nibbled from the gardens and my freshly planted grapevines are fine. I picked a handful of green beans earlier along with a little kale, some basil and 2 Sweet 100's tomatoes from the high garden. The tomatoes aren't completely ripe but I didn't want to gamble on whether Bambi or some bold chipmunks got to them first. One of my potted jalapeno plants is getting flowers on it, so fingers crossed I'll get a few peppers from that.

 

[Smokerbill]

I cleared the weeds and the kale and lettuce stumps from the smallest raised bed. Guess I'm lucky because I have very few weeds in the beds. This smaller bed will be filled up with Russian red kale and Brussels sprouts for the fall. And the red kale is very hardy, and will withstand temps down into the teens through the winter.

I just finished watering the entire garden, and it's looking good, except for the beets. I'm not sure what's going on with them. The little butternut squash I mentioned before are expanding in size!

Look how far we have come.
https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/canning/exhibits/show/equipment/jars
My Wife & I started canning back in 70.

We made pickles & kraut in jars with Zinc & Glass lids with red rubber seals.
Many old Farm stands had wooden barrels with sour heads & cucumbers, just lift the stone remove the wooden cover & bag your cabbage heads & pickles.

I have been eating what we grew, traded or bought that we canned, dried, or froze
& I am still here. Must not be such a big deal if 2 farmers could do it & survive all these years LOL.

If your new to putting food up. Don't over think it, you are just killing the germs & storing it so it won't go bad. The very few times our canned goods spoiled a real change in look & smell was present. When in doubt, Throw it out.

If I remember correctly, my dad told me that when he was a kid in the '20s (dang, 100 years ago!) cooked pork chops were layered in a crock with hot lard poured over them as a method of storage. The crock was kept in the cellar all winter. He would sneak chops straight out of the crock and eat them. He lived into his 80's.

Just found this:
https://www.survivopedia.com/how-to-preserve-food-in-lard/

 

[Farmer13]

I cleared the weeds and the kale and lettuce stumps from the smallest raised bed. Guess I'm lucky because I have very few weeds in the beds. This smaller bed will be filled up with Russian red kale and Brussels sprouts for the fall. And the red kale is very hardy, and will withstand temps down into the teens through the winter.

I just finished watering the entire garden, and it's looking good, except for the beets. I'm not sure what's going on with them. The little butternut squash I mentioned before are expanding in size!


If I remember correctly, my dad told me that when he was a kid in the '20s (dang, 100 years ago!) cooked pork chops were layered in a crock with hot lard poured over them as a method of storage. The crock was kept in the cellar all winter. He would sneak chops straight out of the crock and eat them. He lived into his 80's.

Just found this:
https://www.survivopedia.com/how-to-preserve-food-in-lard/

You can, can your food by .GOV rules
& cook all the good stuff out of tour food.

We did not know the rules when we first started.
So happy we missed it LOL.

https://nchfp.uga.edu/#gsc.tab=0

 

[igorsMistress]

Yep. Pickling and storing dehydrated food.

I'm also interested in the vacuum storage in canning jars. Although simply putting lids on has worked very well so far.

My sister tried the kind of vacuum sealer that melts the ends of a plastic tube or bags shut after vacuuming the air out. She liked most things about it but the cost of the tube/bags made it not worth using even if the machine is given to her.

I am just looking into vacuum sealers, but I too have been thinking that the costs are high compared to other storage methods.

I use the vac sealer primarily for meat that goes in the freezer. No freezer burn and it stores longer this way. But I also use the sous vide cooking method for a lot of items in the summer so it’s dual purpose. Plus, I can store prepared meals in them and rewarm right in the bag. Less mess and water use. I just pour boiling water over the bags and let them sit in a bowl covered.

 

[igorsMistress]

Poplar Report just reported that they've started using fake artificial meat at Food pantries and like places where people go for help to get food for the poor. That stuff is already shown to be made from cancer cells. Heaven knows what its going to be doing to people.

Everything is crazy right now.

Wait, what? Where is this info coming from? Do you have scientific articles to reference?

 

[igorsMistress]

Good to know. I won't be getting a vacuum sealer anyway. I just try to wrap things like meats tightly, and for me if there's a little freezer burn, it's not a problem.

Do you ever use the mylar bags with the oxygen remover packets? Aren't those great for long term storage of dry goods?

They are, I have dry stores in mylar with o2 absorbers. The important thing is to get the right size absorber for the situation. I like the bags, it’s easier to store low use items by meals rather than in bulk.

 

[igorsMistress]

There isn't any plant based non-meat meat. BOTH are actually petrie dish crap. People spin so much in the news and in advertisements. Most of what we get is 90% propaganda.

There's only 2 ways to make programmable cells. You need programmable cells to make artificial meat. They tell you its plant based. But the truth is you need programmable cells. To get programmable cells you can only get it from 2 ways. The first way would be fetuses. The second way is cancer cells.

...

But another side to this entirely is the idea of 'evil and designing men' are in charge of this. If God was in charge of it and did it, nobody would question anything. Why? Because of pure motive. Half the reason people get bent out of shape on any issue being debated in society is because they know people that aren't inspired and not with good intentions are in charge of something, and that those people need to be 'looked after' to keep them honest.

TVP, tofu, tempeh, seitan. Lots of plant based protein out there that gets flavored like meat. That kills me, pretend meat that is flavored like meat.