What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

Question for the canning experts... How long do you typically wait before testing your seal? 12 hrs? 24 hrs? As soon as the jar cools enough that it doesn't burn your fingers?

OK... Checked my jars. They are still a little warm but generally cool enough to pick up and handle. I removed the rings and checked seals. Only one didn't seal. That jar just became dinner....

 

[fuzzi]

Hubby had raked/mowed the leaves into piles, so today I moved the piles off the yard. 3 piles went into the trailer, to be hauled up to the heavy soil garden. 2 HUGE piles went down to the sandy soil garden.

One toteful went into the chicken run.

Happy chicks!

 

[saysfaa]

Question for the canning experts... How long do you typically wait before testing your seal? 12 hrs? 24 hrs? As soon as the jar cools enough that it doesn't burn your fingers?

OK... Checked my jars. They are still a little warm but generally cool enough to pick up and handle. I removed the rings and checked seals. Only one didn't seal. That jar just became dinner....

24 hours

They nearly always make that beautiful click sound much sooner but best practice is to let them be undisturbed until they are cool completely. That gives the best chance of the seal being the whole width of the rubber part all the way around.

Well, you have to move them from the canner but do even that with as little disturbance as possible.

 

[WthrLady]

Question for the canning experts... How long do you typically wait before testing your seal? 12 hrs? 24 hrs? As soon as the jar cools enough that it doesn't burn your fingers?

OK... Checked my jars. They are still a little warm but generally cool enough to pick up and handle. I removed the rings and checked seals. Only one didn't seal. That jar just became dinner....

I usually can early morning or late afternoon, if it hasn't sealed by bedtime, I consider it unsealed and put it in the fridge for safety.
They SAY to wait 24 hours or over night. Um....I wouldn't leave food out for that long in a normal situation, why would I do that with something I'm trying to preserve or eat next day?!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Hmmm... Good point. I canned this chicken around 2 - 3 pm? I let it cool several hours before removing the rings. Every jar was sealed (I could lift it by the lid and button depressed) except one. We went ahead and used that jar for dinner tonight. I will check them all again before I go to bed but I feel like they should be good to go.

I usually can early morning or late afternoon, if it hasn't sealed by bedtime, I consider it unsealed and put it in the fridge for safety.
They SAY to wait 24 hours or over night. Um....I wouldn't leave food out for that long in a normal situation, why would I do that with something I'm trying to preserve or eat next day?!

 

[CedarLane]

Question for the canning experts... How long do you typically wait before testing your seal? 12 hrs? 24 hrs? As soon as the jar cools enough that it doesn't burn your fingers?

OK... Checked my jars. They are still a little warm but generally cool enough to pick up and handle. I removed the rings and checked seals. Only one didn't seal. That jar just became dinner....

24 hours recommended...12 hour minimum.

I usually can early morning or late afternoon, if it hasn't sealed by bedtime, I consider it unsealed and put it in the fridge for safety.
They SAY to wait 24 hours or over night. Um....I wouldn't leave food out for that long in a normal situation, why would I do that with something I'm trying to preserve or eat next day?!

I wish I could get done this early. Too often, I'm canning late into the evening....

Hmmm... Good point. I canned this chicken around 2 - 3 pm? I let it cool several hours before removing the rings. Every jar was sealed (I could lift it by the lid and button depressed) except one. We went ahead and used that jar for dinner tonight. I will check them all again before I go to bed but I feel like they should be good to go.

That seems too early for me. I don't even use the "tap" test until its been at least 12 hours and warn my daughter not to touch them... I leave the rings on for at least 12-24 hours.

 

[WthrLady]

24 hours recommended...12 hour minimum.


I wish I could get done this early. Too often, I'm canning late into the evening....

That seems too early for me. I don't even use the "tap" test until its been at least 12 hours and warn my daughter not to touch them... I leave the rings on for at least 12-24 hours.

I tap test about 6-8 hours after canning, but always before I go to bed. That's when I call it.
There is rarely anything unsealed at that point that's going to seal in the overnight hours, so I just toss in the refrigerator for next day or two use.

My newest lids leave no doubt if they've sealed or not, the whole lid is the dome and it is VERY obvious and loud when they seal - like the old days. Not this barely audible plink of the new Ball/Kerr lids with the little dip in the center. WHICH btw can dip in and the jar still not be sealed.

 

[WthrLady]

OH and if I ever DO can late into the night, then I just test them first thing when I get up. That is 6-8 hours as well.

 

[gtaus]

Hubby had raked/mowed the leaves into piles, so today I moved the piles off the yard. 3 piles went into the trailer, to be hauled up to the heavy soil garden. 2 HUGE piles went down to the sandy soil garden.

One toteful went into the chicken run.

I'm too old to be raking up all the leaves on my lawn. I have 3 acres of wooded lot, and that gets to be too many leaves to rake up. Instead, I have a 3-bin collection system on my riding mower and I just vacuum up the leaves off the lawn. Works pretty good, except I can only mow for maybe 5-10 minutes and then have to empty the bins. Although the lawn mower shreds the leaves a little bit, mostly they just get sucked up off the ground and dumped into the bins.

I don't know the exact capacity of each of my bins, but I'm estimating maybe 20 gallons each compared to a 20-gallon storage tote. That makes a full load about 60 gallons of leaves.

Getting to the point.... We have had light snow on the ground for the last 3 weeks. However, this past weekend, we hit high temps in the low to mid 40's F so the snow cover melted in the sun. Today, we hit a high of 53F, and I was able to fire up the lawn mower and take a few laps around the yard picking up more leaves. I spent almost 2 hours out on the lawn mower, and ended up dumping about 18 bins, or about 360 gallons, of leaves in the chicken run. The chickens were loving all the fresh leaves.

Here's a quick pic of some of my chickens checking out the leaf pile. Decided to take that picture before they had everything laid out flat. Eventually, built it up twice as big in the this picture, and even was working after the chickens went into the chicken coop for the night. So, tomorrow, they will have a lot of fun scratching down a huge pile of leaves.

 

[chickengr]

I use to think ideas came from God, but now I am leaning more towards experience and empirical evidence.

View attachment 3683010

have you noticed that you negated God on page 6660, which basically is 666? I noticed it from experience as God put the basic ideas in my head and gave me freedom to use my knowledge or not.