Pressure Canner Test Drive

....is commencing as I type.

Presto Canner. It was highly recommended that a first-timer do a test run to see how the mechanisms work, when they are working properly.

I followed all instructions, starting with the admonition to READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS THOROUGHLY BEFORE USE. check

(I confess this thing is more than slightly intimidating)

I took it apart, examined all elements, washed all parts, reinserted all appendages, placed it on the stovetop and went to wake up John to see if he'd talk me out of this foolishness.

Hey I grew up hearing horror stories about pressure cookers exploding and killing people and blowing holes in ceiling. I'd think "who'd use this?" and here I have one in my house about be fired up.

He's still sleeping. I didn't have the heart to start his day this way. So I made toast instead. This much technology i can handle like a PRO. Toast with cream cheese and that hot pepper jelly I made the other day, using that low-tech rechnique of a waterbath to preserve. It's delicious.

The jelly, I mean.

Not the waterbath.

Okay, so the boy is up and the jars are in the pot.


The lid is locked. Houston, we have countdown...

Is Everyone Bored with the Weather?

I know, I know. It's HOT. It's also Summer. They go together.

To add to the discomfort, 'round these parts, we haven't been having our normal rainfall, either. In SE Louisiana summers, we get these massive build-ups of storm clouds in the afternoon, which traditionally dump a nice amount of rain that cools things off for a short while and makes living tolerable. Yeah Yeah, the humidity is nauseating. There can be days were gills are required for breathing.

But all of this "tradition" seems to have eluded us lately. For 3 weeks we had not a drop from the sky. Clouds, sure. No precipitation. (fancy 5 syllable word for rain). I would check the 15-day forecast at Accuweather and see this endless stretch of misery and think, "If I can only make it to Sunday....." and then Sunday would come and go with nothing! I felt gypped!

Hey! I've been suffering and all and I WANT THAT RAIN YOU GUYS promised!!! I'm out here dragging hoses all over the place when I ought to be unpacking!

And then one day last week, on a day with no scheduled precipitation, out of the north came this wind blast followed by @ 15 minutes of a downpour that actually went sideways with the wind and left puddles on the caked earth. It was heavenly and so UNexpected. I think that was what made it special for me.. the fact that it snuck up on me while I wasn't watching and anticipating something.

And then, nothing. Again with the daily build-up of tremendous clouds all around us and pouring. Just not on top of us where it would do US some good. That is excruciating. Yea, I'm glad someone's getting relief.....but I could use alittle myself, OVER HERE!!!!

Til yesterday. Oh sweet sweet sweet..... it did that build-up thing ALL DAY. Thunder above and nothing coming down. Lightning in the distance and nothing coming down. Maddening, I tells ya. But by this point, I've pretty much given up all hope that we'll ever see rain til a hurricane in Sept moseys up our alley.

I was using my time wisely, setting up the sewing room now that we dragged the folding table over here from Kimberly and pottering around. At one point I look out the window and see something strange out in the Back 2. Only in the Back 2, too. It's drizzling out there. Not here by the house, but definitely over the acres. And it did this for about 15 minutes. Not enough to do much good but at this point, I ain't complaining. That stretch hasn't had hoses on it all this time. Only what God gives it in morning dew.

And just to underscore..... in SOUTH Texas, they haven't seen substantial rain in MONTHS so as much as this post sounds like I'm complaining, I'm really not.

HOT is Italy in 2003, July. NO air conditioning. It was unbelievable. I wish I knew what the temperature reached because I cannot recall in my life being that hot, except in the summer in the Middle East, as I dashed to the art gallery in unair-conditioned cabs. Dressed in Black, just to add to the misery.

Hmph!

Useless.
















Not much better.








Two cats and not a predator among them. There they sit, watching a cricket IN MY HOUSE! What am I feeding them for if not to protect me from "invaders", hmmm?





On a lighter side... well in truth, all that weighed a lot. So much so, it took two trips from the Back 2 to haul it to the house.
I've left an ordinary table knife in the shot for proportion and scale.

Those are the last of the corn ears. We grilled a few last night and they were incredibly good.

Okay, confession time: As harried as I was yesterday, processing all that yield, I MAY have made a mistake.

I have read time and again how VERY URGENTLY IMPORTANT it is to can tomatoes carefully and with lemon to increase the acidic quality and boiling it for no less than 45 minutes and even at that, the USDA only recommends using a pressure canner (which I did buy but haven't used yet) and I take all of this to heart. I am a seriously concerned person when it comes to things that could KILL me and those I love, or at the very least, those I feed.

So, it surprised me when I wakened this morning with the wonderment: "Did I remember to add the lemon to those last two quarts of whole tomatoes?".........

"Surely I remembered! Of COURSE I remembered!"


"Really?" "Are you CERTAIN?" "How can you tell?" "Who's gonna be the guinea pig in four month's time?" "Can you SMELL botulism?"

I opened one of the cans. I figured what the worst that could happen? I open it and it tastes like salty lemony tomatoes or it tastes like tomatoes? Either way I use it up today and nothing goes to waste.

Salty lemony tomatoes. Good to go!

Green Acres Meets Grant Wood

My next-door neighbor painted this portrait as a moving away-moving in gift and I just love it. I laugh every time I pass thru the living room (it will be a game room) and see it sitting above the mantle.

What's really great about it as the obvious morphing that has taken place. Anyone who know us and her and her husband can see that she and I look like "me" in that painting and likewise John is a blend of her husband and himself. It's a wonderful painting and a thoughtful gift.

The painting is in sharp focus; the photo... not so much. I'll get a better shot of it soon.

Makin' Jars While the Sun Shines!

Man alive, I've been at it since well before sunrise and the fruits (HA!) of my labor are well evident in the pantry and freezer. I love this life!

The Inventory from Today:

3 Pints of Animal Vegetable Miracle Tomato Sauce
3 Quarts Whole Tomatoes
5 Pints Tomato-Zucchini
3 Pints Lady Bird Johnson Pickled Okra
5 assorted jars of Jalapeno Pepper Jelly (thank you so much, Gloria!!!!!)
2 quart baggies of corn kernels
2 quart baggies of breaded okra
3 snack baggies of "sun" dried cherry tomatoes

Here's a couple of shots of just a portion of the bounty.


I'm going to do an accurate accounting of everything we have canned or "put up" just to know the tally.

It's amazing to see all this when I'm in the middle of the processing part. In fact, what I think about is: How much money am I spending in natural gas, canning jars, lids, ingredients other than what I grow (sugar, pectin, lemon...okay that doesn't count because Kathy Q and I harvested lemons from her trees and a good kind friend's trees and froze them last winter, etc) and TIME rather than simply buying the same things from WalMart or the local grocery up here, Main's market? It isn't incalculable but the satisfaction of not letting all that goodness just go to seasonal eating seems to be more the motivator in this case.

I enjoy canning for the most part and the next thing I think about is how GRATEFUL I am to not be doing this without the pleasure of air-conditioning. I cannot imagine how they did it "back then" in the heat of the summer. In those clothes, as well. I'm in my Thai pants and a short shirt and still it's hot in here.

Since we got that rain a few days ago, the clouds have been reappearing every afternoon and I expect more. So far, no luck but I am ever hopeful.

Well that was short-lived

Now the corn came ready just 5 days ago and I have only a few ears left out there to harvest. Who knew that would pass so quickly? But I have lots of baggies in the freezer now and those ears out there will go on the grill tonight with a steak. How good is this? I will definitely whine my way into corn again next year. However, I think a better field would be 4 or 5 - 20' rows instead of 2- 50' rows. They didn't fertilize as well as possible and I have learned that the wind does the work more so than bees so planting them more packed than strung out would aid in this. 100' of corn is plenty to store and share so I don't want MORE than that in total. Just a better distribution of the stalks.

The okra is taking an hiatus as well so I will pickle our current store today along with canning more tomatoes and sauce. I bought a pressure canner/cooker yesterday at WallyWorld and hope I don't blow a hole in the ceiling. I'll have John nearby to keep me safe. This will cut down the time needed to process the jars.

Now I have to laugh because yesterday's Times Picayune had an article about a woman in DeRidder, LA with 12,000 tomato plants. You read that right: 12,000! HAHAhahahaha... I will look at my paltry 28 with jaded eyes from here on out. Ok, ok she sells hers at a couple of stands and I don't aspire to this. (maybe in the future! Not now) Our 28 have been producing some of the most delicious meaty tomatoes I have ever tasted and makes great sauces. I love cooking them down and watching the globes ripen (all over the kitchen) and opening the pantry to see the jars lined up. I have been giving them away as well and sharing the harvest and that is a very good feeling. Leslie has given us three new heat-tolerant plants that I will plant in the ground to hopefully continue the enjoyment through the summer months. The Cherry 100s back in Kimberly are still producing as well.

Time to get back to the kitchen before the sun comes up and I'm out in the fields again.

I Never Thought I'd See The Day

when I'd say about a tomato, "Oh, just throw that one away."