Taking Inventory

Ok, my store room is a mess.  The dry goods canned up in #10 cans and the 5 gallon buckets are in order and I know what I have but the home canned produce is another matter.  I can all year round.  Things I can store and can later I put off until winter time to can.  Meats and broths and soups get canned all year round.  I tend to stash in piles and sooner or later everything gets mixed up. 

So today I am downstairs digging through boxes finding out what I really have and finding things that didn't work out and need to get dumped because no one here will eat it.  Those items I bake into the daily bread for the chickens to eat.  The produce makes the bread moist and tender and they love it.  I also have to make sure to get a little fat and 15% protein added in.  I add in eggs, milk products, meat products, ect to get the protein levels meet.  I add in lots of whole grains and use items we need to use up along the way. 

I got stuck this week when tomatoes started coming on really good and not knowing what I really had and what I really need. 

One of my biggest mistakes last year was using pickling lime with cut up cucumbers to make pickled spears and slices.  I didn't know after sitting for the time required I then needed to drain them and soak again for at least 1 hour in pure water.  Some times it takes up to 5 hours of soaking and changing the pure water every hour.  So I have learned a lesson and am going to feed the chickens over the next week last years failures.  I also had a batch of salsa that need to simmer 12 hours so I decided to use the crock pot.  For some reason my family thought it had cooked enough and every time I walked into the kitchen the crock pot was turned off.  It turned a dark color and no one will eat it.  So 12 jars of salsa is being dumped also.  I thought it was strange that I did plum and apple butter in the crock pot and no one felt the need to turn that off.  No clue but it happened and ruined a batch of salsa.  I found two good jars down stairs when everyone claimed we were totally out. 

I still have a large section to do so who knows what else I will find.  Also my grapes are turning purple and ripen a full month earlier than usual.  I was worried they would be ready while we would be in California in early September but looks like in 2 weeks grapes will be done!  All we have currently are concord and it looks to be a great harvest this year. 

Hope you are keeping track of what all you have and getting all you need to get through the coming year.

Blessings,
Cherlynn

My Garden update- Dill Pickle Slices

I have gotten all the peas pulled so we have seed for next year.  Lettuces have now all bolted and going to seed so will be watching carefully so I can get lettuce seeds.  Radishes have also bloomed out nicely so should be able to get seed for those also.

Melon's are looking great so need to be watching for those ripen very soon.  Tomatoes are coming on much stronger now and peppers are coming in strong too.  Might be able to make salsa up soon!  I've experimented with using the burpless cucumbers to make dill pickle slices and it seems to be working.  Not as crisp as I would of liked but not mushy either.  So I will go ahead and make a couple more batches to can up.

I keep going down to look at all those carrots we canned up last week.  They look so pretty in the jars!  I've been so pleased with this years garden.  Mulching has made all the difference in all we've grown.  We still haven't had any serious rain here.  This is the time of year we usually dry up so not to hopeful about getting serious rain.  It would be a great help to my garden but our row crops are already beyond help.  I can not stress enough about having a good food supply built up before this Fall.  Grocery prices are going to go through the roof in the coming year.

If you do not garden, PLEASE, go to farmers markets and see how much you can get and preserve for the coming year now while you can still get decent prices.

Here is the recipe I'm using this year to use up all these burpless cucumbers:


Dill Hamburger slices
Here are some tasty dill pickle slices to top your burgers or sandwiches.

Ingredients:

• 4 pounds pickling cucumbers
• 2 tablespoons canning salt or kosher salt
• 2 1/2 quarts water
• 3 cups cider vinegar
• 3 cups water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons canning salt or kosher salt
• 6 teaspoons dill seeds
• 3 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 6 bay leaves
• 18 to 24 black peppercorns
  

Preparation:

Slice ends off cucumbers then slice in 1/4-inch rounds. Put the cucumber slices in a large nonreactive bowl or pot and cover with the 2 1/2 quarts of water. Add 3 tablespoons salt and stir until salt is dissolved. Cover and let stand for 12 hours.
Drain cucumber slices.
Prepare jars. Fill a boiling water canner half-full with water; add jars and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low to keep jars hot.
In a nonreactive pot, combine the 3 cups vinegar and 3 cups water. Stir in 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons of salt until dissolved. Bring to a boil. Into each of 6 pint jars, add 1 teaspoon dill seeds, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1 bay leaf, 3 or 4 peppercorns, and about 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. Pack with cucumbers.
Add hot vinegar mixture to each jar, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace.
Wipe rims and threads of jars with a damp paper towel. Fit with lids and screw on jar rings tightly. Put the jars in a rack and lower into the hot water. If necessary, add more boiling of near-boiling water so the water level is 1 to 2 inches above the jars. Bring to a boil. Cover and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool completely. Check for seals about 24 hours later. Store in a cool dark place for a few weeks before using

Hope you enjoy!
Cherlynn

Vacation is over so back to work this week!

Ok, I didn't go any where but had lots of company this last week.  All my husband's brother's & sister's came for a lovely visit.  We also had our oldest son with his soon to be wife visiting us from California too.  Had a wonderful but much to short visit with all of them! 

Took a quick walk through my garden today that has been mostly ignored except for things I ran out to pick fresh last week.  Cucumbers are coming on hard now so will be a daily pick to stay on top of them.  Got 3 beds of tomatoes bearing now and 3 beds of green beans needing picking.  I have a full bed of garlic ready to pull and 2 beds of carrots ready to pull.  I'm pulling the peas now also for next years seed.  Got most of one bed done yesterday so will finish that bed tomorrow and maybe tackle another if I have time.

Now I need to decide what to plant as I clear these beds.  I want to plant another bed of garlic this fall and hope to plant several beds of gluten free oats this fall for spring crop next year.  But I will try to plant broccoli and cabbages for a fall crop and more carrots too.

So now is the crazy time of the year where I'm running full tilt harvesting and canning.

Hope you are getting much from your garden too!  If you don't have a garden try to can produce you can get at framers markets.  Keeping up your skills is very important to do!  Creating a food storage is very important also as food prices continue to climb.

The drought this year is going to really make prices climb.  Only 23% of our soy bean crops and the corn crop is expected to do even worse.  Our fruit crop that survived the late hard freeze is dropping most of it's fruit before it matures.  I just got 2 bushel's of peaches from the Amish and they said there wouldn't be any more due to the fruit drop and drought conditions.  Our personal corn crop looks fairly good but failed to put on corn as it didn't get water at the right time.  I'm hearing from farmers all over the mid-west saying the same thing.  So lay in what you want now before the prices sky rocket this fall/winter.   Many cattle producers are selling off their herds because they have no food to feed them.  Meat is cheap now but this winter it will be very high.

Take care and hope you are busy canning too!
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com

Happy 4th of July!

We decided to take a day off and work inside today in honor of the holiday and the high heat we've been dealing with.  I've made 3 batches of soup so far.  I am bagging up 2 quarts of each for the freezer that can be popped into a crockpot and reheated and the rest is getting canned up.  So far I have 9 pint jars of Taco Soup.  I've canned that before and it canned up very well.  We really enjoyed having it to heat up quickly.  Then I have 6 pints of Pasta Bean Soup.  I'm certain the bean soup will can up well but had to ponder adding the pasta in.  I cooked the soup and then added uncooked pasta to it and canned it and it looks like it worked ok.  I guess we'll find out some where down the road when we try it out!  Then I am canning up Broccoli Cheese Soup.  I canned up 4 of those as a trial.  My husband said this was the best Broccoli cheese Soup ever.  It's the first time I've made it with fresh broccoli from our garden and the cheese was home made also.  I know this freezes very well but have never canned it so tried just a few of them until we know if it works well or not.   With us being so very busy most of the time and just the two of us now, it's very nice to have home canned soups we can quickly reheat.  It's also great in a crisis.  Cooked canned soups reheat quickly so would use much less energy when you are without power. 

Next I will make Chicken & Rice.  I use that a lot in recipes and I can not use any of the store bought soups because they put wheat or milk in them.  I will make a very large batch of the chicken rice soup to have on hand.  Today's Broccoli Soup was made for my husband.  I will try a small batch later that is thickened with arrow root powder and uses no butter and uses rice cheese instead of Cheese Whiz.  This has been our most favorite soup in the past.  It will be good if I can create a suitable substitute.

Then I will make Split Pea with Ham and a big pot of Chili.  Both of those can up very well also.  I will also make up some Turkey Soup.  These will make a nice collection to our food storage. 

I think I have listed some of these before but if you need recipes just let me know and I will list them for you.  I can them in pint jars and pressure can for 75 minutes.  The pressure is set by where you live and you can find that through your county extension service. 

Hope you have a great day celebrating our Nation's Birthday!  I pray daily that we might get some people in Washington DC that will defend our Constitution and do what is best for our Nation.

Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com

Very Busy Summer!

I love summer!  I love the heat and lots of sunshine!  I love things growing even if I do have to mow/weed eat my day away!  But this summer I feel like I'm getting pulled 5 different directions all at the same time.  We're living from the garden and getting lots of stuff put away for winter time too!  I've written off all peas and will let them mature and dry out and save seed for next year.  Got salad greens replanted and choosing out the ones I want to go to seed so we can have it next year also.  Last year I waited until fall to start saving seed and most never fully matured so was worthless to try and save.  This year I will save early in hopes I will have most of my own seed to use next year.  Someone told me I could let early broccoli go and flower out and it would then go to seed even though its a biennial.  I'm not convinced it will work but I will try it this year and see!

Today I needed cream of chicken soup and can't use any store bought soups due to my food allergies.  I am using white bean flour with hot water, chicken bouillon and chicken.  It looked so good I went ahead and made 3 batches so I had what I needed tonight and have 9 pints in the pressure cooker right now so I have it on hand.  I used 1 pint of chicken for the 3 batches and it has way more chicken than the store bought stuff ever had!  I had some old navy beans in my storage so used those to grind for my flour and they worked great going through my Wonder Mill!  

The recipe I got comes from a great book I've had for years!  "Country Beans" by Rita Bingham  ISBN 1 882314 10 7.     I had used her tips and ideas to sneak beans into so many meals but never once noticed or tried her instant soup recipes!  Now that I am so very allergic to dairy and gluten these recipes are saving my life!  No need to try and figure it out myself, she already had tried and true recipes for me to use! 

Cream of Chicken Soup

6 cups boiling water
1 cup fine white bean flour
2 Tablespoons chicken or vegetable soup base
1 cup chicken dices (opt)

Whisk bean flour into the boiling water and then stir in the soup base.  Stir and boil 3 minutes and add chicken if using.  Serves 3 to 4.
 
I got 3 1/2 pints from this.  Made 3 batches and got 9 pints and enough to do make a casserole up for tonight's dinner. 

I turned our 6 week old chicks/turkeys loose today after spending 2 days locked up with our 3 year hens/ducks.  They have finally begun venturing out close to the chicken coop and least little thing they all run back in and hide.   I don't remember our 3yr old hens being so shy but it's been a while and the kids mostly took care of them.  I guess after a few weeks they'll start venturing a little farther out.   I did at least remember to lock up the dog today.  He loves to run in the middle of the hens and watch them fly up and bark.  Our hens are used to it but figured our 6 week old's would do better without Sammy the dog playing with them!

So working around here and in the garden and trying to get some outside things added in and running almost faster than I can trot anymore!  But I'm here and loving this hot summer weather.

Take care and hope you are able to get lots of stuff laid in this summer!

Cherlynn

Just stopping by for a little chat

I haven't posted much lately because I am running all the time and when I sit down I tend to fall asleep!  I've just about got the garden fully reclaimed.  I have 6 beds left to plant and still have to pull weeds all around the fence and in a few aisles.  I want to save at least 4 beds later this summer to plant oats in.  It would be great if I can grow my own Gluten Free oats.  They get planted late in the season and winter over and get harvested the following summer like winter wheat does.  I think I will also try growing some dry beans this year.  Never have before as they are so cheap to buy but the prices have been climbing so fast I guess I ought to try my hand at it.

Early in May I got 33 baby chicks and 7 baby turkey's.  I actually paid for 30 chicks and 6 turkeys but they sent extra because the mail delivery had been taking up to 5 days.  I got mine the very next day so all but one turkey has made it so far.  We had one baby turkey that just didn't seem to know how to find the water or the food.  Pecked at the side of the container or at their droppings and finally died.  A friend told us to put shiny marble in the water and feed dish to draw it there but it didn't work on this one.  Anyway I moved them into the girl's rabbit playpen and gave them twice as much room as they had had.   Supposedly by next week they'll be ready to go out side but I think they need to be twice as big as they are now.  But the way they are growing they might just be that big next week!  Still no clue on how many roosters we got.  Looking forward to getting my son's hens out of here even if he is hoping I'll hang on to them until late September.

My son is getting married on September 8th so wanting to wait until after then to deal with them.  At least by then we'll sure know the hen's from the roosters!  Before winter sets in I'll butcher the rooster's and the old hens and fill my canning jars up with home grown chicken.  I got a smaller bred of turkey so they could reproduce and hopefully we can get a new crop of turkeys next year from them.

I have been harvesting snow peas like crazy from our garden.  I collect them and then work them up and blanch them and put them into freezer bags and freeze them.  I don't like to freeze very many items but I sure love my snow peas in salads and in stir fries!

Well I'm still here thriving.  Hope you have a good garden this year too!

Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com

On this Holiday Weekend, my thoughts for you

I use to love Decoration Day/Memorial Day.  It was always the time we got to go down to my grand parents and spend a day decorating graves of our family members who had passed on.  Before this trip, Mom always took us up to Ft Leavenworth to decorate Aunt Francis' grave too.  I still go to Ft Leavenworth and decorate her grave each year.  It isn't just those who died while serving our nation like Aunt Francis did but our family members who gave us so much.  We are a part of them.  They were part of what made us "Us".  Honor them for what they gave you. 

I also wanted to add a note as several have said they could not add comments here so I went exploring and discovered when I clicked on the thing that said 0 comments, it then brought up a box for you to comment on.  So we now know how to make comments!

I will continue to urge you to share what you know with your neighbors.  You don't have to know it all, just a few things to share.  Knowing who around you is of a like mind may save your lives in the future.

I heard a show earlier this year which I thought might be a little extreme but they replayed it Thursday and I realized we all need to hear it now, right now!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/doctorprepper/2012/05/24/doctor-prepper-show

I first learned about FEMA Camps from a Missouri Representative (not mine) who contacted me wanting to know if I could get him onto  Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Base.  He had requested a tour of the FEMA Camp there and was refused permission to visit.  Several people had contacted him saying evil things were a foot in our good land.  

This was a big eye-opening event for me.  It was a huge complex, well lite with a fence that was meant never to be crossed and security patrols guarding it 24 hours a day.  He told me he wanted to get some pictures and then remove his card and insert another before guards got to us.  I was laughing to myself because over the years we've taken lots of pictures of forbidden things on military sites and never once been stopped.  I was shocked at how fast they had a security team to us!  I gave them my ID and told them I hadn't been to  Richards-Gebaur since the 1970's when it was an active Air Force Base and we were just looking around before going to the Commissary that was still there.  They took the camera and deleted  the pictures he had taken and told us it was a restricted area and we apologized and went our way.  It helped that I had coolers in the car!  I was never so scared in all my life and I suddenly realized there might in deed be something to those stories about FEMA Camps.  They were not used for folks who had no where to go after Hurricane Katrina.  They didn't use it to store Prisoners in.   So what is the plan that FEMA built these huge centers across our country.  Now I know why he felt he had to hid his first memory card and fool them.  What is FEMA hiding from us?

Why are they suddenly buying hollow point bullets in massive quantity to give Forestry Agents, etc.  I've heard 1st hand accounts of hyper inflation in other countries and it's not a pretty site and takes many, many years to recover.   Getting your neighbors on board and have food, water, medical supplies can mean the difference in you surviving or being shipped off to a FEMA Camp.  This is a time when you don't want to be out looking for supplies. 

Listen to this show and find your safe zone with folks surrounding you that you know and trust. 

Have a blessed Memorial Day Weekend!
Cherlynn
brchbell@yahoo.com