Homestead Acres

Posts Tagged ‘food storage’

Well fall is here and its time to harvest our potatoes!
We have found that storing them in mesh feed bags works the best for us.

We are currently putting together a documentary covering all of the elements that we believe are important and are contributing to the current crisis.

Music and sound effects original property of HomesteadAcres.

Photos public domain from Wikipedia.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mai…

It is cherry season!! My favorite way to buy cherries for canning is prepitted in 5 kg buckets. Its cheaper and saves a lot of time.

CHERRY PIE FILLING

           http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msue/imp/mod01/01600844.html                          

                  Quantities of Ingredients Needed For       

                               1 Quart        7 Quarts       

Fresh or thawed sour cherries  3-1/3 cups     6 quarts       

Granulated sugar               1 cup          7 cups         

Clear Jel                 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp  1-3/4 cups       

Cold water                     1-1/3 cups   9-1/3 cups       

Bottled lemon juice        1 tbsp + 1tsp      1/2 cup        

Cinnamon (optional)            1/8 tsp        1 tsp          

Almond extract (optional)      1/4 tsp        2 tsp          

Red food coloring (optional)   6 drops        1/4 tsp        

QUALITY: Select fresh, very ripe, and firm cherries.
Unsweetened frozen cherries may be used. If sugar has
been added, rinse it off while the fruit is still frozen.

YIELD: 1 quart or 7 quarts

PROCEDURE: Rinse and pit fresh cherries, and hold in
cold water. To prevent stem end browning, use ascorbic
acid solution (see ascorbic acid). For fresh fruit, place
6 cups at a time in 1 gallon boiling water. Boil each
batch 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain
but keep heated fruit in a covered bowl or pot. Combine
sugar and Clear Jel in a large saucepan and add water.
If desired, add cinnamon, almond extract, and food
coloring. Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat
until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon
juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in
drained cherries immediately and fill jars with mixture
without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and
process immediately.

Recommended process time for CHERRY PIE FILLING
in a boiling-water canner

                      Process Time at Altitudes of           

Style    Jar    0-        1,001-     3,001-      Above       

of Pack:    1,000 ft  3,000 ft   6,000 ft    6000 ft     

Hot         30 min      35        40         45
Size:
Pints or Quarts

I’m canning the peas we picked from the garden.  This is so easy to do!

You will need:
Peas
water
salt

Step 1. Shell your peas.
Step 2. Fill your jars with peas leaving 1 inch of head space.
Step 3. Add 1/2 tsp of salt per pint jar/ 1 tsp of salt per quart jar (optinal)
Step 4. Cover peas with hot/boiling water.
Step 5. Wipe rims and put lids on.
Step 6. Place in the canner and put canner lid on.
Step 7. Turn heat up high and let steam vent out of the canner for 10 min.
Step 8. Place weight on canner. Once weight starts jiggling adjust heat to get a slow, steady rocking. Set timer for 40 minutes for pints or quarts.
Step 9. After timer goes off turn of the heat, let canner vent. Once all pressure has been released wait an additional 20 min. Then remove weight and lid. Place jars on a towel to cool, let sit for 24 hours.

We are starting our summer canning with strawberry jam.
Normally I use low/no sugar pectin and only add a cup or two of sugar in my recipe. However I’m out of that so I’m using up some regular pectin. This uses more sugar then I like, but considering how small of a serving you use it’s not to bad.

Basic Strawberry Jam Recipe
2 quarts strawberries
2 TBS lemon juice
7 cups sugar
1 packet powdered pectin

Mash berries and add lemon juice and pectin.
Bring to a boil and add sugar.
Boil for 1 minute.
Remove from heat, stir and skim for 5 min.
Ladle into jars and can for 10 min.

Inflation in food will be one of the first and hardest to deal with.  Please share your story’s if you have noticed anything.

Sharing some tips and ideas that have worked well for us.

While some or most things seem to be in a deflation mode, food seems to be going up all the time lately.

Just finished our shopping trip.  Just wanted to show how much you can really pack into a small freezer.

Here are some links we’ve found handy.

79 swine flu cases confirmed around world: WHO
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/04…

Swine flu spreads to Middle East, Asia-Pacific
http://tinyurl.com/cdd5pn

Canada will monitor, not bar Mexican farm workers
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/sto…

Obama’s swine flu scare after shaking hands with archaeologist who died a week later
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/world…

Swine influenza Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_in…

Homeopathy and the Flu
http://www.cure-guide.com/Flu/Homeopa…

Interesting article from VRAN
Recreating the 1918-19 Spanish Flu epidemic hysteria
http://www.vran.org/vaccines/flu-bird…

Google Maps tracking H1N1 Swine Flu cases
http://tinyurl.com/cywddc

RSOE EDIS Pandemic Monitoring System
http://www.idemc.org/

Swine flu: how the latest strain spread around the world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/inter…