Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Home Canning

We have had a beyond go of it with the weather ranging from extremely high temperatures in March for two weeks (think barefoot and shorts in Ontario, Canada) to drought conditions, high heat and rather nasty, violent storms.  Well, I'm in the midst of restocking our pantry with home canned goodies that were de-pleated with our move last September.  So, I really don't have time for adverse weather conditions that are sending produce prices sky high.  Last week, I focused on yellow corn.  I was very fortunate to find it for $3 a doz about a mile out of town in comparison to the bi-colour corn in town that was going for $6 a dozen, and bi-colour corn just doesn't work well for preserving. 

So I'm in high gear home canning.  It started with cucumbers a couple of weeks ago, now into corn and peaches with a few berries mixed in.  Next will be tomatoes so that will be a very busy time for me.  I am very blessed to have the knowledge and equipment to do this kind of food preservation.  My pantry is filling up.  I'm busy, every bone in my body hurts and yet I am beyond happy!  What an amazing blessing...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Sleeping In

My husband's schedule for the past few months has been getting up at 4 AM and out the door a half hour later.  After a very full day, we had dinner together while watching Coronation Street then were usually in bed before 8:30 PM.   Needless to say, this has affected both of our sleep patterns.  The past couple of weeks we have been moving back towards our normal schedule.  This past week we adopted the rule of no alarm clock.  It's rude waking to an alarm clock at best so we simply decided we would get up when we woke naturally.  It has been a real blessing to indulge in a bit of extra sleep!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

A Little Knowledge Can Be a Huge Problem

Sometimes a little knowledge can be dangerous.  I'm on a canning group because I am a large scale home canner, canning upwards of 1.400 jars of food annually.  In the canning world acidity is a huge issue but the problem is many home canners really don't understand acidity as measured by the pH of the homogeneous product prior to processing.  The pH (not ph or PH!!!!!) scale ranges from 0 to 14 with pH 0 being most acidic and pH 14 being most alkaline (basic).  For safe BWB processing the pH of the product must be below pH 4.6 otherwise the product is considered low acid so must be processed using a pressure canner.

Well, one member posted an article acidity of a particular fruit.  I have a very strong scientific background so caught the error simply by reading the title of the paper.  The thing is, it was a scientific paper discussing the acidity level of one acid in the fruit NOT the total acid.  What this means is even though the fruit could have a high content of that particular acid, it could actually end up being classified as being low acid when the total acidity is considered.  Essentially telling someone to go ahead and BWB that fruit based on that scientific paper is akin to getting them to play Russian roulette with their lives.  In this case the lack of knowledge of being able to understand what the paper was saying combined with the little knowledge that acid is important in home canning really could have caused someone to become ill or worse if they followed the misinformation!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Wordless Wednesday - On the Wish List

On My Wish List

May 3, 2012

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Like a Kid in the Candy Store

I am a book fanatic!  As a result I have a rather extensive library collection that much to the dismay of my husband and anyone else helping us move.  In addition to my library collection I have binders and binders of carefully written notes for every course ever taken during my academic career spanning 4 degrees over a ten year period.  Our last house was rather odd to say the least and I just don't know why.  Our family photos, original artwork and the vast majority of my books were never unpacked.  We simply never bonded with the house despite the beautiful location.  It was our house, not our home ... something that is difficult to explain.

This new house has immediately become our home.  Three of our original pieces of artwork have found their perfect spot.  My gorgeous and I do me gorgeous buffet with curved glass door is now gracing our main dining area with all of my Depression and Pre-depression glass sparkling on the shelves.  It's a real beauty that hasn't had a true display location for almost ten years.  Another display cabinet in the main dining area is loaded with my antique canning jar, milk bottles and similar items all sparkling on their glass shelves.  Then there's the books ... I'm like a kid in the candy store.  All my precious books are coming out of their boxes.  It's like I reacquainting with old long lost friends!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Slowing Things Down

Between moving, canning and a rather nasty infection I have no choice but to slow things down a bit.  I've tried pushing things but obviously that was not the correct plan of action.   The last couple of mornings I have slept in to 11 AM but that is because the nights are so disturbed.  Disturbed as  in getting up and down several times through the night, fever and chills so I am exhausted.  I'm going to listen to my body and slow things down a bit...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

My Apologies

I really apologize for not making posts the last couple of days.  Things have evolved at such a high speed here pace the past couple of days I really can't even get my head around it.  Our house is officially sold!  We have an official move-in date but because the house we bought is pretty much empty we can get in there three weeks earlier.  That allows us to do the cleaning and painting we want to do as well as move smaller things in.  We will have a mover and we are buying new furniture that will be delivered directly to our new house.  We are extremely excited!

We did another walk through today.  My husband was thrilled to discover the thing we nick named the pulpet was hiding the plumbing for a wet bar.  I discovered three peach (? apricot) and a pear tree in the back yard!  We made a list of what we need to do sort of and what we need to change before fully moving in.   I cannot believe this is happening so fast!  I'm elated of course but still it is almost too much to fanthom.  Talk about a gorgeous house too.  It isn't on the water but it is in a wonderful location that will save us a bundle while moving up all at the same time.  My husband says downsizing yet square foot wise and ammenities it is anything but downsizing!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A New Breed of Garbage Pickers

We don't use a lot of commercially canned foods because I do a lot of home canning.  By a lot I mean if I can put the food up myself I won't by commercially canned foods so that means I'm well over the 1,000 jar per year mark.  The end result is unlike our neighbours we don't put our recyclables out on a regular basis because they really don't add up enough to do so on the regular biweekly schedule for pick-up.  We put out a large clear blue bag of recyclables as we need usually a couple of times a year.  The other day my husband put the recyclables out the night before collection.  There were two bags.  On the way out the driveway he noticed one bag was missing and the other had been ripped open to remove the metal cans leaving the plastic behind.  The metal cans was missing from all of our neighbours bins as well.  Now this is just a sign of the times.  Someone is coming by collecting the cans that they will in turn take to the metal recyclers.  I wouldn't mind except we pay for recycling through our taxes.  If the recyclers don't collect enough there is a good chance the municipality will cancel the program entirely.  So we have a couple of choices.  Either we put the recyclables out the morning of collection and wait for them to be collected or we take them to the recylers ourselves.  At any rate one person is working towards destroying a program for their own personal gain.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Cabin Fever

Many can relate to the cabin fever The Roaming Gnome is feeling. I think he is on the right track. A vacation to the sunny south sounds like a great idea. Enjoy :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

BYBS _ Home

In celebration of what a blessing home is!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Busy Days

Chili Sauce and Salsa
September 13, 2009

This is a very busy time of year for me in the garden and kitchen. The canner runs almost daily often several times a day. When the canner isn't running I'm dehydrating or freezing foods. During this time there are several trips to local farmers for produce I don't grow enough of or don't grow at all. At the same time the garden needs tending, fresh caught fish needs to be put up and hunting season is quickly approaching. If you haven't read my cooking and gardening blogs you will have missed out on a lot of this activity. So if it seems this blog has been a bit quiet lately you will know why.

I seldom write about either gardening or cooking here and when I do it tends to be rather about something interesting I discovered. So I thought I would share a picture of the canning my husband and I put up a couple of Sunday's ago (more here). There were 55 jars total for one long day's worth of worth and while that may seem like a lot to some it isn't. We've been in this high gear mode for awhile now with dozens of jars of home canned foods being preserved daily. What happens is a lot of produce becomes ready for processing at the same time which is both a good and bad thing. There's no break during harvest season as we move from corn to tomatoes to peaches and apples with everything in between. It makes for some very long, tiring days but looking at a well stocked pantry and full freezers is well worth it :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Back Home

Just a quick note to let everyone know I'm back homeside. I am exhausted so tomorrow's BYBS post might be a bit later in the day especially since we are entertaining tonight. I just need to get through tonight :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

Back Home

[sorry no picture today]

Good evening :) This is just a short post to let you know we arrived home safe and sound from our winter vacation. We had a six hour delay at the airport so after landing we arrived at the park & fly motel to rest enough for the driving leg of the journey. The road conditions as we drew closer to home were surprisingly dry. After making a couple of stops and an unexpected detour, we were glad to be home. I put a chuck roast and potatoes into the countertop roaster knowing it would be a late dinner but after the last couple of days we really needed a home cooked meal.

I took lots of pictures while we were away and of course I picked up a few things to share with you. Watch for an evening post tomorrow with the starts of our winter vacation highlights.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2009

New Year's Day

Deer Herd
January 1, 2009

After dinner on December 31^st we travelled to spend the even with good friends. We prefer house parties because they tend to be low keyed or at least with our friends yet they are a lot of fun. When midnight approaches someone always turns on the television so we can watch the ball drop at Times Square. Once the ball drops and the new year has officially arrived we wish each other all the best for the upcoming year then we call all of our kids. It's a family tradition.

We almost stayed home this year as I have a sinus infection that I've been battling since before Christmas. I really need antibiotics for this one but my doctor's office was closed for the holidays. Oldest grandbaby and parents left in the morning so I had a bit of a fitful nap. Anyway I decided to tough it out thinking a bit of very cold air all be it painful would help turn the infection around. So I stood in the very cold for several minutes before getting in the car to make the journey to our friends'. It was early, just after 8 pm but still I was surprised we only went through one ride check. We stayed over night to avoid other drunk drivers.

The following morning we headed home and less than 10 minutes later spotted the deer herd. They were very close to town just outside a forested area. There were 7 of them all together and they didn't seem to mind us slowing down to take their pictures. What a beautiful sight! I haven't heard of any reports of deer being spotting in town but I'm sure there will be especially around the perimeter. We continued on our journey home, happy to greet another new year together. For year's we hosted a New Year's Day steak barbeque but this year decided to cancel since the weather had been so unpredictable. Actually the weather had been very predictable going to the tune of "we have a large event planned" to which the weather responded by "how many feet of snow would you like and can I add a bit of ice and whiteout conditions with that". You just have to love it when you can still get great weather like this! New Year's Day ended up being a quiet, restful day enjoying the water from the warmth of the house and simply spending time together.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008

paradyme shift

The Messenger
April 28, 2008

Last week was trouble with a capital T with a stress level high enough to make the most patient person turn the air blue. It all started quite innocently with me taking a walk about the gardens. As always my camera was safely tucked in my hand because you never know when a photo opportunity will arise. Spotting the beautiful blooms on this bush, I just had to take a picture. The bush sits in front of one of the lower level windows, the only one with a window well. The reason for the well is that is were they put a sewer clean-out. There is the window well sat a good portion of the red jello I had flushed down the toilet! Silly me put the cap back on the clean-out and ran a load of laundry resulting in a bit of a water blow-up in the upper level washroom and a window well full of soapy . Well it was all down hill from there. A flurry of phone calls got the plumber and backhoe operator out. More frantic phones were made to get line locates before digging. With the prospect of being with indoor toilets, laundry or bath facilities we had to make quick temporary arrangements. Adding to the stress was the prep work of two larger get togethers we were hosting Saturday. The first one was to great our newest grandbaby into our expanding family (54 expected), followed by a family dinner and finally my husband's poker games (30 - 35 expected). On top of that I was forced into a rather difficult decision that left me both hurt and saddened but in my heart I know it was the right decision. Just when I thought I was at my breaking point, something amazing happened. My sense of humour as warped as it can be kicked in. A sense of humour can be a huge blessing and so it was for me last week.

Every time I looked in the mirror I gave myself a quick smile. I made sure to get my daily 30 minutes of walking in even though I didn't feel like it. I went out of my way to find something, anything to make me smile or laugh. Instead of my normal HGTV or FoodNetwork watching I purposely turned to the comedy shows. I even decided to research a bit on an Apple product (iPod Touch) on of my kids recommended instead of a new PDA, not that I was seriously considering updating. Every time something negative happens I forced myself to take 10 deep breaths while chanting this too shall pass. By the time the kids with grandbabies in tow arrived I was in a right chipper mood.

My family brings me great deal joy. They are my most cherished blessing! Oldest grandbaby (16 months) is a true treasure much like one of her parents aka both (one biological, one through marriage) our pride and joys. Now oldest grandbaby discovered youngest grandbaby (1 month) who I think looks like the parent who married into the family but who is very much considered one of out kids but others think the baby looks like our kid. Little Miss Sunshine (oldest) is used to being the one and only so it was interesting when grandpa held the youngest and the oldest insisted on being up on his lap as well. She snuggled up to grandpa then every once in awhile would plant a soft kiss on the baby, something she has just learned. Talk about adorable! Grandma's camera was in high gear. Then when grandma held the baby all of a sudden grandma's lap was the place to be for the oldest. We ended up with a lot of precious, precious pictures! I couldn't help but being a bit saddened at the thought that this too shall pass and yet marvel at watching these two little ones, each their own personalities and blossoming surrounded by an abundance of love.

PS, the iPod Touch is now en route so I will be able to blog a bit while on vacation. I post about both shortly. Oh and the boat is down with this year's maiden journey enjoyed yesterday.

Garden Gnome
©2007

bizzare

The Head
May 1, 2008

When we moved here last year, I had little idea that we would encounter hidden bizarreness. On first sight the massive fireplace and and beautiful tongue and groove panels ceilings sporting large beams combined with matching wainscoting in most of the lower level meant love at first sight. Set on a beautiful park-like setting with overflowing gardens and backing onto the water sealed the deal. Hidden throughout the house and lurking in the gardens was what I can best describe as being bizarre and that's coming from someone who prides herself in having a gnome empire!

We seriously hauled out two truck loads of very weird almost scary garden decorations last summer. The gnomes in their wisdom declared the findings bad karma. Not one of them were in one piece. There was the dinosaur missing a good portion of his top half, small statues missing arms or legs or heads and similar type items including the tombstone I posted about shortly after moving in. Seriously the former owner either had a very warped sense of humour and/or had issues! My poor gnomes were all in a tither at the scary findings.

Yesterday we were clearing out a garden bed as in eliminating it. Just when we thought we had found all the strange ones out pops The Head pictured above along with more of his garden mates. He actually is intact with all apparent parts. The toothy grin sent me into fits of laughter! Considering by that time we were into day four of sewer problems meaning no indoor toilets or showers, that grin just smacked of a gotcha. Then it hit my funny bone and I started laughing. After all the week's upsets, a belly rolling laugh was just the perfect stress buster. Laughter is good for the soul regardless of how it comes about :)

Garden Gnome
©2007

housework

A good friend sent the following by email (waving hi and thanks!). I had a good chuckle so thought I would pass it along. Sorry, some of the formatting was lost but the message is still there.

HOW TO CLEAN THE HOUSE



1. Open a new file in your PC .

2. Name it 'Housework.'

3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN.

4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN.

5. Your PC will ask you,
'Are you sure you want to delete Housework permanently?'

6. Calmly answer, 'Yes' and press mouse button firmly ...

7. Feel better?



Works for me!

Garden Gnome
©2007

frenzy

Sunset's Glow
March 14, 2008

I think I was on the green wagon long before being green was cool. Energy and the use of energy with the resulting costs of using energy has been an interest from as long as I can remember. It has always been an environmental thing with me. So I tinker with alternate power and am constantly looking at greener ways of doing things in our day to day living. If I can get the same desirable results using less energy I will. Union Gas announced the price for natural gas would be increasing April 1, 2008. That sent me into another sealing frenzy. Now anyone looking at our gas bill would scratch their head because since July 28, 2007 to the current billing our natural gas usage cost $576.67. The price increase in natural gas will add an average of $6 per month for an average family. Trust me our energy usage is well below average and I intend to keep it that way. Natural gas in our home includes: hot water, furnace, fireplace, dryer and grill. Given our location that is quite low since some will more than likely spent a good portion of that amount on heating alone for January. Our house is kept at a comfortable temperature during the winter months.

As soon as we moved in here one of the first things unpacked was my caulk gun and caulk. I scoped out possible locations for solar heating and hot water then installed solar outdoor lighting and turned my attention to sealing the house. Sealing air leaks is always the first line of defense. It is the most cost effective, easy to do, DIY project there is but it needs to be ongoing because houses settle and new air leaks can arise. Ok, so back to my frenzy. My trusty caulk gun awaits!

Garden Gnome
©2007

Bizarre Power Outage

Road Trip to Pick up Beef
February 16, 2008

Saturday we were on the road to pick up our beef. The weather was very cold despite the sun and the sky was a brilliant blue. I took several pictures along the way while enjoying idle chit chat with my husband in the beauty of the day. It was a busy but very enjoyable day. On the way home the sky turned cloudy hinting at the incoming storm.

We had the most bizarre power outage last night. It had been a very busy Sunday with a social event even though my husband was not feeling well. So when we got home we decided an early bedtime was in order. About 2 am one of our kids who is staying with us temporarily awoke us because the electricity was doing rather strange things. Some fixtures didn't work at all while a few worked but the light output was greatly reduced. The display panels on the stove and microwave were on but very dim. Having dealt with electrical problems just after moving in my first concern was a tree branch had hit our incoming lines. My husband decided to get dressed and to outside to see if he could see a problem where he met up with our neighbour who was also outside because of the electrical problem. He had already called HydroOne who told him to flip the main breaker because the existing problem coupled with when the power was restored could cause some appliances to be damaged. So we flipped the main breaker then waited for HydroOne to restore the power.

We live on a small secluded, dead end street off the main road. The entire road was out and then some in both directions. Apparently some 1,500 homes were without power for reasons that weren't disclosed. We heated with wood for a number of years spanning two homes. When we finally bought a house with a natural gas furnace it seemed a treat. There was no hauling wood, chopping wood or stacking wood. Wood does warm in so many ways besides the flames! Then we moved to our previous house also heated with natural gas but the electricity was so finicky it would go out if there was a cloud in the sky. Honestly, the power was out on average three times a month while we lived there bringing the problem of how to stay warm when the power was out because the furnace wouldn't work. Onto this home where we also have a natural gas furnace but the electricity is considerably more stable. Again I was concerned about a secondary heat source for power outages during the winter months. We have a lovely natural gas fireplace that was a retrofit for the existing wood fireplace. I really want to turn the fireplace back to wood. This power outage showed that the natural gas fireplace will work without electricity so we have secondary heat. This is pretty cool :)

At any rate, it was the most bizarre power outage we have ever experienced!

Me Time

Clouds While Boating
August 17, 2007

I'm into the heavier canning season so spent much of the weekend cooking and canning. Keeping the motivation at a high level can sometimes be a problem this time of year at the best of times but I'm still tired from our move and settling in so fighting procrastination is a daily thing. One of the grocery stores have a sale on pork shoulder roasts at $1 per pound so that has been a good motivator. I canned up five test jars on Sunday (picture and method here) after a slow cook. It was a nice break from canning tomatoes. We are taking advantage of this sale so my husband brought home 16.4 lbs for $16.40 regular price of $53.96, a substantial savings. It's in the oven now slow cooking for canning later this evening.

With no tomatoes to process today and having no one home, I've decided on a little "me" time while I wait for the roast to cook. After filling the bird feeders, I'll do a walk-about the gardens, camera in hand. Then I'm going to settle in on the dock for an hour or two flipping through a couple of home improvement and scrapbooking magazines listening to the sounds of the water and pausing to catch the sights. It should be a very relaxing and reflective afternoon.

Enjoy your day!