Canning/Bottling Cherries

I'll be leaving on Saturday for 9 days of mountain man style camping, so like a responsible blogger, I'm breaking up something that could be one long post and scheduling it to run in segments periodically throughout next week so you won't be bored silly while I'm gone. It should actually be more regular posting than I've been doing lately while I've been here!

A while back a friend and I picked a boatload of cherries. Okay, about 4 buckets full. They were sweet cherries like Bing (not sure the actual variety, but they were not pie cherries). This cherry source came on kind of unexpectedly, so I had to make some time to take care of all the cherries. Here's my advice when you've got a lot of food to preserve: invite a friend or two over to help you.

We ended up bottling, dehydrating, and freezing cherries until we were sick of seeing cherries, but we got those 4 buckets of cherries taken care of in a day (this would have taken a week of afternoons on my own--hooray for friends!).

If you get a bunch of cherries, bottling them is the easiest and quickest way to get them preserved. It requires no special equipment aside from some pots, canning supplies (jars, lids, etc.) and a water bath canner.

First, wash the cherries. I just stick them in the sink in some water and kind of swish them around a bit.
Heat up some light syrup in a big pot (3-4 C water to 1 C sugar or 4:1 ratio of whatever you want to measure with). Put some lids in a pot and put them on low heat. Put water in your canner and get it heating up. Now while everything is heating up, put cherries in jars. This is not technical, you just take them out of the wash water and put them in clean quart jars. You could do pints also if you want to--I just have kids, so we do fruit in quarts now.
When you've filled 7 quarts (or however many jars your canner holds), pour the hot syrup over the cherries. I put the jars on the stove when they've got the cherries in them so they'll kind of heat up before I put the hot syrup in. Wipe the rims, screw on your hot lids and put the jars in the canner. I had one jar break this round because the water in the canner was boiling when I put the jars in. These jars are not real hot, I had better success putting them in before the water boils and letting it all heat up together. Subsequent batches I shut the canner's burner off and let the water cool a bit while I got the next round of cherries in bottles.
Put the lid on the canner and let the water boil 25 minutes for either pints or quarts. So if you put the jars in before the water boils, don't start timing until the water is boiling. At the end of the canning time, take the jars out and let them cool. For some reason, these seemed to take a long time for the lids to pop down--had me worried a bit, but they finally did.
I loved bottled cherries as a kid, but this is not my favorite way to process cherries anymore. The great thing about it is that you are able to process quite a few cherries with minimal equipment. You do have to spit the pits out as you're eating them--that's half the fun of eating bottled cherries!

Making Better Char Cloth

Hey, check out my post on Making Better Char Cloth over at the Utah Preppers site--some good information for firestarting, and something you might want included in your emergency kits especially if you have a striker type firestarting tool (flint/steel, etc.) you plan on using.

Super Short Check In and Garden Update

I am not a super gardener. I am happy when things grow that don't require a lot of effort on my part. I suppose when my kids are grown and I need something to nurture, my garden will get the effort it really needs. Anyway, the garden is still alive, and here's a few things I'm especially pleased with this year.

See those peppers? I grew those from seeds. Yep, no nursery pepper plants here this year. I can't remember what kind they are though, so I'll have to find my garden map and figure it out. I don't even like peppers--they're for salsa and my husband, but I GREW THOSE! :)
Now look at these fantabulous tomato plants. I grew those from seed also. And they're still alive. Strange but true.
And ditto on these onions. Grew them from little black seeds. I usually get the starts at the nursery.
The peas I grew from seed also of course, and right now some of them are happy to dry up and die and some are still trying to live and grow peas.
The ones that are drying are filled with PEA SEEDS that I'm going to plant next year! I grew those and am now harvesting seeds! :)
I'm getting all kinds of satisfaction from my garden this year and I've hardly gotten anything out of it yet. Every time I go out to water or weed, I say, "Look, I grew that from a seed." Amazing.

Grinding Corn in the Country Living Mill

I had an email asking how fine the Country Living Mill could grind corn on two passes, and thought you'd be interested in the results also. I installed my corn/bean auger and ground some corn. I set it as fine as I could comfortably turn it and ran the corn through one time. At this setting, my 8 year old could turn it, but just barely. The picture shows Redmond Realsalt (table salt consistency) on the top and the ground corn on the bottom. The corn is actually finer than the salt, but you could adjust the knob to a little grittier consistency if you don’t want it quite that fine. It is a little harder turning than grinding wheat and doesn’t crank out as much flour with each turn, but I was able to grind it fine. No need to run it through the mill a second time.

Juicing Berries and Making Jelly

I'll be playing blog catch-up as I can get to it--a few more crazy busy weeks ahead, but lots to share, so hang in there--I'll put up posts when I can catch a few minutes! We'll start with a project from a couple of weeks ago--Mulberry/Currant Jelly. Yummy. If you've only had jam and jelly from the store, you're missing out! Jams and jellies are pretty easy to make and holy cow they're way better than most of the store stuff. You'd be surprised how little fruit it takes to make a batch of jam, so go ahead and give it a try next time you get a sack of fruit you don't know what to do with.

I had some currants from our baby currant bushes, but it was not enough for a batch of jelly until I got some mulberries from a friend. Then it was jelly time. Now, usually I make jam because it seems like less waste, but currants are SOOO much seed and skin compared to the juicy part of the berry that I thought I'd better jelly them instead.

To make jelly, you first need juice. To get the juice from a soft fruit like berries, apricots, plums, etc, first wash your fruit:
After the fruit is washed, smash it up. You could use a hand potato masher (silly, I don't have one). I used my kitchenaid on low:
Measure the mashed fruit and put it in a pot.
Repeat with any other fruit you're going to juice for the same jelly--here's the mulberries. I left the little stems on them since I knew I was jellying and they'd get strained out of the final product. If I were making jam, I'd have to pull all those little stems off (they don't like to come off without mashing the berry up pretty good).
Put all the mashed fruit in a pot, add a little water (I think I put in about 3/4 cup) and put it on the stove.
Cook it until the fruit is all soft and cooked.
Now you're going to strain the juice off. Here's a method I remember in my kitchen as a kid, so I did the same thing. There might be other ways, but this works pretty well without much work. Put your strainer in the pot that will collect the jelly (yes, it's on the floor).
Put a few layers of cheesecloth in the strainer (yes, my floor is clean).
Pour the cooked fruit in the cheesecloth (no, my floor is not clean anymore).
Get a dowel or broom handle and a couple of chairs and set it up like this:
Now tie the cheesecloth around the dowel and carefully pull the strainer out from under it. I guess you could leave the strainer in, it really doesn't hurt anything.
Let the juice drip from the fruit for a while. If you want really clear jelly, don't squeeze the bag. If you want all the juice you can get even if you get some pulp with it, twist the bag and squeeze out more juice (that's what I did).
In your pot is magical fruit juice. Phew. That was enough for one day. I put the juice in a couple of jars and put them in the fridge for the night. (you sure don't have to do that--you can skip right on to making the jelly if you want, it was just that it was already past my bedtime, so I had no desire to make jelly that night.)

Now we'll make the jelly. Find a good jelly recipe. I used a recipe for "berry" jelly from my Ball Blue Book. Here it is:

3 1/2 cups fruit juice
1 package powdered pectin
2 TB lemon juice
5 cups sugar

I did not use the recipe for currant jelly because my juice was about 2/3 berries and 1/3 currants, so I went with the berry recipe instead. Most pectin boxes have recipes inside them as well. Measure the juice into a pot and add the lemon juice if it's in your recipe. You can add a little water to bring it up to the full amount of juice if you want. The second batch I did, I didn't have enough juice so I put some apricot nectar in--now it's kind of a mixed fruit jelly instead of mulberry/currant, but still turned out purple and delicious. Another option to make up the amount of juice if you're short a little bit would be to use whatever juice you have in your fridge, maybe a grape or apple. It's not concentrated enough to make the whole jelly batch with it, but it's okay if you need to make up a half cup or so of liquid.
Okay, now we've got the juice in the pot, add the pectin and stir it in. Bring to a boil, then add the sugar and stir it in. Bring back to a rolling boil and boil for however long is specified in your jelly directions (mine was 1 minute hard boil). Hard or rolling boil is a boil that doesn't stop when it's stirred. I stirred most of the time it was cooking.
Meanwhile, heat your jar lids in a pan of water . . . yeah, I usually forget this step until I'm ready to can and then have to heat them up fast to put them on the jars. Don't skip this step--the lid makers have gotten cheaper on the gooey stuff that seals the lids over the years and it just doesn't seal right if it's not put on the jar hot. I used to be able to put the lid right on the jar without heating it and it sealed fine, but not anymore. Heat your lids.
After the boiling, remove the jelly from the heat and ladle hot jelly into jars leaving 1/2 inch or so headspace.
Process 5 minutes in boiling water canner and then pull them out, let them cool, and enjoy on your toast the next day :)
Besides tasting better than store jam or jelly, canning your own also saves a ton of cash over buying it. AND you can make whatever kind of jam or jelly you want, so you're not limited to the varieties on the store shelf. Seriously good stuff there.

Are You Prepared?

I got these questions on a handout from church a couple of weeks ago--See how you do or if there are areas you need work on. I had to ask sweet husband about a few of these . . . we still have work to do.

1. Has your family rehearsed fire escape routes from your home?
2. Does your family know what to do before, during and after an earthquake or other emergency?
3. Do you have heavy objects hanging over beds that can fall during an earthquake?
4. Do you have access to an operational flashlight in every occupied bedroom? (use of candles is not recommended unless you are sure there is no leaking gas)
5. Do you keep shoes near your bed to protect your feet against broken glass?
6. If a water line was ruptured during an earthquake, do you know how to shut off the main water line to your house?
7. Can this water valve be turned off by hand without the use of a tool? Do you have a tool if one is needed?
8. Do you know where the main gas shut-off valve to your house is located?
9. If you smell gas, do you know how and would you be able to shut off this valve?
10. Gas valves usually cannot be turned off by hand. Is there a tool near your valve?
11. Would you be able to safely restart your furnace when gas is safely available?
12. Do you have working smoke alarms in the proper places to warn you of fire? Carbon Monoxide alarms?
13. In case of a minor fire, do you have a fire extinguisher that you know how to operate?
14. Do you have duplicate keys and copies of important insurance and other papers stored outside your home?
15. Do you have a functional emergency radio to receive emergency information?
16. If you and your family had to evacuate your home, have you identified an outside meeting place?

If an emergency lasted for 3 days (72 hours) before help was available to you and your family . . .

17. Would you have sufficient food?
18. Would you have the means to cook food without gas and electricity?
19. Would you have sufficient water for drinking, cooking, and sanitary needs?
20. Do you have access to a 72-hour evacuation kit?
21. Would you be able to carry or transport these kits?
22. Have you established an out of state contact?
23. Do you have a first aid kit in your home and in each car?
24. Do you have work gloves and some tools for minor rescue and cleanup?
25. Do you have emergency cash on hand? (During emergencies banks and ATM machines are closed)
26. Without electricity and gas do you have means to heat at least part of your house? (Think of how to cover broken windows.)
27. If you need medications, do you have a month's supply on hand?
28. Do you have a plan for toilet facilities if there is an extended water shortage?
29. Do you have a supply of food, clothing, and fuel where appropriate: for 6 months? for a year?

Do not think that you are covered on any of these because your significant other knows the answer. My thinking is this: my husband is home on average only about 2/3 of each day, sometimes he's gone for 2-3 days at a time. And when he's not home, his job is such that he's usually out of cell range also. Therefore the liklehood of an emergency happening with him available to help is not very high. I need to know how to shut off my own water and gas and have the answers to these questions myself--just in case I'm the only adult around when something happens.

I've already put my order in with my husband for a "decorative" (and functional) outhouse in my back field :)

Blogroll

Self Reliance/Preparedness Blogs
If you have a blog about survival, preparedness, self reliance or something along those lines and your blog is not listed here and you'd like it to be, leave me a comment and I'll get it on.  Thanks!

A one acre homestead in Ohio
All About Preparedness 
American Preppers Network
Bacon and Eggs
Be A Survivor
Bison survival blog
Bitmap's Miscellaneous
CANADIAN PREPPERS NETWORK
Catman's Litterbox
cocked and loaded
Coffee with the Hermit
Doctor Prepper's Family Preparedness Journal 
Food Storage Made Easy
Food Storage...A Necessary Adventure
Frugal Canning
Good Muse 
Idaho Preppers Network
iPrepared
Journey to Preparedness
Keep It Simple Survival
Kentucky Preppers Network
Mississippi Preppers Network
OCEVA--Organized Communities Emergency Volunteer Association 
Old Lightning
Practical Parsimony 
Prepare Now Newsletter
Prepared for Survival 
Prepared LDS Family
Preparedness Pro
Preppers Home Journal
Ready, Set, Plan
Ron's Primitive Skills
Safely Gathered In
SHTF Blog
SHTF Plan
Something Wicked Comes
Survival-A Mama's Point of View
SurvivalBlog.com
Survivalist.info 
survivallady.com
Survival Podcast 
Texas Prepper's Network
The Reluctant Paladin
The Survival Mom
M.D. Creekmore’s Survival Blog
The Retreat

Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest
Totally Ready
Utah Preppers
Viking Preparedness
Wretha's Adventures Living 100% Off Grid

Storing Oils

Our bodies need oils and fats in addition to other nutrients to be healthy (hey, I'm not a health expert, I don't know all the details, so don't expect a scientific research paper here, just know it's true). Oils make our food better looking and better tasting. Sure, you won't need oil or fat in everything you cook, but how are you supposed to make chocolate chip cookies in your solar oven without a bit of fat to go in them? Okay, I know you can substitute applesauce or ground beans for the oil, but it's not the same, you know it's not. If you're making chocolate chip cookies, I'm coming to share them with you, and I like them with fat!

Fats are solid at room temperature like shortening and butter. Oils are liquid at room temperature like olive oil and vegetable oil. Some oils are better suited for storing than others. The best liquid oils I have found for storage without spending my childrens' inheritance are olive and canola. They keep a long time and are some of the better oils for you healthwise.

When I first started storing food someone told me oils only kept in storage for 6 months or so and you had to rotate them fairly quickly and consistently so they wouldn't go rancid. This kept me from storing oils for quite a while because I was afraid I'd be wasting my money on oil I wouldn't use and then have a bunch of rancid oil in my storage.

Now, the reason oils go rancid is they oxidize, and there are three factors that hasten the oxidation process of an oil: Heat, Light, and Air. When you're storing your oils, you want to avoid warm places, places that get a lot of light, and keep the bottles sealed. Find the coolest, darkest place you can to store your fats and oils. I keep mine on the food room floor. The floor is cement and the room is not heated, which means even in the summer the floor level stays fairly cool. It could be better, but it's the best place I have. If you don't have a food room, think of a place in your house that stays relatively cool and dark, preferably without a window--maybe a closet or a spot in your basement or behind the couch. Think about it.

Okay, back to my oil storage experience. I finally decided I needed to bite the bullet and put out the money for some oil for our storage, so went and bought gallon jugs of canola oil at Sam's Club. I also picked up a few smaller bottles of oil here and there. I put the date on the bottles and put them in closets (I didn't have a food room at that house). I found that the oil actually stored a very long time--far longer than 6 months. I have used oil that is more than 4 years old and it has been fine. What wasn't fine was that after the bottle of old oil was opened, it went rancid much faster than fresh oil. I couldn't use the oil stored in gallon jugs fast enough before it began to go bad. Now I only buy oil in smaller containers, usually the 48 oz. bottles. Smaller is good, I wouldn't go larger than 48 oz. I've found I can easily use the full 48 oz of 4 year old oil before it goes rancid.I haven't had shortening last quite that long--I also haven't been quite as religious about having lots of shortening in the storage as I have with the oils, so I only have one round of shortening to judge how well it keeps. That shortening was about 2 years old and had been stored under my dresser. Didn't work. It was no good when I opened it. Now I have my shortening on the food room floor, but I only keep as much as I'll be using within the year. Maybe you've had better luck?

The results of these experiments are based on oil being stored in an entirely uncontrolled environment in my house in Utah where it's not crazy hot or humid, so your results may vary.

Oh yeah, I keep butter in the freezer. It keeps practically forever that way. I tried bottling butter, but it didn't work for me. If it works for you, that's great. Just don't bottle butter and put it on your shelf and assume it's sealed up good and keeping well without checking it periodically.

Make sure to read the comments--some more great oil information there!

Independence Day

I'm obviously slacking in my blogging lately. I have a number of posts planned, just no time still. My sweet sister is coming out from Baton Rouge tomorrow for the weekend--we'll probably hit the little parade in the neighboring town, take home a sackful of candy, and go fishing.

For Independence Day this year, why don't you read the Declaration of Independence while you're waiting for the parade to start? And regardless of how you feel about the presenter, here's a fabulous article on the fates of many of the signers of the Declaration who pledged "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" when they put their names on that document.

Enjoy your weekend, hit a tea party if you're so inclined and there's one happening near you, and remember it's more than hot dogs and fireworks.