Yesterday I canned three 1-litre jars of tomatoes, and four and a half 500-ml jars of Cowboy Candy. And I baked bread. Today I canned six 500-ml jars of Salsa Verde, and 6 500-ml jars of Dilly Beans. All of the canning projects this weekend were fussy in their own way. The recipes require a lot of measuring and multiple steps to prepare the jar contents for processing. Twelve jars for two days of work doesn’t seem like much of a yield to me. When I consider that all of the things we canned either cannot be found for sale in stores, or if they are available are very expensive, it seems like a worthwhile investment.
The supply of empty 500-ml jars is down to one case of 12 left. There will be more Tomatilloes and Beans from the garden, and more hot Peppers. It is time to choose very carefully what to can, what to freeze, and what to dehydrate.
In July our local grocery store had a sale on 500-ml Golden Harvest canning jars. It was a surprising occurrence, as canning supplies at regular prices are a little bit hard to come by these days. I ordered five cases of a dozen jars each, and none came with our order, sold out. A few days later I checked the store online, and there they were, back in stock. So I ordered them again, and they came! Only one of those cases is left empty now, perhaps I should have purchased more. The jars were Golden Harvest brand. Over the last two years some of the lids that have been included with the Golden Harvest jars have failed to seal. I called the company and complained. The lids on the jars purchased this summer have all sealed, a pleasant surprise. I guess there was enough consumer feedback to warrant attention to quality.
I continue to experiment with Tattler lids. I lazily canned one jar last month, using a room temperature Tattler lid. They are supposed to be hot when applied to the jar, so I did not expect the jar to seal, but oh well. The jar sealed. Days later I tried it again, the jars sealed. I have been keeping them in the kitchen where I can keep an eye on them, and they are still sealed. Yesterday I tried it again, with Cowboy Candy juice, and the jar sealed again. I am hoping that I am on to something good here. If the jars continue to seal using lids at room temperature, and they stay sealed, I will be happy as a clam! Tattler lids and rings are reusable, so that would cut down the cost of canning food considerably, and solve the issue of metal lid shortages. I posted my discovery on a public group, and it did not meet with positive comments, as it is not the recommended technique in the company manual for the lids. I for one will use the lids and rings at room temperature, if they seal and stay sealed. The experiment continues.
Harvest season here at Mist Cottage carries on. We have Tomatoes, Kohlrabi, Kale, Swiss Chard, Green Peppers, Pepperoncini Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Cayenne Peppers, and Cabbage to come. There may be Brussels Sprouts, but I have my doubts about them.
Autumn weather has come at last! The days are cool and breezy, with temperatures around 22C. The nights are cooling down, around 8C to 12C. The windows remain open all day long, which I love.
The air conditioning was on until late last week. The temperature in the house remained steady at 25C, and finally fell to 24C yesterday. Today, with the windows open all day long, the thermometer went down another degree to 23C. When the temperature dropped to 10C last night, we retained our heat, and were warm as toast. I hope this bodes well for the heating season.
Well finally, here I am sitting in my easy chair, beverage at hand, feet up, surveying the chaos that is Mist Cottage, and my jars full of lovely canned food, and thinking to myself, this is the life!
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sun, Sep 26, 2:55 PM
19 °C
FEELS LIKE 19
Partly cloudy
Wind 19 W km/h
Humidity 53 %
Visibility 23 km
Sunrise 6:59 AM
Wind gust 28 km/h
Pressure 101 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 6:58 PM
Quote
“Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple.”
Barry Switzer
1937 –