Re-Arrange: Living Room

I am working on some canning posts, but they're not ready for you yet.  So, in the meantime, here's a peek at my weekend:

Will had a very busy schedule.  He was bringing honey in from the mountains all weekend.  He did 2 days of double runs, so I hardly saw him.

Friday, after work, I had a very frustrating commute home.  It should only take 30 minutes to get home, and while the freeway was indeed a mess, I skirted my way around and made it home in 45 minutes.  But before pulling into my driveway, I remembered I had to run to the store.  That should have only taken me 15 minutes, but it took me 45 because of all traffic, pedestrians and people blocking my paths in the store.  I couldn't even get into my local store.  I went there, but some festival was taking place and there were zero parking spots.  I had to wind my way through people and narrow streets to another store where, inside, people kept cutting me off and standing / blocking the aisles.  I was super cranky when I got home.  But I didn't have time to sit and pout because I had a coffee date at 7pm with my Mandy.  I quickly made a wrap with a rotisserie chicken I picked up and then packed up my spare spinning wheel (to lend to someone - who I met up with later that night at 9pm).  Had a very nice coffee time, and when I got home, I went pretty much straight to bed.

I got up early on saturday so that I could see Will for a few minutes before he left for the day.  By 730, I was in the kitchen scrubbing my stove range.  I wasn't going to do so until canning season is complete, but I was getting irritated with how grungy it was.  That took me a good hour.  Then after a quick break, I decided to clean and re-arrange the livingroom.  I have been planning on it for a while, but keep running out of energy.  Not only was it arranged in a way I was bored with, it had become a  giant mess.

A note about sharing things about my house:

I am trying very hard not to belittle my house.  It's where I live, and work (my "other" jobs), and have a loving relationship with my wonderful husband.  It's in disrepair, and we do not have plans to put money into it.  Because we have other plans for our money and efforts.  So please keep in mind when I share photos of my home, it is not fancy, it's not what most people aspire to live in.  But it is full of love and restful peace.  And I'm ok with that.  :)

I have said before, and will again, I have very little in the way of places to store things in my house, so things get piled up pretty quickly.  

In the above photo, I had two giant empty storage totes, that are intended to house my gardening supplies outside, but outside is too busy to organize just now.  The garden is being torn down for the season, and the honey crop is coming in, so for now, these empty totes just get wheeled around the house.  It's annoying, but will be dealt with soon enough.

There were also 2 stacks of pails that needed to be removed, and since it's cooling down now, I was able to remove the air conditioner.  There was a bunch of tobacco processing stuff that really has no other home, so I had to work their storage into my new livingroom set up.

I used a free online, non-downloaded, browser interactive 3D layout designer to build a few different configurations of my space and the furniture I needed to fit into it before I decided on a layout and then I didn't have to move furniture needlessly.  There are a few of them out there, but this is the one I used:  Room Styler.

First, I removed the bulky items that didn't belong.  Then I stacked all Will's hobby stuff (tobacco) on his sofa, and all my hobby stuff (knitting) onto my chair.  Then I got out the vacuum and started moving furniture around and vacuuming.  Mid-way through, here's a look from my new spot.

I didn't have to move the china cabinet or the guitars, which was nice.  I have to keep my cheese fridge in the living room, there really is just no other place for it.  (PS - My Parmesan is almost ready to eat!  It's 6 months old now, and at 7 it's ready.)

I moved the DVD / video game shelf to create a room divider, and it's facing the computer desk.  I backed it with the TV.  This created a nice separation between the living area, and the computer area.  But being short in height doesn't close in the room.

There is space by the lamp beside the sofa where I ended up putting some of Will's tobacco supplies.  You can't see it from the entry way, and it's frequently used, so it needs to be where Will can get to it.

I left space in front of the bay window for the upcoming Christmas season so the tree already has a spot established.

I sit diagonally in the corner so I can see out the bay window, and see to the front door to observe the cat go in and out.  (Or random cats come in ... like that sneaky little grey cat who got in this weekend.  Gave my old girl a big ole puffy tail.  Imagine being mostly deaf, toothless and sleeping peacefully, when a stranger enters your space.  The little grey was not aggressive, just lost and bewildered, and looking for a snack.  We got him out peacefully and Acers got lots of pets and praise for being a good protector.)

This layout is nice for visiting too, freeing up the captains chair for a fourth seat - all facing each other.  Which got tested out immediately.  Half way through cleaning, my mom and Jim came to visit and Will arrived home for 10 minutes between his trips.  So we all sat and visited and it was quite nice.  There is room to add the 4 kitchen chairs if I have need with additional visitors at Christmas.

After their visit, I finished cleaning up the desk, and arranged all the cables for internet and the xbox's.

I still have some dusting to do, and need to take the curtains down for a wash, but I'm very pleased with this new layout.

Oh! And I found a book I thought I had lost.  It was in the far corner under the china cabinet that I never vacuum.  I'm very excited because it's the 2nd in a set of 3 of my favorite book series, that I've been longing to re-read.

After Will got home, we relaxed in our newly arranged space and watched The Sum of All Fears.

Sunday was a very chill day for me.  I was pretty sore from Saturdays' events, and after Will left to do more honey runs, I just watched YouTube videos and had a morning nap.  I got up to see Will when he was home in between runs, and then spun wool for the afternoon.

By the time Will was home for the night, I had already eaten dinner, and so he had a bite to eat, and we were in bed by 9pm.

It was a busy weekend, but it was good.

And there you have it friends.

Fondly,
Mrs B

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Canning: Overview & Essential Tools

Disclaimer:  I feel silly for having to write this, but I still feel I have to.  I am not a professional.  All information below is gathered from online sources, learned from influential persons in my life, and personal hands on experience.  If you choose to follow my information, it may be at your own risk.  This blog is written in hopes to inspire others to try these things out.  These methods are my personal experiences written out for your enjoyment.

Canning is a method of making shelf stable preserved foods that do not require energy to maintain their preservation.  Recommended shelf life of home canned goods is usually up to one year.  I personally will use home canned goods for as long as my common sense says is appropriate.  If the goods are visibly spoiled, or the seal is broken I will not even test it.  If the jars have been exposed to extreme temperature variance or direct sunlight, it can also compromise the safety of the food.  If they are not visibly spoiled, the seal is intact, and I know the environment it was kept in, I will smell and taste to determine if the food is still good.  This is my personal choice, and is probably frowned upon by health organizations.  Please do what is safe for you and your family.

Commercial canners primarily use tin cans and single use glass jars with a single piece lid.  Everything has gone through the same processes we do at home, but in larger quantity and with slightly different packaging.  In the home, we use reuseable glass jars with a two part closure - snap lid (or tattler lid with rubber gasket) and screw band.

A note about sterilizing jars.  Sterilizing jars will be mentioned in my later canning posts.  Often recipes / videos online will tell you to sterilize or triple sterilize your jars and equipment.  There are few scenarios that will require that extra work.  To be sure, you need to ensure a sanitary work space and tools, but do not make extra work for yourself either.  I personally have never had my canned goods spoil on me.  On the day I do my canning, I make sure all my jars are washed, in hot soapy water, and then rinsed very well.  Just prior to filling, I give them another quick rinse under the hottest tap water I have available.  This works for me.  Use common sense, and if you are uncomfortable or unsure, do what is more safe.  I am comfortable with my methods.  Here is a link on how to sterilize jars.

Equipment:
Jars:
Canning jars differ from store bought processed food jars.  Canning jars are heat treated so they may be processed over and over again.  You may buy pickles in a glass jar with a sealed lid, but the jar has been designed for a single processing only.  It is not recommended to reuse these jars for canning.  There are many non-canning re-uses for glass jars.

Jars have specific anatomy that is helpful to know.  The mouth is the opening at the top.  There are regular and wide mouth jars.  As described by Ball manufacturer:

Regular Mouth works best with pourable foods such as jams, jellies, salsas, sauces, pie fillings and vegetables.  Wide Mouth works best with whole fruits and vegetables, allowing for easy filling.

Lids:
There are only 2 current options I know of for lids.  Both are secured during processing by a screw band.

Snap Lids are a single use metal lid with adhering thin rubber seal.  I have reused them in the past, but after reading a lot of comments, I have stopped doing so.  I was lucky that my seals held.  And when it comes to preserving, you don't want a slow leak that eventually spoils your food.  Snap Lids are very affordable.

Tattler Lids are reusable plastic lids that are used in combination with a reusable rubber gaskets.  They are a little more expensive, but don't get thrown out.

In the past, people also used paraffin wax to seal their jars.  This isn't done any more.  (That I'm aware of anyway.)

Labels:
You can use any type of label you like, but I LOVE the Bernadin Dissovable Labels.  They make cleaning the jars so much easier.

Tools:
You will need a canner with racks (I'll go into detail in each section on those), a funnel, jar lifter tongs, plastic or wooden de-bubbler and a magnetic lid wand (if using metal snap lids).
The funnel is fantastic for easily getting your food into the jars without making a huge mess.
The jar lifter tongs are critical for getting the hot packed jars into the canner, and the scalding hot jars out of the canner after processing.
The de-bubbler is essential to scrape down the insides of the filled jars and release any air pockets that may be there.
The magnetic wand is great for getting hot lids onto the jars without burning your hands.

It's always good to keep paper towels, clean dishcloths and oven mitts handy.


And there you have it friends.

Fondly,
Mrs B

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Gardening & Canning: Green Beans

Disclaimer:
This post is longer than I planned.  I may break my posts up in the future to keep methods, gardening & canning  recipes separate. /disclaimer

With any canning / food processing, my ultimate goal is to process what we will use until the next time we grow / produce that particular item.  For example, I like beets, but we don't eat a lot of them.  One years' crop will last us several years.  That way I can make the most of my space.  If I can rotate what I grow, it's less to process every year.  I'm going to start my canning series here with my exception to the above.

Green Beans.

I love canned green beans.  They are tender with loads of flavour.  Green beans are one of the staples in my pantry.  We grow them every year, and always run out.  I have limited space to grow, and limited space to store food.  We enjoy every jar!

In my experience, green beans have been one of the easiest plants to grow.  I prefer pole beans over bush beans.  We typically grow Blue Lake variety.  West Coast Seeds has a great description of them.  (We don't necessarily always buy West Coast Seeds, but they are my favourite brand.  Local and good quality seeds.)

Summary:
This year, we started germinating seeds in April and planted in May. (Our climate is suitable to start earlier, but we were busy this year.) They grew for the appropriate 70 days and produced almost 20lbs (so far).  Those were trimmed, cut and washed, and packed into sterilized jars with 1/2 tsp of canning salt and boiling water.  Then they were pressure canned at 10 lbs for 115 minutes.  20 lbs yielded 34 x 500ml jars.  Plus a few packages blanched and frozen.

Let's break some of this down.

Seed selection:
Why we choose Blue Lake:
Firstly, they are open pollinated.  Seed Savers has a great description of what that means. 

"While hybrids have their benefits, choosing open-pollinated varieties conserves the genetic diversity of garden vegetables and prevents the loss of unique varieties in the face of dwindling agricultural biodiversity. Furthermore, focusing on heirloom varieties creates a historical connection to gardening and food production, building a more sustainable future by carrying on our garden heritage.  By choosing open-pollinated and heirloom varieties, you have the ability to help conserve biodiversity and to contribute to the stories behind our seeds."

Secondly, they are an abundant producer.  They will continue to produce pods as long as the season lasts, as long as you keep them picked.

Now that we have our seeds picked, let's talk about the growing stage.

Location in the garden & soil:
We picked a location that would not create unwanted sun blockage for other plants.  We planted at the most north eastern part of the garden.  While beans do prefer a slightly acidic soil (ph 6.0-6.5), they are not that fussy and will root well in almost any soil.  You can adjust the acidity/alkalinity of your soil by adding lime or sulfur.  Here is a good article on the subject.

After some regular watering and regular weeding, 70 days later, we come time to harvest.

Harvesting is pretty easy, if a bean is ready for harvest, it will detach from the plant when gently tugged.

Preparing for processing:
Anything you bring into the kitchen should be washed.  Even home grown without spray.  Rain will splash dirt on them.  And little crawly creatures may have had their dirty little feet on them.  I like to trim both ends, and then cut into pieces.

Whether you are freezing, dehydrating or canning, green beans should be blanched.  Blanching has different times for various produce.  Submerge in boiling water for a short time, and then move into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking.  Here is a good article on blanching.

All prepared packages should be marked with the month and year and short description. 
Eg: "Green Beans Aug 2016"

Freezing:
Lay blanched beans in a single layer on a parchment line cookie sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes to an hour.  Then measure out into freezer bags, or for longer storage, into vacuum seal bags.  Mark packages and store.  Frozen vegetables have a recommended storage of up to one year.  Personally, I will continue to eat anything in the freezer that is not freezer burnt and not covered in frost.  Although, I probably would draw the line at 3 years.  Here is a great article on frozen food shelf life.

Dehydrating:
I use an Excalibur 3900B front loading dehydrator.  It's absolutely the best.  (My loving father bought it for me a few years ago.)

The absolutely best resource for learning about dehydrating, in my opinion, is a YouTube channel called Dehydrate2Store.  Which I watched excessively before deciding dehydrating was for me.

Dehydrating has many benefits.  Light weight storage.  No electricity needed to maintain storage.  Extremely long term storage (30 years).  The ability to process RAW food.

I digress.

Lay blanched beans in a single layer and dehydrate at between 125 - 135 deg F for 6-8 hours.  Store in either vacuum sealed bags (with or without oxygen absorbers), or in jars (which can also be vacuum sealed).  Don't forget to mark your packages.

Canning:
Be aware that not everything can be water bath canned.  I've heard people say, "My Grandma never pressure canned.  She would process in a water bath canner for 3 hours."  Use your smarts, and follow modern preservation instructions, but also adapt, use common sense.  Some people would discard a turnip that has worms.  I cut around the worms and process the unaffected part of the turnip.

Green beans are a low acid food (as most green vegetables are), and must be pressure canned. 

Pressure canning can seem very intimidating.  I will admit, the first time I did it, I hid around a corner for the whole processing time.  Warily peeking around to see if it was going to explode.

One of the key things to remember is you must have a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker.  You cannot can in a pressure cooker.  Here's a helpful little rhyme: "You can cook in a canner, you can't can in a cooker."  I use an All American canner.  I got mine second hand, but you can buy them here.

It is not imperative to make sure jars are extra sanitized for pressure canning.  Just make sure they are washed well and rinsed well.  You don't want any soap residue.  The steam in the pressure canner does the sanitizing.

Fill jars with blanched beans, top with salt.  1/2 tsp for pints (500 ml), 1 tsp for quarts (1L).  Add boiling water until there is 1/2 inch headspace.  (I usually bring my water to a boil and then just keep it at a simmer until I'm ready for it.)  De-bubble your jars, and wipe the rims.  Add warmed lids & rings, and screw til finger tight.

Load into canner, using the racks it came with, with about 2" of water in the bottom.  If you have hard water, add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to prevent clouding on your jars.

Seal the canner lid, and turn temperature to high.  Once there is a steady stream of steam, set a timer for 10 minutes.  (This can take up to 30 minutes to get to the right temperature.)  After the 10 minutes, apply your weight, and wait until the appropriate pressure is reached. (This takes about 5-10 minutes.)  Now start your processing time.  After a few minutes, drop your stove burner dial down a little.  And then a few minutes later, drop it down a little again.  You don't want your temperature dial to be at maximum for the whole process, and you don't want to decrease it to the point where your pressure drops.  I find that the dial being between med/high & high works well.  I usually check the pressure gauge every 5-10 minutes for the first 30 minutes, and then I know the pressure is stable.  Then I walk away until my timer goes off.

Turn the burner off, and remove the weight, and allow canner to full vent all steam.  (Wear an oven mitt and be prepared - the steam is noisy.)  After all pressure is released (pressure dial is reading zero) set a timer for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the canner lid, and then wait yet again for another 10 minutes.

Using jar lifter tongs, remove jars to a towel covered surface and leave undisturbed until cooled.  Overnight is most convenient.

After they have cooled, check the seals.  They should have "pinged", and when pressed, they are firm and do not bounce back.  Remove the rings, and wipe the rims & jars down with hot water.  After they have dried, add your labels, and move to your pantry.

Canned foods have a recommended shelf life of up to one year.  I personally will continue to eat foods that do not have signs of spoilage.  If the seal is intact, and there is no visible signs of spoilage I will use my common sense about eating it.  I would probably draw the line at 5 years.

Always make sure to read and follow your canner manufacturers instructions for your canner.

And there you have it friends.

Fondly,
Mrs B

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Recipe: Instant Pot Spaghetti Sauce

Disclaimer:  

I over use disclaimers.  I always feel the need to justify why I think everything I do is sub-par.  I am aware of this and I'm working on it.

Out of the gate, I have to say, my meatball game is lacking.  I need a much better meatball recipe.  I used my standard meatloaf recipe in ball form, and it didn't turn out as good as it could have.

Overall, the sauce was good.  But in the future a few tweaks would make it excellent.

Using the pressure cooker made the texture of this sauce amazing, and the flavours were wonderfully developed and married.  It made a sauce in one hour, that tasted like it had simmered all day.

First I pureed my diced tomatoes.   I forgot to remove some of the liquid, and I thought I had made tomato juice by accident, but it actually turned out to be the right amount of liquid.

Then I made my meatballs:
1 lb of hamburger
1 egg
1/2 cup beef broth
1 cup breadcrumbs
(I meant to season these and forgot)

While my meatballs were browning, I got the rest of the vegetables chopped.  I kept it pretty simple with onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms.

When the meatballs had browned, I removed them and sauteed the vegetables.  I added the tomato puree and spices and added the meatballs back in.

I pressure cooked this for 45 minutes.  It took about 15 minutes to come to pressure, so it took one hour overall.

I had thought I would need to simmer to reduce, but it turned out perfect thickness.  Some of my meatballs remained intact, but most of them fell apart.

I boiled some pasta and baked a little garlic toast and - voila - spaghetti and meatballs.

And there you have it friends.

Fondly,
Mrs B

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Canning Season

I'm in the middle of canning season, so I thought it would be appropriate to write about.

If gardening season goes according to plan, canning season should be an enjoyable experience of processing foods that come ripe in a calm sequential order.  Somehow, this method always seems to escape me.  It's feast or famine.  I have multiple batches of things ready all at the same time, and then nothing for days.

This year I really wanted to be organized and prepared.  Part of my chaos is that my space is very small.  I have very little counter space, a small table, and very little storage in my kitchen.  When I started this canning season, I had prepared space in my spare room.  I cleaned and organized.  I bought new shelving.  The plan was to pull out what I needed, do the canning, and put everything back in its place.  The reality is, I have bowls and jars and supplies all over.  I haven't seen the surface of my kitchen table in weeks.

Here's an honest picture:

The other side of the kitchen looks much the same.

I don't have a place to store ripe produce as it comes ripe, in order to prep one day and then can the next.  And I certainly don't have the space to store ripe produce to wait for the weekend.  It's been a lot of - go to work all day, come home and can until late in the evening.

So if I manage anything, it's just to barely clean up the canning mess, while waiting for jars to cool down.

It's exhausting.  But I love it.

There is something very special about preserving your own food.  Knowing what ingredients and care go into it.  The satisfaction of not just being able to prepare a meal from foods, but to prepare the foods that go into those meals.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will share recipes, methods and results for specific items.  I've already done blueberry jam, swiss chard, green beans, pickles, relish, potatoes, turnips, peaches & pears.  I'm still waiting for tomatoes, corn, carrots, apples and pumpkins.  I did enough beets last year that I don't need to this year.  I have processed a few things from my herb garden, but sadly I let it get overgrown.  I'll see what I can salvage from it.

Fondly,
Mrs B

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Welcome to Mrs BeeKeeper's Home Spun Blog

Welcome to Mrs BeeKeeper's Home Spun Blog!

Home Spun is a term for yarn making, but here I am using it for anything you make yourself.  (Thank you Bonnie for the great blog name suggestion!)

For as long as I can remember I've been eager to learn about how things are made, and how to replace store bought items for homemade items.  Sometimes my brain does not save this for convenient timing.

Having a serious conversation with a friend 20 years ago: 

"What are you thinking about right now?"

"How to make BBQ sauce."
<friend rolls eyes at me>

The age of the internet has made this so much more attainable. While I'm certainly not old, I did grow up before the internet.  The advantage of now having information at my fingertips is astronomical.  While I still need to sift through and vet my sources, it is so easy to find how to do things now.  (Gotta love that Pinterest!)


I like to think that I have developed a balanced relationship with technology.  I love it, and fully immerse myself in its convenience, but I also want to know that if for any reason it stops functioning, that I can still provide for myself and my family.

I don't always continue making something from scratch once I've learned how to do it.  Case in point, laundry soap.  I made it for a while, but have stopped.  Mostly because I haven't yet made my own bar soap (which is on the list to do), and most recipes for laundry soap call for you to start with bar soap.  If I'm buying bar soap, I might as well just buy my laundry soap.

I'm not sure what the plan is for this blog.  I'm open for suggestions, and would love to see comments that you stopped by and took the time to read it.  :)

For now, I'll leave this as a brief introduction, and say thanks for stopping by.

Fondly,
Mrs B

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