Homesteader

I have been planting seeds indoors like there's no tomorrow.     All of the older packets of seeds go through a germination test. They're placed in a plastic condiment cup with a lid and labeled. When germination gets below 50%, I toss the seeds and order replacements for next year. Those that germinate are pulled out with tweezers and planted into 6-pack plastic trays. It's a lot of work, but what else can I do while waiting for the snow to melt.     Between veggies, herbs, and flowers, I'll sprout around 125 different varieties of seeds. Thankfully, DH keeps the grow lights on and the wood-chips coming (for the garden paths).

Soon, we'll be able to start collecting rain water and sifting the compost piles. It's the best fertilizer formula for growing indoor plants until they head for the hoop-house. 

Did I mention that I'm tired of winter?

We had a water leak this past week between the floors and have been mopping up. It was the perfect time to clean out the closet under the stairs and install shelving. Now I have an easy time knowing how many paper products I have in inventory.

The food pantry handed out pallets of blueberries tonight. They were expiring this week. My job was to check each clamshell for mold and set those aside. Every customer received 4 pkgs of the berries and we still had many cases left. I took three. The next several days will be freezing berries. They're wonderful in kombucha, yogurt and morning oatmeal. 

I am spoiled by volunteering at a local food pantry. Anything that has been donated that won't make another week is distributed to the volunteers. Many of us take extra for the widows in the church we minister to. It not only helps them but gives us the opportunity to check up on them each week. At home, we pretty much stick with meats, fresh veggies, fruits, milk, and eggs. I do can a lot of it as we receive so much. I unload some of our shelves at Christmas time of jams, jellies, and fruit juices. I love doing that, except I lose so many Mason quart jars to family and friends. 

I just bought a dressed out goat from my nephew for about $2.00 pound last month. I rounded up the total on the check and he delivered it, weighed and packaged.    So far, it tastes GREAT. He taught me to cook it slow and low. It's much more tender than what we used to eat in Africa.  No knife or machete needed.  

I seldom stop at the grocery store except for paper goods, cold cereal, and fresh greens. We still go through the weekly sale flyers at the dinner table just so we can keep up on the prices. Sure glad our country isn't in a recession yet.   

I've been steaming fruit juices and canning fruit jams/butters/sauces this past month. Most of the gift baskets are done for Christmas.    I like to make a few smaller baskets for friends and neighbors who drop by during the holiday season.   The baskets usually include a bottle of our honey, fruit juices from our orchard, and jams/butters/sauces from the fruit bushes in our garden. I use the frozen gallon fruit bags from the freezer for the canning process. I think we collected 7 gallons of raspberries, alone,  from our bushes this past summer.

We try to have one glass of fruit juice each day. We're hoping it helps with colds/flu this winter. All of this canning takes a toll on our mason jar stock, though. I have SIL on a constant look-out for used jars at St. Vincents and Goodwill. It's difficult because we're in Amish country. 

Going to our investor's office today to see how much Bidenomics has depleted our savings this year. Then it's onto the indoor shooting range for my birthday. Depending on Bidenomics red ink, we may not be shooting very many bullets today. Finally, onto a buffet dinner.

We have a side lot that consists of about 2 acres. Long and fairly narrow with a forest on 3 sides. It has the most nutrients in our sandy soil. Even though the garden can been seen from the distant road, I still ordered several hundred trees and bushes over the years. After 6 years on the homestead, the garden can barely be seen from the road even though it's uphill. It's one of the best long-term investments we made from our local county tree/bush sale every year. Our $1 arborvitae/cedar seedlings are now 7' high. 

On 1/14/2023 at 11:31 AM, Jeepers said:

But the garage in Indy doesn't have a drain.

We have no drain in the garage we purchased. We're in sandy soil, so hubby drilled a hole through the concrete floor at the lowest point. I think it was around 1" in diameter.  It seems to work in the winter time. A cheap DYI. 

6 hours ago, Littlesister said:

But just wasn't sure if I would can enough juice to make it worth the price.

I think I paid around $85 from Walmart last year. The only reason I purchased it was to process cases of fruits that are leftover at the food pantry at the end of each week. They wouldn't last until the next week, and even then, I have to pick through some of the older cases and toss moldy fruit into my compost bins. So far, I found that the apples don't give as much juice as the berries. I end up with more of an applesauce leftover in the top pan. I just recycle it into cakes and muffins.

Sure wish i had chickens these days. They would love all the pulp I end up with.  

This was my first try at rhubarb juice. Most recipes call for cooking it down in a pan and strain through cheesecloth. I chose to use my steam juicer. It cooks down the rhubarb in 90 minutes without supervision. Canning was in pints in waterbath. We both thought the quarter to half-cup amount in a tall glass was enough strength for us. You can season to taste but it's more of a flavored water. Others at picnic suggested adding seltzer water for more zip. 

I am always looking for ways to add vitamin C to our diet. Home canned fruits hit the spot in the summer with our cold well water.

I'm always looking for juices to flavor our drinking water. The rhubarb is overwhelming this year so I decided to cook down a few pounds into juice. I'm using my stove-top juice steamer for just about everything. I ended up with 18 pints of rhubarb juice concentrate. No sweetener added. A little raw honey is nice, but it freezes up when poured over the icy water concoction.    We're not ice tea drinkers so any kind of flavored water is great for us in the summertime. 

It works!!!! Every time the regular canning jar lid doesn't seal, I add the second lid, upside down. Even DH is scratching his head on this one. He mumbled something about vacuum height and the second lid filling that space.  

I started cooking up my ground chicken like I do my ground beef and couldn't find the recipe in the Ball book. I started researching the internet and have found out that ground chicken isn't recommended as a canning recipe.    It's not that it's bad, just that it's not been tested and approved. Has anyone else run into this?? 

I think I'll put away the pint jars and finish cooking the ground chicken and put it back into the freezer. I had hoped to alleviate freezer congestion, but I guess not this week. 

On 2/10/2023 at 1:21 AM, Midnightmom said:

For anyone interested in the FoodSaver jar sealers: The regular mouth sealer is notorious for not working correctly, unless.............. you use 2 lids! The first one goes in the correct direction for sealing the jar, the second one is inverted. Then you run the machine as "normal." Many people have found that this "hack" works just fine.

I will try this. Thanks. Frustration is great when trying to seal regular mouth jars. 

20 hours ago, kappydell said:

Still canning meat beign rotated out of freezer. 

I'm doing the same thing. Running out of pint jars and space on the shelves. 

36 minutes ago, Jeepers said:

Homesteader, is that Gordon Food Service?

Yes, it is. I did find an outlet in Madison and stop by for flour and yeast when in the area. Gordons are a wonderful family.

I've been following the one-month challenge of cooking from the pantry rather than running to the store. It's been fun. Many of the ladies give themselves the $50 cash to purchase fresh fruit or produce for their children when they run out.

I decided to tackle the #10 cans in my pantry. They're leftover from our missionary days when GFS gave our mission office dented cans. They came by the truckload. I loaded up on the tomato-based cans and now have them collecting dust in the back of the pantry. I check each one as I open them and they are all in great shape.

This week I am canning pizza sauce (1/2 pints for homemade pizzas), tomato sauce, whole tomatoes, marinara sauce, and tomato paste (1/2 pints). In the place of five #10 cans, I will have about 50 mason jars.    I'm not sure I'm winning.    At least I'll have tomato products in more manageable containers.  

Our friend is the state animal inspector. He was assigned to the bird flu outbreak. He warned us last year that the majority of the millions of birds culled in Wisconsin were laying hens.    I'm thankful that I can get a dozen a week at the food pantry if there's any left at the end of the distribution. They give out over 400 dozen per week. Don't know what they pay for them as we do get a lot of broken eggs. Thankfully, the egg lady saves the cracked ones and I bring them home to our compost bins. I can end up with 5-6 dozen broken ones per week. I just run them through my Cuisinart until the shells are pulverized. The local cats enjoy frozen eggs during the night.   

I do freeze some of the good ones when I end up with too many and give many away (eggs, not cats).

I usually only cook it for 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes. I fluff it with a fork and leave the lid on until my stir fry is done. I would try it on our woodstove for the shorter time and set it aside to see if it will finish cooking with the steam in the pot on the side of the stove. I remember learning about the hay box cooking in the UK during WWII.    You've got me interested in experimenting more this winter on the woodstove.  

We had a electric rice cooker when we lived in s.e. Asia. Went back to stovetop after we got back. The rice stuck to the bottom and was a pain to clean in the electric one. I would try the woodstove and use more water. As soon as it gets colder out, I'll go back to cooking on it.  

10 hours ago, Midnightmom said:

That's 40% off of your purchase!!

Is that 40% off the original? Or is it 30% off the original and an additional 10% off the balance? I'm trying to dust off my brain from a marketing class I took eons ago. 

I had a hard time getting my chokecherries to jell into a jelly. The runny ones were heated and thickened with some arrowroot. A new kind of pancake syrup this winter. Sure is cheaper than maple syrup in these days of incredible inflation.

14 hours ago, Jeepers said:

Thanks for all of the tips ladies!  Freezer newbie here. 

If you keep a running inventory sheet on the freezer door up to date, it will save you oodles of time during 'the hunt'..  

 I have been pretty faithful to designate different shelves for different meats. Beef. Poultry, Pig, etc. I try not to pack each shelf too high. That way, I can slip in a cookie sheet full of fruits or veggies to flash freeze b4 final packaging and storage. It's easier said than done. 

On 11/1/2022 at 10:37 PM, Jeepers said:

When I was at Meijers yesterday I checked out the turkeys. They only had the Meijers brand and they were $1.99 a pound.

I think our Walmart was $1.29 for their local brand. I heard the manager of our local pantry say that they're ordering 550 turkeys for the week before Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful the guys carry them to the cars each year and pack them into the trunks.    We'll take two. One for ourselves and one for our Ukrainian refugee family at church.

From what I read, turkeys are ordered in January/February every year by the distributors. The stores get what has been allocated to them.

32 minutes ago, Dee said:

More ideas please.  This is fun!!!

I still use your recipe for freezing pies. You must have given it to me about 50 years ago. 

28 minutes ago, Jeepers said:

This is one of the signs I saw on the toll road in Ohio.

DH was wondering if they are referring to vending machine food. That would make more sense. Scary though. We always ate at those places on long trips on I-80.