mom11

I have a 20 quart stockpot full of turkey broth. Will can it tomorrow, so I can chill and scoop the fat off the top. Want to do cranberry mustard too.

We always say apples are the worst to can...Such a mess...Then the grapes come..... We always pray the apples are done, before the grapes come, but this year...They were here together! What an icky, sticky mess! Thankfully all done now!

We built cinder block and board shelves, that line the 4 basement rooms, wall to wall.....And then there are more jars piled on the floor. It took a long time to get to this level. I set money aside, for fruit, meat etc...Then buy a bin of apples, 12 boxes of grapes, a cow...But I have to keep this in mind all year long...My chicks know the season...Cherry time, peach time, apples, grapes, meat, veggies....We eventually got 4 pressure canners, 3 steam juicers, and our Mennonite friends bought us a wonderful outdoor, stainless steal water bath canner...Really this is all we do, besides school...Gardening, canning, maple tapping, home projects....We have our grow tunnels almost complete for our winter garden...I guess we are gamblers...Seed gamblers! Someone came to do a repair here and they guy wanted to know how long did all this take us...I couldn't even guess..Depends on what you count...Growing, prepping, canning...My daughter said to just say "It's a lifestyle!" Really it is....The thing is, the more you do for your own, the less you want store bought...So we are spoiled....(We also now share very LITTLE...Selfish huh!?)

We finished canning 56 quarts of apple juice, 48 quarts of apple cider, 87 quarts of applesauce, 133 pints of grape juice, 51 twelve oz. jars grape jelly, 13 more quarts of green beans...Took about a week though...Tomorrow hopefully apple jelly and more green beans...Then the canners get packed away for a while....

Don't know where I read it, but I think they said that animals can catch ebola, and they don't show any symptoms. Really sad for the nurse, but what if the pet could spread ebola? That would be awful and imagine the panic, as ebola spread and no one knew from where.....What a mess this disease causes!

This virus was just invited into this country. People from these infected countries DO NOT need to be here visiting relatives. This is crazy!

It's been confirmed....Horrible! http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ebola-confirmed-in-texas-patient-first-case-diagnosed-in-u-s/ Why don't think close the borders to these countries? I just don't get this!

Thanks Arby! I have a few to can, but would be nice to try these others and stick in the fridge.

Oh yum! Thanks! I can't wait to make some!

Thanks! I just saw this! I will try it!

That sounds yummy!

I found this recipe for canning mustard: http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/oktoberfest-beer-mustard Does anyone have any other safe recipes for other varieties of mustard to can? I bought brown and yellow mustard seeds and also powdered mustard some time ago and my chicks and I want to try making mustard. They wouldn't want it very hot, so guess I need to use less brown mustard seeds, and more of the yellow...Other than that...We'd love different varieties. I think maple syrup would be good in it...

I just saw this. I wrote to Ball this morning too....I sure hope they know what they are talking about, because soon I will be canning "A-cow-in-a-jar" and I expect those lids to stay sealed for years! Probably be the last beef we will ever be able to afford...Been paying on it for a very long time and those jars better stay sealed!

OK...I have over 100 boxes of these things...I haven't used them yet though, but this is what is worrying me.... If we aren't to even simmer the things, because the plastic may deteriorate and the seals may not "seal"...Ummmmmm....Someone please tell me how they are going to hold up in a water bath and most especially in a pressure canner? Are our seals going to "pop" long before we expect them too? I do a lot of canning at a time....I expect that seal to stay down for years, especially meats....I just don't see how that is going to happen, if simmering water may damage them. I've also thought of this...I try and keep BPA out of our food containers...But truly...How much food would come into contact with the BPA in a canning lid...It sits right on top of the jar and isn't in the food.....

I grew up in Virginia and never even saw cotton. I had no idea the seeds would be fluffy. I wonder f you have to remove the fluff....I think $100 oz is way too high, but haven't found how many seeds that would be. Ambergris has found the best price for heirloom green...$5.00 for 20 seeds. Thinking if they will cross pollinate, may need to do white and dye, but would love the kids to try heirloom colors. I bought them a lovely spinning wheel and it never crossed my mind that they could spin cotton...I am too busy trying to make sure the 7 Babydoll, SouthDown lambs stay alive....So we can spin cashmere! But geeze.....Won't have to feed cotton...Well fertilizer and water.....So much easier, although not quite as lovely as these precious lambs!

Thank you! That is one of the cheaper prices. I would like to try the different heirloom colors, but wonder how far apart they would need to be.

Thanks Cat! I just bought 3 cases of these things just this week. I would have heated them.

Really?! I've never seen one. I just want to know how many are in an oz. One oz. is $100....So comparing.

Thanks! Thanks! I will probably order here...I did find one place that had an oz., but I couldn't find out how many were in an oz. One of my Mennonite friends said half as many as would be in an oz. of okra seed. He said that cotton seeds were almost twice the size of okra seeds. I don't know why I thought they would be very tiny....

I didn't see this thread! We are waiting on 5 lbs. of sugar beet seeds to arrive! We read that making sugar is not as involved as making maple syrup. We do that each winter. My chicks threw a little tantrum in Sam's Club this week, when we found out that they are no longer carrying sugar cane sugar. All commercial sugar beet sugar, not labelled organic, is now GMO.....

Thanks Twilight and Ambergris! I bought 5 lbs. of these: http://www.deercreekseed.com/sugar-beet/common-sugar-beet-coated-beta-vulgaris/ Much cheaper buying from a "deer food" supplier! Seems to be the same seed sold by companies supplying our vegetable garden seeds... Now...We want to find organic Heirloom cotton seeds...And preferably not in 5 count seed packets!

We bought a nice sheller about 4 years ago...I wanted to increase our variety of veggies, but shelling enough peas etc. by hand, wasn't worth it. By the time we would shell the peas/shelly beans, everything else in the garden would rot, from neglect. This year I have had to re-think the amount of sharing I was doing with my stuff...I bought a very nice and expensive chamber vacuum sealer a few years ago. It sealed better than "Foodsavers" and the bags for the chamber machines are dirt cheap compared to the "Foodsavers." This summer my sweet machine quit working...It costs well over $100 just to ship it into the company for repairs. I was sharing with my neighbors...My machine, my bags, and even my produce. I wonder how much more use I would have gotten out of it, if I hadn't shared. The same thing with my 4 year old tractor...I shared that too...My diesel, my tractor, my equipment...This year the tractor needs an alternator, a safety switch, and more....I can't afford to buy things to use to take care of my family and maintain them for my neighbors. I don't want to be selfish, but....I loaned my tractor to my neighbor...He sold his nice tractor. I told him it wasn't to go down the road. It isn't road ready, which means it isn't insured for the road. I looked out the window and there it went. My neighbor was driving it down the blacktop to borrow an attachment from another farm, that he wanted to use on his garden...AND he made the deal that he would use MY tractor to plow that guys garden, in exchange for my neighbor using his subsoiler.....I was not happy! This year when he trotted over to ask to use my tractor I told him I couldn't loan it anymore, because I depend on it to feed my children, and I just couldn't afford to maintain it. My neighbor hasn't been back over...Not even once! I get used very easily...One of my new goals is to learn to nicely say no...It's hard though.....

Thanks! All I find is simply "sugar beets." If they are all the same, it is much cheaper to buy the ones advertised for feeding deer.

Does anyone know if there is a difference in the sugar beet seeds used to make sugar and the sugar beet seeds sold for deer food/animal fodder? The ones sold for the animals are much cheaper and none of the seed sites give a specific name to their seeds. We want to try and make sugar and molasses....AND we do not want Monsanto's toxic garbage!

The Spanish priest died..... http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/spanish-ebola-patient-experimental-drug-24924569