Necie

Awwwww-let the poor boy have some soup. I love hearing that phhhu of a jar being opened AS MUCH as hearing the PING--means somebody is eating something GOOD and *I* get another empty jar to fill again. DS2 and his GF are moving into their first apartment this week-end and he called to see if I'd loan him some money for groceries. SURE! I also plan on packing up a few boxes of home canned goodies--with strict instructions to give me back the empty jars. The satisfaction is not in the canning, but in the joy of seeing the people you love being fed well.

*my name is Necie and I'm a canning-a-holic....* One early March day a couple years ago, this guy comes into the tavern and says - "The renter's are moving out of Mom's house (his mom had been deceased for about 15 yrs) and I want to clean it up before I rent it again. The basement is full of jars of stuff that Mom canned and I can't haul it out because of my knees (he'd had surgery on both). If you want to clean it out, you can have the jars." Me---> DBF---> So having two days off in the winter, the first day I go haul box after box of jars full of stuff at least 15 years old out of this basement--THREE truck loads! It was a chilly spring day, a little drizzly, but not bad when movin' around and workin'. I stack them all right plum in the middle of the garage as I'm figuring on dumping them all the next day. The next day--IT'S 20F AND SNOWING!! I get two 5-gal buckets and start opening and dumping jars. Get both buckets full and haul them to the garden and dump-COMPOST! Then...go in the house to thaw my fingers, then back to the garage to do it again. Loaded all the empty jars into the back of the truck AGAIN and as soon as it was closing time at the tavern where I work, I took them in and ran them through the commercial dishwasher. Only took two trips with empty jars. Had to put two boxes of jars that I couldn't get open out for garbage pick up. After all was done - I had increased my jar inventory by over 700 jars! DBF said-"I think you have ENOUGH jars now" I said- " .......Oh, you're serious? Ok, Honey, whatever you say."

Originally Posted By: Cat Quote: just remember.... in the end.. I will have the fabric to make jeans, shirts, dresses, underware, bras, panties, slips, and aprons. And I guess the rest of us will become nudists... OMG You DID NOT just say THAT!?! *necie wanders off mumblin': 'it's gotta be the full moon...gotta be...'*

Nana's "YKK Zipper Thread" is here: http://www.mrssurvival.com/forums/ubbthrea...=true#Post22238

Very clear. Thanx. Gonna try that. How do you take the candle out of the shampoo botttle?

Pegsol-you're funny, too! Then I would like to start doing one on my storage foods-like one of those continuous inventory things, but I have absolutely NO idea. So I guess I'll just keep working on it-bit by bit-and eventually I'll get it figured out. Ao5fG-I've been using a '$20'/wk. plan-but it's kind of a plan I made up myself. I only go shopping every 3 months or so, so I've been giving DD $20 a week with a list of things to get. She cooks dinner once a week, so part of the list is things that she needs for that, part is repacement things that we just use up, and part is for storage. This has been working pretty well. But I've never kept an inventory of my pantry or storage (cuz I've never really kept things as 'storage'). I just always keep about 6 months worth, and shop every 3 months to fill in things that we've used.

Hi, ArmyOfFive4God!

Oops. Sorry. I guess the way I said that does sound like that. No, I canned cooked, dry beans. I'd made the soup for a little party we had. We ate most of it-had my WBC full-but I decided to can the left-overs. 5 qts. That's why I'm thinking that they were just REALLY overcooked. One of the sites that Violet posted said that you can soak your beans to rehydrate and then put them into the jars to can. I think that would be better, but it's just not necessarily something that I would do. I'd be more likely to can the ham/broth (which I already do) and then just make soup outa that with dry beans.

Ok-the first link says to process for 75 min for qts. That's what I was thinking we always did, so why couldn't I find that # anywhere?! DUH! The last 15 min of canning was the worst-that's when the canner went dry and started spewing the burnt stuff out the jiggler and really smelled bad. ewwwwwww. I was wondering if the beans were 'overcooked', since I made the soup to eat and canned the left-over. Well, then I don't know, cuz I don't tend to just can bean soup. Humph. Think I'll stick to canning the ham and broth and just adding the beans to eat. I'll still do my beef/vege the same, though. And canned up perfectly.

The main things that were *wrong*, was: #1-the beans ended up total mush, like paste. and #2-out of 5 qts I only have one that's still sealed. *BIG MAD* grrrr-my biggest pet peeve with canning! My *guesses* as to what could've went wrong. First time I've only done a patial patch in the canner-maybe I needed to add more than the 2 qts of water to start. Canner did go dry, which is a mess in itself with all that burnt stuff in the bottom. Not sure if it's cuz it was mushy or the water he added cuz it was so thick. (Our water isn't the best tasting, but it's the same water I cooked the soup with to begin with and it was fine.) So maybe it was keeping the pressure right or it going dry. Should I add more water when I'm doing less than a full batch? I've canned beef/vege soup w-barley for years and plain meats and such that all take 90 min and never had this problem. This is the first time I've tried to can dry beans with anything, though.

Where's the soup? How did yours turn out? The books all say to parboil potatoes for 10 min. before canning-never raw pack. Were they ok? I did quarts at 10# for 90 min. Was the only thing I could figure-couldn't find actual canning directions for the soup, so I went with the ham directions. Let's just say, mine was pretty much disastrous. So, what's the scoop on yours?

I have not done a sourdough starter, but my DM used to have some-the same one for years (don't know if she made it herself, though). My sis has one that a friend gave her-so no help there...but....I DO make my own wine, which involves alot of the same principals and those little yeastie beasties. My take on this: You can make sourdough with just flour and water. If you let this sit it will attract wild yeast. Here you take a chance-good yeasties or bad beasties. No way to tell what you have captured. If you add your own yeast-VOILA-you get exactly what you want. Adding sugar (or some other sweetner-honey, molasses, syrup, jelly, etc.) would speed up the yeast multiplying process. Warmth speeds up yeast (but too hot will kill it-shouldn't get over 100 f), cold will slow it (IMO-40 to 50 would seem to be optimal for storage, thus the fridge). For long term storage you could dry it like Westie described or toss it in the deep freeze. Once ya get them little yeastie beasties in there ya don't want to let it sit uncovered. One of the byproducts (like Westie described also) is alcohol-winemaking, remember? Well, alcohol attracts other bad beasties-mainly the dreaded vinegar fly-YUCK! So keep it covered-but not tightly, cuz the other byproduct-carbon dioxide-will blow the lid off! A piece of cloth and a rubber band are perfect. Feeding the starter? If it's in the fridge it should need fed very little. The freezer or dried-not at all-until you're gonna use it. Sitting out-depends on the temp and how fast the fermentation is going. A fast fermentation will produce more alcohol and at too high an alcohol content yeast die. Basically, the thing they produce kills them-nobody said they were very smart. Therefore ya have to remove some and add some to lower the alcohol content. I'm sure I forgot something or another. If anything isn't clear just ask away. Hope this helps.