By Daisy Luther
This week, the Friday Farm Blog is happening on a Saturday because I was just too busy to get it posted yesterday. Sorry, since I’m sure you were all clicking “refresh” yesterday wondering when I’d post. (haha)
What have I been busy doing, you ask?
First of all, I’m going through the process to get my Concealed Carry Permit. Here in California, it’s sort of involved. I had to take a course regarding the laws in this state, and then display safety and accuracy with my firearm to the instructor. Then I had to fill out a gigantic form. You have to go to 2 interviews at the sheriff’s department. The first one was just to go over the form with a deputy to make certain you filled it out correctly, then that goes to the Department of Justice for a background check. When that comes back clean, they schedule another appointment, this one with the sheriff himself, where you have to give a good impression of someone who is not a homicidal maniac. So far, it’s all gone smoothly, and now I get to wait for however long the background check takes. Obviously, as a liberty-minded, constitution-loving person, I think it’s pretty extreme to have to go through all of this, or actually even to require a permit at all, but since I wish to be able to carry a firearm with me wherever I go, and I have no desire to go to prison, I’m jumping through the hoops. One interesting thing I learned is that your CCW permit in California supersedes all of those silly “gun-free zones”. The only place a person with a permit cannot carry is a federal building. Take that, Starbucks.
Aside from that, as I’ve mentioned numerous times, my garden is fairly craptastic this year. So I posted an offer to barter on a local homesteading board. I offered to can the harvest for someone who had no time, in return for half of the delicious goodies.
The next day, we picked up this Jeep-load of awesomeness:
I love this, because it’s “free” food for us during a year when money is pretty tight, I’m making a connection with a local backyard farmer, and I honestly enjoy food preservation. Taking these raw ingredients and making delicious things makes me happy. Our go-to method for creating our stockpile each year relies strongly on home preservation, so that I know exactly what we’re eating.
So…I’ve made salsa, mixed fruit, mixed fruit in sangria, vegetable soup, Asian plum sauce, that weird grape stuff, plum jam, golden tomato-basil-garlic sauce, and crushed heirloom tomatoes. Look at the glorious color of the sauce made from those orange and yellow tomatoes!
I’m not done yet. In the canner is crushed Romas, and shortly I’m making a salsa from yellow tomatoes with a little bit of organic corn and hot peppers. (The recipes and instructions for canning my own recipes safely came from my book, The Prepper’s Canning Guide.)
In other news, ducklings are gross. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. They are the silliest little creatures and still terrified of us humans. Last week I went to clean out the brooder and it was vile. I scraped 3 inches of poo, food, and damp wood chips off of the brooder floor. I have a cast iron stomach and never has my gag reflex been so tested. Of course, when I tried to gently relocate them, they all frantically leapt out of the brooder. I finally decided, FINE. You want to be free? Be free. Hope you live, because you are STINKY. Okay, actually, they were just hard to catch. I set up an area where they could get away from the chickens and have given them the freedom of the coop and the run. They seem a little happier and my coop is less stinky now.
The rooster, Orwell, that you see behind them in the picture seems to have taken them under his wing. He follows them everywhere and protects them from the frisky hens. (Which leads a farmbuddy of mine to think my second rooster is not really a rooster, but just a tomboy.) I’ve ordered some diatomaceous earth to sprinkle around, since apparently that helps with both the smell, and keeping the coop pest-free.
Cora’s tummy seems to be getting bigger by the day. I have no idea when to expect babies, so every morning is like Christmas. I open the barn wondering if Goat Santa came during the night. Here’s the best photo I could manage that shows her burgeoning belly. It’s weirdly lopsided and has dropped somewhat in the past week.
Some more veggies require my attention, and I’d like to can them while I can party to 80s music. (Meaning: I want to do this before my cool kid gets up and scoffs at my “oldies” tunes. OLDIES. Pfft.)
What are you all preserving this week? What’s going on at your farms? Please share in the comments section below.
Beginning canner here who has to throw away 15 pints of probably toxic salsa that I worked terribly hard to can. I forgot the lemon juice and didn’t pressure can them.
I did seal them inside my pressure canner and then just left the petcock off. All the jars sealed very nicely but after I did some research I realized that throwing a bunch of stuff in the pot and cooking it and canning it, without measure, or lemon juice, might be disastrous. So with a heavy heart I will empty the 15 jars of salsa into the compost pile and hope for another shot. I will not be deafeated!
Noooooo~~~~~ Wait!!!!
When did you make it? If it was in the past 24 hours, do not throw it away! Pop the lids and replace them with new lids. Then, process as directed in a pressure canner. If it was a couple of days, you can put it in the fridge and keep it good for a couple of weeks (and make lots of Mexican food!) You could also put it in bags in the freezer and add it to soup, chili, or casseroles as needed if it has only been a couple of days. I have pureed salsa that didn’t seal and used it as the base for chili.
Well in the last two days we did 36 pints of beets, 9 pints of pickled beets and 9 pints of tomato sauce. Have another round of beets for today. Another 2 and a half bushels of tomatoes ripening. Not bad for an Alaskan garden. Will also can some carrots and make relish,saurkraut and canned coleslaw in the next week or two.
Well, I did a no – no. I canned bread. It’s actually extra large dinner rolls in wide mouth pints.
I looked all over the Internet and very few said it could be done successfully and a lot said not to attempt it at all. ……so of course I had to try. I tweaked my recipe by adding ACV and honey just to be safer and they still appear awesome sitting on the shelf. I’m waiting for the one month mark to open and taste.
You simply MUST update us on the results 😀
Will do! I mastered canning store bought organic whole milk and butter, so it seemed like a good idea to can bread as well.
I’ll send you photos soon.
😉
IT WORKS GREAT! I couldn’t wait a whole month. I opened one jar last night and the little bread roll just popped right out! Use straight sided jars. (Wide mouth pints) grease them well. Keep the rim of the jar clean. Make up your favorite bread recipe and add 1 teaspoon ACV and 1 Tablespoon honey. Let rise once,punch down and form into ice cream size balls of dough. Drop into jars. Let rise 15 – 20 minutes. Bake 360 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Place boiled and dried lids onto jars……wait for the ping!
I’ve been following along your blog for quite sometime, because I love your style, but never had enough sit-down times to make a comment. But now I am retired and can share. First, I’m sorry when you moved it had to be in California; IMHO,SO CAL went to hell in a hand basket about 1965 and NO CAL followed in the late 80s. However, congrats on getting your CCW; it is worth the effort to get one. Lets hope there is never a time when you have to use it, but that is why we have guns… for protection. And California has more than its share of nuts.
I am a novice homesteader in middle Tennessee and have similar animals as you do. I have about 20 ducks which will be reduced by 7 drakes shortly. However, whenever, I need a laugh I pull up a seat near the duck house and in no time I am chuckling and pulling out the phone camera. Better than a pill!
I really like your idea of bartering canning for 50% of fresh goods. Your results look lovely. I have a garden but the summer garden did well only on certain veges and tomatoes. My fall garden is doing much better and I picked hot and sweet peppers, collard greens and some green tomatoes this morning. I’m canning green tomato salsa, hot sauce, and collards in the next few days.
I am also interested in the bread canning results, and recipe if it works. I hope everyone has a productive week!
I agree with you totally on the antidepressant effects of livestock!
I’m just now getting the fall garden started. We have a long growing season here, so we plant a bit later. Cali is where many people dear to us are, and despite the crazy folks, we love our part of the Northern California foothills.