I've canned 28 pounds of hamburger, and so I have 28 pints of hamburger ready to be used. You can use canned hamburger in any of your favorite recipes. All you need to do is heat it up, drain the fat off, and put it your dish.
I had to really scrub the jars yesterday because I was using jars that have already been used. We purchased them at a thrift store. Remember to check your jars for chips or cracks before using them.
I used the new super fabulous cast iron enamel coated dutch oven Logan bought me to brown the ground hamburger in. I love this new pot, and I should mention he surprised me with it.
After the hamburger is browned I use the canning funnel to put the meat in the jars. You'll want to make sure you also fill the jar about half full with some of the fat. I don't use water at all in canning my hamburger or sausage. I also can all our ground sausage the same way.
Here I have the lids boiling.
When I clean the threads and rim of the jars I'll use a paper towel, or dish cloth dipped in the boiling hot water. This allows the jar rims to be sterile when I place the lid on.
Here I'm cleaning the threads and rims. I'll then use my lid grabber, which has a magnet on the end to pick up the lids in the hot water. I'll place the lids on and then put on the bands. Remember to only tighten them slightly to finger tip tight.
In this cannier load I had 15 pints, so I canned for 90 mins. at 15 lbs. I would have uploaded more pics, but the computer started giving me trouble. My cannier is an All American Cannier, and it was a wonderful investment. It has the gauge along with the weight, and has a metal to metal seal. You can google them if you'd like more info on them. The cannier is a double decker, and I can put 14 quarts, or 19 pints in it at once. Later I'll post pics of it and how it works for those who have commented on how to use one. Well I better get back to canning. I have 20 lbs. of ground sausage to can as well. I also hope soon to post on how to can butter. Danielle Bunker will be showing me how she cans butter, so I'll let y'all know.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Homeade Velvetta Recipe
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HOMEMADE VELVETTA RECIPE I haven't tried this. Found it here on another homesteading blog. Sorry don't remember which one. For every quart of cottage cheese, add a half a cup of butter add 1 1/2 tsp. of baking soda. let stand until transparent. Place over slow heat. Add 2/3 cup sour cream, 2 tsp salt and 1 tsp butter coloring. (optional). keep stirring. it will become stringy and then smooth. Pour into molds and let stand overnight. Remove from molds. Use foil in your molds to remove your cheese. This is for 2 gallons of milk. I think they must have made their own cottage cheese from milk. I dont know. But I think I might try this. |
Monday, July 27, 2009
canning
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Been a busy week. Started last week with apricots. Dried, made fruit leather, made jam. Froze some. Then got about a 100lbs of beets and pickled them. Got 8qts and 9 pints. Then cherries. A wonderful farmer in our area said he was done and we could come pick all we wanted. WE came home with over 300lbs of cherries. I have frozen, dried, made fruit leather and tons of juice. Still juicing!.... House is a mess, will continue to juice and clean today....sigh.... |
Thursday, July 23, 2009
update
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It has been such a busy summer~! Family stuff, farm stuff....house stuff....just more stuff. Been trying to downsize stuff in my life and our home. Though yesterday I helped it grow. I have a dear sweet friend that grew the biggest, most gorgeous beets in her garden and then her family decided they didnt like beets. I took them home and canned 8 qts and 9 pints of pickled beets! Yummy. My dad loves pickled beets. They may end up being part of his birthday and christmas gifts this year! I also have been no stop cutting and pitting apricots. Drying and making fruit leather. Will probably make some apricot and pineapple jam too. I keep looking in the box and I swear it is like the loaves and fishes, I never goes down....ugh! Blessing or curse...havent figured that one out yet. Anyway, havent been able to get with any of my dearest of friends this summer. Bummer. Such a good time for visiting. It is so hot though! This morning we are picking corn and then going to town for eye appointments for all three kiddos! It is also our county fair. The kids love going to that. The boys didnt get their room clean though so daddy will go and fix grandmas ceiling fan with them, and kalee and I will go to the fair ourselves for an hour or so. |
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Peas and Cherries
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Been super busy here on the homestead. Been picking and freezing peas. Did over 27 qt bags of flat snow peas for stir frys and gave away 2 gallon bags to a friend. Also did 2 qt bags of shelled peas last week. I think I will have a ton more today when I pick. Got cherries for 60 cents a pound and bought 88lbs! Gave about 15lbs away to family and to a few families DH works with at church. But that still left us with over 70lbs. Last night DH and I pitted about 50 lbs. We are freezing them and then flash freezing them for future cherry shakes! Will also flash freeze some with pits for ltitle popsicles for the kids. They love these in the winter and will spit the pit out. I had a dear friend call last night ask me if I wanted 20 more pounds of cherries free. I said sure.......I am a little looney if you ask me...Plan on canning these. It has really turned hot. In the 90's all week long. Hopeing to get our pool FINALLY set up. Doesnt seem to be a priority for some, it is for me, I am hot! |
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
update
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Been awhile since I have been on. Thought I would update you on our life lately. Had about a 15 day stretch where every minute of our day was planned. Helped a dear friend with her daughters wedding on the 6th of June. This was very fun. I had also been helping with the pageant for OLD FORT BOISE DAYS here in Parma. My dd was a "little sister" ( little escorts for the queen contestants. They dress up like them, etc. She was in hog heaven!) Anyway, assisted the gal in charge and my dear friend donated her decorations for the stage for the pageant. Was a blessing. She was awesome! The pageant turned out well. I really found that I learned to love these girls and kind of miss them. Did stuff with them from the pageant thru the 13th this weekend. The winner was Hailey Brutsman~Rice. Her family owned Mount Royal Ranch out here and hosted the parma play days. We got to know there family and my dd and her youngest are fast friends now. Kalee will love riding out at their place. Wonderful people. Also my boys this weekend had a recital. They both played 2 pieces on the piano and William is also taking voice lessons. He sang in a trio and also sang a solo. Did very well. Was very proud momma. The rain has been pooring tons around here. Havent had to water the grass, garden or orchard. Very nice.....I kind of like gray skys, and thunder and lightening. Must be my Oregon blood! I may have been raised here but was born there. Did a bunch of food storage this monday. Had a sweet friend give me a huge basket of asparagus. Pickled 23 qts of asparagus and then ate a bunch for dinner that night. Also picked strawberries and pie cherries that day. Flash froze 20 qt bags worth. ALso pitted 9 qt bags worth of cherries and made 2 cherry pies! Daddy love cherry pies. So he was happy. Sweet hubby helped a single farmer gal here in town this week. Bucked about 10-20 tons of hay for her yesterday. Then went and covered in the pooring rain this morning. Was a dear man I have. I think he loved every minute of it. I am sure we know where we can get hay now too! Feel like I have made new friends with all of my adventures this last while, but havent kept up with my old ones. Plan on doing it this next few weeks. Miss them all! |
Thursday, June 4, 2009
been busy...........going to be for a little while...........
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We have been so busy around the homestead..... Got garden in. WE have : 52 tomato plants 9 cherry tomato 2 rows of sweet corn 4 rows of onions 4 rows of beets a row of purple kohlarabi a row of green kohlarabi a row of turnips mixed greens spinach romaine lettuce a row of flat peas. 2 rows of regular peas swiss chard radishes bok choy regular green peppers jalapenos cayenne peppers canteloupe honeydew watermelon zucchini yellow squash butternut acorn spaghetti squash egg plant brussell sprouts I know I am missing something. We have also been working hard on cleaning up around here. Gotten a bunch of weeds cleared out. DH has been rebuilding our chicked house and run. Doubling its size. WE bought 15 more chickens yesterday. So we have over 30 laying hens now. I am helping a dear sweet friend of mine with her daughters wedding reception. I cant wait to see it all come together. That is this weekend. I am also helping with the Old Fort Boise Queen Contest/Pageant. My DD is a "little sister" kind of a cute escort for one of the contestants. It will be over the end of next week. Then I will be back to work here. The house has suffered with the extra activities. SO I must focus on that when all is over. We sold our milk cow. The kids were sad to see her go. She just wasnt producing the amount of milk we wanted and she wasnt bred. If we had our pasture planted it might have been different. BUt we were dumping money into a cow that would eventually dry up if she didnt breed. So...ya know. WE still have plenty of animals to keep us busy. Just dont have to milk twice a day, ya know...grin..... |
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
New addition
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Well we have another baby calf....that makes 3 now. My DS age 10 is working for the dairy down the road in them mornings and evenings. He works for an hour each time. He went down last week and the dairyman, said......come here.....so he went out to the barn and a momma was having her calf, but was having great difficulty. The calf was too big. So the dairyman put chains on the calf and handed them to DS and told him to pull! HE pulled a gigantic calf. IT was a bull calf and the dairyman doesnt keep them. He sold it to DS for $10. We named him Whopper....because he is a whopping big calf and we are going to eat him.....The other two calves are named Sloppy Joe and Big Mac. They are 6 weeks, 1 month and now a week. |
Friday, April 24, 2009
Long....week
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It has been a long week. We have worked all day outside since Sunday. The weather has been gorgeous. DH Trenched all around our house and yard to put pipe in for irrigation. Then we seeded our big yard! WE will have grass by the end of spring. After 3 winters here with just mud, I am looking forward to a nice yard for our 3 kids to play on! WE have planted a few bushes. We bought 3 dwarf burning bushes. I guess they turn a brilliant red in the fall. I cant wait to see what they look like. In the back of our house, which is where everyone enters our house we are planting some low growing bushes and some roses. We bought 5 tea rose plants. They should be beautiful! I cant wait. It is hilarious. Our family is covered in dirt tonight. We will be having a party in the bathroom all night long! Well off to feed the brood and get to bed early! |
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Provident Providers?
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What is a provident provider? All of us are responsible to provide for ourselves and our families in both temporal and spiritual ways. To provide providently, we must practice the principles of provident living: joyfully living within our means, being content with what we have, avoiding excessive debt, and diligently saving and preparing for rainy-day emergencies. When we live providently, we can provide for ourselves and our families and also follow the Savior’s example to serve and bless others. Being provident providers, we must keep that most basic commandment, “Thou shalt not covet” (Exodus 20:17). Our world is fraught with feelings of entitlement. Some of us feel embarrassed, ashamed, less worthwhile if our family does not have everything the neighbors have. As a result, we go into debt to buy things we can’t afford—and things we do not really need. Whenever we do this, we become poor temporally and spiritually. We give away some of our precious, priceless agency and put ourselves in self-imposed servitude. Money we could have used to care for ourselves and others must now be used to pay our debts. What remains is often only enough to meet our most basic physical needs. Living at the subsistence level, we become depressed, our self-worth is affected, and our relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and the Lord are weakened. We do not have the time, energy, or interest to seek spiritual things. How then do we avoid and overcome the patterns of debt and addiction to temporal, worldly things?I have learned that the three most loving words are “I love you,” and the four most caring words for those we love are “We can’t afford it.”There is an equally important principle underlying these lessons: we can learn much from communicating with our husbands and wives. As we counsel and work together in family councils, we can help each other become provident providers and teach our children to live providently as well. ~~~April 2009 Elder Robert D. Hales |
Sunday, April 19, 2009
FIREPROOF
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If you haven't seen the movie FIREPROOF!!!!!!!! It is a must see. I have had numerous family members and friends tell me this and I am so glad I did. My sis and bil bought Dh and I the book love dare that goes with it for Christmas. This is definate must see and must read!!!!!!! |
Sunday, April 19, 2009
God's positive responses
Jeanne from On my mind today had this posted on her blog. It really spoke to me. We all need to reminded sometimes....thought it was worth reposting here!
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Garden started
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Luckily yesterday was a much sunnier day that as of late. It was kind of windy so I didnt notice that I was getting a sunburn on my neck and right arm though....Anyway. We got all of our hardier, early stuff in the garden. We planted.......flat snow peas, 2 kinds of regular peas that you shell. 2 kinds of carrots, 2 kinds of beets, turnips, green kohlarbi, and purple kohlarbi, 2 kinds of spinach, romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, a lettuce mix, green cabbage, purple cabbage, brussell sprouts, broccoli, white cauliflower, purple cauliflower....and I am sure I have forgotten something else. BUt it is prepped. Checked on our little baby starts in our makeshift green house. Most are doing well. I am worried about our tomato starts though. I dont think they will make it. grrrr! May need to start some more. Also got the cow pin and the calf pin cleaned up and restrawed. Everyone is comfy and warm and the seeds have been tucked into their garden beds.......grin..... Today we are going to try to get our house clean and organized and of course do school with the kiddos. They are almost done for the day. We get them up at 6 am with us to do chores. Hope we get somethings done. |
Sunday, April 12, 2009
what a weekend...................
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Well, Happy Easter..... It has been a crazy weekend. This friday I did something very stupid....I know not a very nice word....but that is like the only word that fits! Our power went out and I was washing dishes. Well when you are on a well you only have so much water in the tank so I plugged the rinsing side of the sink and let it fill. Water eventually emptied and then I left in the on postion......are you imagining what happens now? Anyway......I finished the dishes, but didnt drain the sinks and left the sink in on postion and went to town on some errands....When I came back there was water everywhere! Water in my laundryroom, water in the kitchen counters, cupboards, under appliances...into my diningroom and into the front livingroom. I was horrified. Well we shop vac'd, and rainbowed everything and have had like 8 box fans blowing on them for a couple of days. I pray it all drys....we really dont want to have a claim put on our house insurance and dont want mold either.......Pray for us.... Anyway, the next day I turned 39!! I know gasp!!!!!! Wasnt much different than any other day. Still had chores, besides cleaning my swamp and cows to milk, chickens and rabbits and cats to feed and water , etc.....etc...... Dh had to work. I will be doing something with my parents on Monday and we are eating with my inlaws for dinner today. We are providing the ham and scalloped potatoes. |
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Canning Bacon~with pics....from Anteagrarian blog
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Canning Bacon~ with pics When the local grocery store puts these 10 lbs boxes up for sale we usually buy several. We purchased these boxes for $11.99 a box. Logan only bought 30 lbs. this time for me to can.  Some of the bacon sometimes has alot of fat on them, so I'll cut away the fat and keep it. With the fat we save I'll then render into lard. Once you've fried the bacon place it in the jars. You'll want to leave alittle fat on the bacon so you'll have fat to pour over the pieces in the jar. Usually you'll want to pour the fat about half way in the jar. Here's some pics of mine ready to go into the cannier. Place your lids in boiling water to sterilize them. Clean the jars and rims (especially the rim and threads) after you've place the meat in and before you place your lid on. Place the lid on using a lid wand. This usually comes with canning utensil sets. Then place the band on till it feels slightly tight, just finger tip tight. You can the bacon for 90 mins according to however many lbs. of course you have. A full cannier load I'll can for 90 mins at 15 lbs. This cannier load was only eight pints which was one box, and I canned it for 90 mins. at 10 lbs. You can see the fat has cooled and the bacon is ready to be stored. Today I'm finishing up the last two boxes we have. On Monday I plan on canning some hamburger meat Logan bought on sale for $1.49 a pound at the local grocery store. I'll try and post on that as well.Answering ?'s about bacon canning.Thanks for the tutorial, I do have a couple questions though, if you don't mind.1. How do you normally use the bacon once its canned. 2. Do you fry the bacon crispy or do you just somewhat fry it because it cooks more during the canning process? 3. Does the taste/texture change because it has been canned? Thanks for the questions, and I'll answer them in order. 1. I normally use the bacon in the morning in eggs. I'll open the can and scope out some of the bacon along with the fat and heat it up in my frying pan. The fat helps to coat your pan so when you add your eggs they won't stick. Once your bacon is slightly heated and fat melted add your eggs and cook. Then if you want add cheese, salt, & pepper. Easy, yummy, scrambled eggs. I use the bacon in anything that calls for bacon. I'll put it on salads for bacon bits, and in broccoli salad. The great thing is the bacon is already cooked. All you may have to do is slightly heat it up, and there's no mess. I've used the bacon in potato cheese soup, and for quick BLT sandwiches. You can use it however you want. If we have leftover's from a jar I've opened we'll just eat the bacon for a snack. I can't really say I have a favorite recipe I use it in, because we use it alot. 2. I fry my bacon till it's done. Not really crispy, but done enough to go ahead and eat. Then I'll place it in the jars. 3. Canning it doesn't really change the texture except you won't have really crispy bacon. The flavor is still the same, and no one I've ever given it to has noticed it was canned bacon instead of freshly made. People usually say how great it is. |
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Canning Hamburger ~from Anteagrarian Blog
Canning Hamburger |
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Rendering Lard from Anteagrarian blog
Rendering LardWhen canning the bacon I usually cut fat off the pieces that don't have a lot of meat on them. This allows me to later render that fat into lard. Danielle Bunker first showed me how to render lard last year, and it's something that really is easy to do.  When your finished filling the jars be sure to use a hot washcloth and clean the jars really well. Then can the way you would anything else. Yesterday I also canned more hamburger meat Logan purchased. I just placed my four pints of lard in with the hamburger. I usually have always done my lard this way because I never seem to have a large amount to can at one time. When the lard has completely cooled it'll harden and turn white.  In the future we hope to use lard in fat lamps for light. Also for cooking purposes as well. We had some much needed rain early Monday morning and are thankful the Lord provided us with it. We continue to pray for more rain, and there's a possibility for more this afternoon and night.
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Sunday, April 12, 2009
A wonderful blog......
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There is a wonderful blog that I have followed for quite awhile and she is planning on closing her blog down. Right now I am copying some of her wonderful posts here to share here wealth of information with others and not have it lost for the future. Her blog was: www.anteagrarians.com |
Thursday, April 2, 2009
New addition
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Well our little farm is growing weekly. My father in law came by the other day with the kids "Easter" presents.....you guessed it.......Five in our family so he brought 5 bunnies! So now we have 2 cows with 2 more on the way......5 bunnies.....18 chickens.....like 6 cats(outside ones)......and my MIL and SIL's dogs think that she should be here the entire day.....so it is like we have 3 dogs. All we need is some pigs and sheep or goats and we will have just about everything. I never had any pets when I was young. This is a huge stretch for me. I am getting used to it though. Not sure about the bunnies by do love the cow. I even have learned to like the cats. Didnt like them at all growing up at all. |
Saturday, March 28, 2009
going well
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Things are going well with the cows. We are definately getting into a routine with them. Momma cow is giving more milk with each milking. Baby cow is thriving. We are getting another baby next week. We will be raising it for a friend. Milking is taking about 20-30 from beginning to end. Not too bad. It will be nicer when it is warmer. This week we need to get our garden planted. I have lots of starts started inside, but I want to get my harder stuff in. Peas, cabbages, broccoli, brussell sprouts, radishes, kolorabi, carrots, etc! I pray that our garden produces well this year. I want to be able to save $$ this summer and eat mostly out of our garden and our animals. The chickens have picked up on their production too. Right now the only things I have to buy at the store are fresh veges and fruit and cleaning products. It is a nice feeling. Also some cheese. We should be able to make most of our own cheese here soon. |
Saturday, March 28, 2009
YUMMY DINNER!
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Last night we had a very Nourishing Traditions dinner and it tasted so good! I made salmon with slice onions, lemon and rosemary and butter wrapped in tinfoil and poached. Then on the side I served a spinach/walnut/mushroom and tomato salad. Also served a really great rice dish. The rice dish was made like this: 3 cups of brown rice 2 cups of coconut milk 2 tablespoons of butter 3 cups of chicken stock 1 cup of water 1 1/2 tablespoons of curry handful of dried onion I put all the items in the rice cooker and when it was done it was was the creamiest and yummiest rice! This is definately a dish I will make again! |