Saturday, July 16, 2016

Peach Butter

A few day ago the same people who gave us the plums, gave us some peaches from their tree.
I usually freeze peaches in jars with orange juice and sugar syrup but I have some from last year. So I decided to make peach butter.

I've never made  fruit butters before although I have wanted to for several years. I thought making fruit butters was hard and time consuming, I thought you had to watch over the pot and keep stirring and stirring.  Well let me tell you how easy it is.  First we peeled and pitted the peaches, sliced them and put them in the crock pot.  I added cinnamon, sugar and cloves to taste, put the lid on the crock pot and let it cook on low all night.  In the morning I put the butter in the blender to smooth out the pieces of peach then put it back in the crock pot until  it was as thick as I wanted it. I think it took about 17 hours.  I put the butter in jelly jars and processed them for 5 minutes in a water bath.

Turned out very good.  Can't wait until the apples come in.  If I had know it was so easy I would have made fruit butters a long time ago.  This will go on the shelf with the jelly and jam.
                                                                                                  Thanks for Lookin

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Plum Jam

Today our neighbor gave us some plums from their two trees. I've never liked plums very well but

 when some one gives you plums, you make plum jam.
This is my third batch of Plum jam. I followed the recipe in the "Sure Gel" box and it all turned our really well,  just a little sweet and a little tart.

I'll put it on the shelf with the blueberry jam from last year and black berry jam from two years ago. We picked mulberries from our tree which will go into the freezer with any thing else we pick so I can make jam next year and then put it on the shelf with the rest of the jam. You can never have too much jam.
                         Oh when will it ever end.



Stay tuned for PINTO BEANS.    Thanks for lookin



Friday, July 1, 2016

Canning Deer Stew

Today I canned the deer stew. Having a friend who owns Woods and Waters Taxidermy was a big help last year during deer season.  If you are looking for a great processor  and  taxidermist, look him up. You can find him on face book. WoodsAndwatersTaxidermy .

I don't measure when I cook unless it is important so I can't tell you how much of any thing I used.
I used cubed venison , cubed potatoes, onions, carrots and a few frozen peas from last years garden, browning liquid, salt and pepper,










 After browning the venison, I put all ingredients in a large pot and boiled them until every thing was hot but not cooked.  I used clear gel for a thickener, filled seven quart jars and processed them for 90 minutes in a pressure canner.  My final count was 12 quarts of stew,
and 5 pints of cubed deer meat for use in other recipes.
This will be wonderful this winter with a big skillet of corn bread..


                                             Next up.  Plum Jam.  Thanks for Lookin



 

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

CORRECTION PLEASE READ

I made a mistake on my last post about the Zaycon chicken.   I stated the time for my quarts as 75 minutes.  I didn't make quarts,  The 75 minutes is for pints.  You have to process quart for 90 minutes.

The most important thing about canning is SAFTEY.     Read instructions carefully and follow them exactly

I'm doing beef stew tomorrow. Last years turned out great  So stay tuned for the recipe and pictures.
                                       
                                                           Thanks for lookin.

Monday, June 27, 2016

ZAYCON CHICKEN

Ok, I picked up my order of Zaycon chicken on Wednesday.  It was just like it was suppose to be.  We arrived at the pick up point a little early and watched the truck pull into the parking lot.  Several cars were waiting along with us.  After setting up those orange to show the customers which way to pull up to the truck, we drove up and gave the man our name. He found our box and put it in the back of our car and we were on our way home. He was very nice by the way.

The chicken breast were very cold and very big and very clean.  There were four 10 pound bags inside another bag inside the box.  After sharing with our son and daughter we had 30 pounds to can.

 I cut the chicken breast into large cubes and lightly browned them, then filled wide mouth pint jars with the chunks.  I put in one half tsp of dehydrated chicken broth and one quarter tsp of dry seasoning. Then filled the jars with boiling water.   Processing time was 75 minutes for my quarts at 11 pounds pressure.  I got 24 pints canned had enough cubes left to put three quart bags in the freezer.


They turned our great. The chicken was very tender, and fresh. I will definitely order more.
Actually the next delivery date is in October of this year.  The price as of today is about 67 dollars.  I highly recommend this company especially if you are a canner and like to buy in bulk at prices cheaper than the grocery store.
        Check them out. at zayconfresh.com

                  Thanks for lookin

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Another Straight From The Garden

I have always had a fail when it comes to growing garlic. One year i lost it because all the leaves were gone and I just couldn't find where I planted it.

Last fall I put 6 garlic cloves in the ground and covered them up with rotted leaves. Then I got on line and read hundreds of articles on how to grow garlic.  Well maybe not a hundred, but close.  I learned that  you are suppose to dig it when  three or four stalks turn yellow. So today I noticed that there were some yellow stalks so I got the tater fork and dug up 6 garlic bulbs.  Not bad for a first time ever growing garlic.  The bulbs are big but there are no indentations like a garlic bulb should have, and two of the bulbs have a yellow knot on the outside the size of a marble.  Maybe I dug them too early.

The snow peas are starting to produce so I picked a couple hand fulls of them.   So today for dinner we are having snow peas and garlic.  ha.  
                                                   Thanks for Lookin

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Straight From The Garden

This time of year we get anxious to cook up something from
the garden, So between rains, Mr farmer was able to pull up
some green onions and cut off some black seeded simpson
lettuce. I cooked some bacon , made cornbread and opened a
jar of white beans and ham that was canned last year.

This is the kind of meal my mom use to make, good, fresh,
easy and not laden with chemicals.

                       WILTED LETTUCE

wash your leaf lettuce and tear into smaller pieces
chop the green onions and add to the lettuce
cook bacon till crisp and crumble over lettuce
heat the bacon grease until almost smoking and pour over
the lettuce, It should sizzle and pop and shrink the lettuce.
Mix all together add salt and pepper.  yum yum

                       thanks for lookin'

Friday, June 3, 2016

Where Have I Been

 I was told today that I haven't posted on my blog for almost a year.    Wow how time flies.

   So  here goes.  I just found out about a company that offers fresh, frozen, farm to (your car) meats.
   You order on line and pay with credit card and then pick up the product at a point close to your home. Since I'm a "canner", I decided to try them out.  I must say that the site that brought this to my attention is very reliable and the prices are cheaper than grocery stores.

The company is called zayconfresh.com . I ordered 40 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast for $75.60. I will pick up this order Wednesday, May 15th at a near by church. Straight from the farm freezer truck to my car then straight home to my canner.

So stay tuned. I will be back in a couple of weeks to show what I bought and how I process it.

Thanks for lookin