Monday, July 31, 2006
I Guess it's Canning Season
This afternoon I sent the boys out to pick what was left of the peas, and while processing them I asked them to check on the green beans. Well, they finally came in with 15 GALLONS!! Needless to say, I may be up for a while yet, snapping beans in preparation for our big day tomorrow. I'm sure glad Jim is an engineer by training, as the pressure gauge is no big deal for him. I've always been a bit afraid of pressure canners, so this is going to be quite an experience. Hope we do okay in the morning! I'll let you know how it goes.
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7 comments:
Lynn, how many beans did you plant? I went out last night and got about 1/4 of the way down one row and had 2 gallons of beans. I need to get back out there this morning, but the air is so thick, I am having problems breathing. I envy your help!! =)
Marci, we planted six 50 foot rows of beans! It's taken forever to get this canning going, but at least our first canner of beans seemed to work!
Oh my! I think that is going to keep you eating beans for a while (I love beans). Mom and I usually planted one 20 foot row of beans and stopped canning at 100 quarts. What variety of beans did you plant? Are you saving seeds for yourself next year?
Ben reminded me that your soil is quite sandy (at least from what Jonathan wrote on older posts). Do you think you'd get much produce if you didn't water? I thought our soil in SK was dry, but we didn't water most of our garden (just tomatoes, peppers and peas) and got good crops most years. But we weren't blessed to have a lake on the property and had to limit our watering to rainwater we collected.
Have you guys considered mulching? Our whole garden was mulched and it drastically reduced the amount of watering required.
I just got a lovely answer to a prayer request I've had - for supplies for canning. I have just enough cukes, tomatoes and peppers to need to can some stuff. I put an ad in our local freecycle for free canning supplies and a lady just offered me her pressure canner. I had decided I'd have to either freeze the produce or do without, and the Lord so graciously provided me with a canner!
Love
Heather
Hi Heather,
We have clay soil, which was rock hard until we had someone come in with a tractor and then we added dried sheep manure from a neighbor's farm. They added dumptruck full after dumptruck full,and it really made a difference. We also mulched with hay after the plants came up. That has helped, but it's been dry for so long that things are easily getting wilty. This is our trial year to see how much we can produce ourselves and can. As you can see, we are gluttons for punishment! Off hand I can't remember which variety of bean we planted, but it's open pollinated and we are saving seeds. I'm so glad that you found a canner and other supplies! I need to place an ad in the local paper for more canning jars!
Saw your name in a comment on Walter's blog (SugarMtn Farm) and thought I'd peek in. I can't believe you've still got peas! Wow. Great job on all those beans, too. Ours are *just* starting to get tiny baby beans; guess we've had flowers for a week now, if that.
Wow, Lynn! What bounty! What a blessing! I just love beans, can't get enough. Are you going to let any mature and dry on the plants for dried beans? What about freezing any? I prefer frozen veggies to canned but we don't have a freezer yet. If we have a large garden next year, hopefully the Lord will provide one. I'm in fear of pressure cookers, too, but my mom used one for years without incident. Speaking of manure, we need to find a source for some (like a ton) to add to our soil. It's just horrible, like clay mixed with gravel, and rocks galore. Hopefully this fall will be our soil management season.
Emily, we prefer frozen vegetables as well, but I need to save room for chickens that we butcher (if there are any left), so I have to go to canning. I'm thankful we don't have as many rocks as you do in our soil, but we certainly have our share. I guess that's why you have so many rock walls in NH!
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