Preserving our Problems - Episode 25
Good evening patrons
On the eve of Summer the mercury hit 34°C (95°F) today!
The garden and animals are holding up alright but we’ve become quite accustomed to the cold, and with barely any warm weather this Spring, we were feeling the heat this afternoon. I’ll be taking a cold shower after I’ve published this post.
This week we say goodbye to our ducks. We’re not always this ruthless with our livestock (particularly animals that lay such delicious eggs) but we really were at a loss with what to do. We tried hand feeding and sitting with them for hours at a time in the enclosure but they never warmed to us. So many sunsets and early evenings spent quacking from the edge of the property trying to lure them from the neighbour's dam to no avail. It’s ironic they never trusted us, but if they had, they still would be part of the brood at the Ramshackle Ranch.
We are extremely pleased with our All American canner. We looked at other options available for pressure canning and, in our opinion, none of them surpassed the All American unit. They are the most expensive on the market but we were happy to pay the price to support a product wholly owned and manufactured in the United States. There are very few parts that will need replacing for its lifetime and we hope it will be handed down to future generations. In addition, we’ve scored ourselves another large cooking pot which will come in handy for big batches of stocks and future scalding for plucking when poultry processing. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you, we are so grateful your support allowed us to directly invest in such a high quality product.
Filling our new shelves with our home made produce at the end of this video filled me with such joy. We're looking forward to stacking them with so much more next year.
As always our most sincere wishes to you and your loved ones. Now for that cold shower!
Troy and Pascale
Comments (11)
I would take a picture of our pantry but it is such a mess I am ashamed to! Having food on hand just makes sense.
Hi guys, bottling (canning) as I remember it being called (when I was a rugrat) was the norm. When produce was plentiful (and cheap) Mum would always preserve for the rest of the year, everyone in the country did. So a large pantry with near a years worth of food was just the sign of a good house keeper. We had several preserving pans of different sizes as well as a very large pressure cooker, my Mum would put up fruit and vegetables manly and my Grandad would do the meat and fish. I remember very fondly going fishing for sprats (herring) to do in the pressure cooker. A little vinegar in the water under them and in no time my brother and I were fighting over the spines and heads (still crunchy). Our food was always wholesome and the atmosphere in that house was, well home. I still preserve and keep a pantry, but today people consider me a prepper or survivalists because of my pantry (small bedroom) but I can’t understand living with only a few days worth of supermarket food on hand. When a disaster comes along (cyclone etc.) I have no need to go to the empty supermarket. I was and am a lucky lad.
Sounds perfectly normal to us too. People are often amazed that we could go months without resupply on our little boat and our trips to the market are beginning to taper off again now we have a garden. The seasonal abundance you describe is very much a feature of this place as its a major agricultural town so that pressure cooker is going to be getting plenty of work.
Oh Pascale!.., once again our temperature reactions, you're reaching for the cold shower knob, as I grab for a extra blanket. Yes, several feet of snow is forecast for up in the mountains through tomorrow. Too bad those ducks got off on the wrong foot as it were, hopefully the chickens will revert back to their previous demeanor. "Air Raid" that's just too funny.... he is a hoot__that little one! Canning, is a timeless worthwhile investment, super healthy and wonderful to know is there come what may. You two have a great week!! Cheers as always, Thanks__Rob ✍️)))
Don't worry, the hot showers are still needed every other day! Yes, the ducks demise has led to harmony in the hen-house so we have returned to tranquillity. (Except at crowing time around 0500) That pressure canner is something else. Yes the jars of stores are quite wonderful to see growing but now making the actual stock in HUGE volumes just got so much easier. Having a 25L (quart) pot is life changing 😋
Thank you! I really enjoyed this episode... it was all so interesting. Inviting the ducks to the dinner table was a great idea! Love the new shelving, Troy... and I really love what Pascale stocked them with! YUMMY! Lots of love to you both.
Those ducks' fears really did become a self fulfilling prophecy sadly, but now the chickens have a restored sense of well-being and happily gather around whenever we work outside. Turning a pile of wood that was off to the fire into those shelves was very satisfying as is packing it with food and clearing our kitchen benches! Thanks Paul and have a lovely summer.
Just a suggestion and coming from a winemaking background, Ullage is a big issue, Keeping it to a minimum or even zero is very important, As oxygen is the enemy, Keeping it to a minimum will make things last even longer, That's why vacuum sealed works so well👍
Thanks John, our decision to get various sizes of fermenter looks like paying off. Ullage also seems to be very important in canning too for the same reason, though that community calls it head space.
Glad you're ok after having that jar spray you! Lucky that there was a camera between you and it. I remember that kind of thing happening once when I was a kid, helping my mom with canning. Took me a while to want to try it for myself. Take good care!
Some lessons come cheaper than you deserve! You can bet that jars get a lot more cooling time around here now before that heavy lid comes off the pot...