Posted on 08/30/2013 1:16:25 PM PDT by greeneyes
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Canned food using the water bath method, will stay good at least a year, right?
I'm thinking about not having power. I've read a recipe for pickling most veggies, even pickling them together and using the water bath. If you didn't have power, you could use the water bath method and keep the pot boiling on any kind of emergency stove, but I don't think one could use the pressure canner without problems keeping the pressure regulated over some emergency type stove. DO YOU AGREE?
Any plan that has someone else do the work is a good plan.LOL And no I am not related to Tom Sawyer, but I did read the book!
Me too. Next year I’ll try to be prepared. Get hubby to burn off the bag worms early on, and check out the peaches on her tree for canning and drying.
I truly don’t know exactly how to describe what I do, and it’s probably not very scientific anyway. Most of my soil is Mel’s mix type of sq foot gardening fame.
It is almost impossible to overwater with this mix. So I just dump a bunch of water on it, if the plants look like they need it, or the soil looks pretty dry, I stick my finger in the mix, and if I don’t hit moisture by the time my 1st knuckle is even with the top of the soil, I figger it needs water.
For my tomatoes, I give each one a quart a day, unless it’s really hot and then I give them from 1 to 2 qts. twice a day. My tomatoes this year are in the raised beds and I planted 1 per each sq. foot. Tomatoes crack if they have inconsistent watering, so that’s why I just try to kinda give them the same amount each day, once they have fruit.
I like the planters you describe. Just feel inside the hole in the pot, and add water till it runs over a little.
The first year I tried to be scientific. I looked up how much the type of plant needed per week in inches. Then I figured up the volume for the size of beds, and divided by 7 to get the amount per day.
Alas, my brain just couldn’t remember it all, and I kept loosing my crib sheet. So I just gave up and winged it.
Sorry; I rarely do containers. When I do, I ‘let the plant tell me’: if it’s not droopy, it doesn’t get water; if it starts drooping in the afternoons, that is a temporary condition, unless it is still that way the next morning. I’m always more afraid of over watering than of under watering. The exception is the Topsy-Turvy tomato planters: they, per instructions, get about a half gallon a day, unless they’ve gotten a good dose of roof runoff.
For the garden, I usually go with the top inch or so being dry or barely damp, then give them a good shot of water to give them their inch/week.
For large water guzzlers, like squash family, and cabbage family, I plant almost rim-deep a large coffee can or similar size deep container with drain holes around the base of it between 2 of them, and keep filling it until it stays pretty much full, in addition to their regular watering. I can also put fertilizer in it to get it down to the deeper roots.
It is definitely her. I almost sent a friend request, but didn’t. Maybe later. We will definitely be mailing her another Christmas card, though.
That was me, though I don't know her son; tracked him & his university email down from a tidbit of info about his job provided by another freeper. Got an email back from her; and we exchanged Christmas cards, but haven't heard anything since.
I’ve known a LOT of people over my lifetime that have regularly & copiously pressure canned on a kitchen woodstove.
Silentgypsy is working on a “rocket stove’, (for which there are many youtube videos available) and may be able to address whether one would work for canning. Personally, I don’t see why not, as long as one was attentive to keeping it fueled.
Youtube also has other alternative, emergency stove how-to videos...if you really want to get caught up in yet another line of research. ;-’)
Has anyone used paper adhesive tape to hold the seeds?
A kitchen wood stove is fairly easy to control the heat for a pressure canner to stay at the right amount of pressure.
I have a rocket stove and they are really small, not nearly enough surface to hold a pressure canner. They are doing good to hold a medium sized pan. I bought a small iron pot with cover and small iron skillet to work on the rocket stove. A rocket stove works by being insulated inside so the heat is concentrated in a small area so they burn really hot and will burn a small amount of organic fuel (only organic) until it is a small amount of ash. The temperature cannot be controlled well, if at all.
I know about every emergency stove available as I researched that years ago and in recent years. I keep up with new innovation emergency stoves which is why I have a rocket stove. In my opinion, there is no emergency stove, except a regular kitchen wood stove, that will work for a pressure canner.
Your info. about watering is good and tells me more about when to water. Thanks.
I thought it might be you, but my memory is my weakest attribute. I am not a facebooker, so I never thought about that. I seem to remember seeing here name on the product review though. I hope all is well with her and wish her the best, and am thankful for the interaction that we all had with her while she moderated the thread and before.
Youtube has many gardening channels and a person can learn much there about most anything they want. It has also helped me develop an interest in woodworking and improved my welding skills along with some other things. I’ve spent much time there this summer while recovering from two successive accidents, too much time probably.
I dug the last of my potatoes yesterday. Got 20 gallons from a 50’ row. Fried some for supper last night. Yum
That's how I do it. Simple as can be.
A banjo cooker or jet burner running on propane works really well for heating the pressure canner.
Just one of the several practical areas of youtube that was very useful to me was the the care, feeding, and use of the 1946 Ford tractor we swapped a couple of loads of scrap iron for.
After research for two days, I won't get a dehydrator or a pressure canner. I'm always considering a long term outage of power. I'll get a water bath canner and for any veggie that doesn't have enough acidity, I'll use the recipes I found at “National Center for Home Food Preservation” for pickling all veggies and using the water bath:
http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/veg_pick.html
Just before reading your post, I was at YT looking at recipes for Ghost Peppers since I have my first small crop coming in. Either a hot sauce or salsa, probably a salsa. I just brought them in and haven't tried one yet. They are supposed to be weapons grade hot!
My wife is amazed at me, sometimes I can't stand any heat, other times I want FIRE on my food!
I didn't know what a banjo cooker was...Wow, holds a 100 quart stockpot..Now, I want one.and they're not that expensive, either.
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