It's Bean-Time!

Man a year goes by fast! It just seems like yesterday I was pickin' and a snappin'. Beans that is. Yesterday we had absolutely gorgeous weather with the temperature reaching only 84 degrees F but I unfortunately didn't get to enjoy much of it. Besides sitting on the deck snapping beans, I was inside canning. Two batches equalling 13 quarts. Canner takes 7 quarts at once but one was for eatin'. Canning one batch takes about 2 hours counting cooking the beans (hot pack), filling the jars, getting them in the canner, processing and finally the cool down to get them out of the canner. Actual processing time is just 25 minutes for quarts.


Even Asher helped with the snappin'. Of course we had to go in and investigate his beans or we might end up eating who knows what. We used bush beans, Kentucky Wonder this year.

These beans are out of our garden even though you see the Walmart bags. Once our buckets get full, we put them in the bags so we can keep picking using our bowls and buckets which are easy to spray with the hose to clean the garden dirt off.

This is a pretty good size sink, the best way to wash them in my opinion. Swirl the beans around then dunk a strainer in to fish them out then spray with water again. Easy peasy.

So here's the fruit of our labor. My labor. I was the only one canning. No one even came in for a drink while I was doing this... hmmm. I only had two casualties. Two jars fell from my counter with a crash and glass went everywhere. Good thing I guess the little fella wasn't under foot.


If you've never canned before, it's actually way less scarier than it sounds. Just get yourself a large canner, jars lids and bands, a jar puller outer thingy (technical name) and canning salt. You can either buy the fresh beans or grow them. Easy and very gratifying. I've got an awesome salsa recipe that you can can here.


Hopefully this is the first of bunches of more jars for the winter. We eat a lot of beans around here. It's just about the only green thing my kid will eat. We've got high temps of 105 Thursday, 106 Friday and Saturday! Thank God I won't be pickin' beans ;) at least for another week or so. Good water time temps.


Catch ya later,

Beans and corn and corn and corn and beans

Sweet Corn - temperatures so hot the camera kept fogging up - but how cute is my little helper?!

So the garden has come in and in a big way. Every year about this time, gardening... vegetable gardening that is, becomes hard work and makes me want to give up quit and just buy grocery store food. Between the mosquitoes that think I'm a free all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for them and my sensitive skin blistering up from just rubbing against the leaves and weeds it's been a trying season.

Especially like the last couple days. I've picked beans, snapped beans, canned beans and they never end. Hours and hours of beans. Yesterday in the sweltering 98 degrees (F) with heat indexs of about 105+ we picked corn, cut down the corn, schucked the corn blanched the corn and wrapped each cob in Saran wrap and then froze the corn.

Today... still more corn to schuck, blanch and this time cut the corn with this blood thirsty little machine that sliced me up good all to get the kernels off and then freeze for creamed corn (but don't freeze the bloody corn). Now the dang beans need to be picked again. I feel like Jack and the Beanstalk, only it's the beans that just keep coming and coming. Oh and guess what I'm doing Thursday (today technically after I go to bed and wake up)... you guessed it, more corn. Plus, the tomatoes are just coming in too so that means salsa and canning tomatoes and maybe some sauce. Wow, no wonder I've got no time for creating any new art!

Yeah, yeah I can hear you all now saying Dang... she's crazy! Well, yes. Yes I am. I've turned into Psycho Suzie Homemaker haha... living off the land but bitchin' about it the whole time. But come December when I'm cracking open those jars of home grown green beans and heating up that sweet corn that tastes like I just picked it I'll be feeling pretty good about myself... haha.  Not to mention munching tortilla chips with my to die for Dee-licious Salsa! Yummy! see it here cooking

Jaime's Dee-Licious Salsa
Makes 8 pints + a half pint to eat right then! ;oP


Ingredients:
9 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained (I don't bother seeding, but you can)
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups green peppers
1 cup jalapeno pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar ( I like apple cider vinegar)
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste

Mix all together and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes. I can it and I've also froze it in jelly jars with great results. It smells divine and you'll have to beat off the people with a big stick to get them to leave you alone trying to get you to make more. But believe me, you'll wanna make more.

First Canning Job Evah

Well yesterday for the first time ever, I canned. Woo hoo! the best part is, it was easy! I've been wanting to can for years but have been afraid to. I jumped in head first. I bought this gargancheous pressure canner. It was so big, that I had to buy a new cooktop. These may be the most expensive homegrown and canned green beans in the history of mankind. 

Last year I froze everything including the beans and they were icky, just horrible. I froze tomatoes, salsa, corn, peppers and yellow and green squash. This year I'm gonna be a "Cannin' Freak". I may just have to buy another shelf for the basement!

I also, spied my first ripe tomato! A Stupice, one of my Heirloom Tomatoes I grew from seed. I haven't had a tomato before July 4th in a long time! They are growing gangbusters! I think they have found some tomato crack in the soil or something. Seriously, they are doing fabulous.

Today, I also did a little sketch of a fairy. Man, I really need to practice and loosen up some.