Reusable canning lids & tasty treats

We invested in some Tattler canning lids this summer and I have canned my first batch of goodies using them. I found the process no more bothersome than the Ball/Mason lids** although I have to say I kind of miss the "ping!" sound of the metal lids sealing. The jars all sealed properly so I suppose there isn't much else to say. For something as exciting as a reusable lid I'd expected to have a lot more to chatter on about! When a jar of food gets opened I can examine the rubber rings and such. They get washed and dried and put away until the next time you need to use them.

Bought some corn from a local farmer and put up a dozen pints of sweet corn. And today I'm making peach jam. I bought Pomona's Pectin which is a citrus pectin activated by calcium so I can use as much or little sweetener as I wish. I've not used it before... the worst that can happen is the end consistency won't be jam-like. Still edible and delicious though! I'll be adding a splash of rum and possible a dash of vanilla.

Also on my list of preserving projects is making something out of the rosehips. I have old roses, the sort people plant for the big flowers, which set crab-apple sized hips. I'm pondering a syrup as we don't actually eat a lot of jams and jellies. A rosehip syrup could go on pancakes & waffles, or be added to tea for a little extra flavor & vitamin C & sweetness. Hm..

My compost+potting soil-in-buckets tomato growing project is working well, except for the calcium levels not being what they should. I've seen some signs of blossom end rot which is most likely because the watering method was essentially just washing nutrients right on by the roots and out the buckets into the ground. Which was facilitated by my lack of properly mixing all the bucket ingredients prior to transplanting my seedlings. Learning curves, and am I ever thankful that my literal survival hasn't been dependent upon getting it right, right now.

**I feel I should elaborate about this. I -personally- don't find this more fiddly. Many people, however, probably would. With the metal disposable lids, you have them waiting in boiling hot water while you fill your jars. You put the tattler lids & rubber rings in scalding hot water while you fill your jars. Pretty much the same so far.

Next, you wipe the jar rims clean (very important step, if you skip it, don't expect 100% seal rates). For metal lids you put a lid on, and then a metal screw band gets put on and tightened (not wrenched super tight, just hand-tightened), and then the jars go in the canner.

For the tattler lids, you put a gasket on the plastic lid and then put them on the jars, put on a metal screw band just like you would for the metal lids, hand-tighten, and then *back off 1/4 INCH. In other words, you tighten it all the way and then loosen it that 1/4" smidge. Then the jars go in the canner.

After canning, jars with metal lids get taken out and set to cool on the counter and when cool the metal bands come off. Tattler lidded jars, however, as they come out of the canner you need to tighten the metal band the rest of the way, and then set them to cool.

The tattler lidded jars need to cool completely (12-24 hours) before you take off the metal screw bands.

So, yes, a bit more fiddly, on a literal level. Mentally for me, it isn't that big a deal. I am a fiddly canner. The lid stuff is a lot less hassle than monitoring a pressure canner! (Which isn't too bad if you have a chair or stool to sit on and a good book to read, and remember to look at the gauge every couple of pages in your book).

And then too, there will be the extra fiddly-ness later what with needing to be careful in removal so as not to damage the gaskets or lids or jar rim (use the backside of a butter knife to gently pry them open); and to not stretch the rubber gaskets when washing them.

I guess a lot of people prefer to just hurry through everything and anything which adds steps to a process is something they strive to eliminate. Canning for me is a Slow Process. If I wanted to hurry I would just go to the store and buy cheap tinned food.

Anyhow, I had realized that my post about the lids might be misleading regarding the amount of "bother" involved with the reusable lids. Hence the addendum. I'll report back over time about this product as I am actually rather curious to see how well it keeps a seal over time, if removing lids causes a lot of damage, how well actual reusing of the lids works and so forth.

Of crafts and Summertime

I have a lot of projects on my various lists that have been sitting dormant most of the summer. Summertime is filled with the growing things- vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers. It is a time of furious picking (the speed, not the emotional state of mind). A time of drying bundles and bundles of herbs, more than it would seem a person could possibly ever want or need to use.

When summer is nearing an end and the children are preparing to start the new schoolyear, I usually feel a sense of urgency. It is an "oh no, already?! It can't be!" sort of a feeling. The garden has another solid month of growing time and possibly another month beyond that if the cold weather holds off.

But the season shifts palpably in these next few weeks and then I really feel the squirrel instinct kick into high gear. Is it some latent genetic trait that ensured the survival of my ancestors through the cold dark harsh winters? Is it remnants of a full and carefree childhood filled with gardens and pantries full of jarred sunshine? I don't dwell too much on where this instinct arises, I merely am at its mercy.

In these brightly lit long days I find myself labeling jars with delightful things such as "dried lemon" and "clover blossom"; things which promise a hearty nourishment in the deep winter such as "dried turnip" and "raspberry jam". I find myself doing daily yard checks and picking yet another small bundle of mint to dry for tea, a check to see if the nasturtiums are budding (the pickled buds make a delightful substitute for capers and the blossoms add such a yummy zip to a salad). A few things are setting seed and the songbirds are feasting on the bounty.

It is a busy time- the plants run rampant everywhere needing a constant vigilance to keep them within their bounds (or in the case of weeds, removed and exiled).

There too are all the family summertime activities which fill the hours and days with much excitement and memory-making.

Very little in all this leaves much room or energy for the hobbies I also love. The cross stitch, the scrapbooking, reading, making music, learning herbs & essential oils, sewing, weaving, or my latest... knitting. I was given the most awesome advance birthday+christmas gift: fine wool yarn, needles, and a pattern (and stitch markers too!) I'd been wanting to make a shawl and now I'll be able to. When I have time. And when the weather isn't so hot that the thought of wool yarn gives me heat rash, LOL!

If I can get my camera working I will take some photos of herbs and things to share.

Neem

Last I wrote I was talking about the aphids in my tomato plants. I visited several nurseries with no luck in finding ladybugs. One person helpfully said a person could order them online (which is only helpful if you are willing to wait however long it takes to ship the critters). So I bought neem and a spray bottle and a few pots of small flowers because they were lovely as well as being at a discount since it was getting near the end of the 'bedding plants' season.

Once home I read the instructions on the neem and it was full of dire caution about not spraying when the honeybees were out because it would kill them off. Yikes! I decided I would have to go out after sundown and then just never got around to it.

This weekend was "rearrange pots in greenhouse" and as I was tying up the tomato plants with twine (simpler than cages in a greenhouse especially when you put off doing it so long that the plants are huge) I noticed that there were hardly any aphids. Curious indeed. I had put some diatomaceous earth out to combat the severity of the ant situation which did not eliminate the ants but seems to have decreased their numbers. I'm not sure if it was the lack of enough ants to farm them or if it was predatory insects, but yay!

I have seen hornets, wasps, hover flies, lacewings and ladybugs in there.

Lesson learned- have patience. Not everything requires an Immediate Fix.

Bugs

Not a very inspired title, but I couldn't think of anything clever. I'm hoping the beneficial bugs (aka praying mantis) hatch soon. We bought a thing that looks like a cocoon or something made out of crystalized honey sorta, which purports to be a praying mantis egg sack. In theory, after temperatures rise above 75F then in approximately two weeks hundreds of baby mantis spring forth into the world and commence dining upon the banquet the home gardener has so kindly prepared for them. Well, the package didn't say that exactly, but the stinkin' ants have been farming aphids in my greenhouse tomato plants!!!

I may go buy a batch of ladybugs if I can find anyone who still has some. I know they just end up flying away back to wherever they hatched from, but if I let them loose in the greenhouse they can fatten up on my bug banquet first.

As if the bug issue in the greenhouse weren't excitement enough- this evening it finally cooled down enough to be pleasant garden weeding weather. And that's when all the mosquitos that are lurking in the beans decided to come out for a bit of Human Snack.

I decided it's just as easy to put on a hat and weed when it's warmer out, and am now indoors sipping tea and reading Tolkien. Just after I post this that is.

Potting Up

Some days I have no ambitious plans at all. My non-ambitious agenda for the day:

• walk dog
• brush dog
• pot up baby plants
• take some plant-ish garden-ish pictures
• cheer on oldest at track meet
• feed and water children regularly
  
• sleep

So far I've walked the dog, gotten middlest to school, applied food & drink to those who were hungry, and caught up on blog-reading. The little plants really do need potted up as they have about exhausted their space in the starter cells. Also, I think the nighttime temps should be high enough now that everything can move out to the greenhouse instead of perching on my fridge. I might bring the nightshade family indoors at night for a while yet (the peppers, tomatoes and eggplant). THAT will entirely depend on whether or not I actually remember to do it. Intentions excellent, follow-through haphazard.

I'm very glad to see more pleasant weather in the forecast though. It's been quite a long couple of gloomy rainy weeks hereabouts.

Spring's the Thing

We had a few days of glorious weather, sunny and almost too warm. Now we are having a spell of windy chilly weather with intermittent rain. I am glad that I haven't ignored the 'average last frost date' data this year and planted anyway in the delusional belief that my fervent wishing for summer will keep the last of the chilly spring weather away!

The seed starts are coming along nicely and I should be able to move things into my unheated greenhouse before long.

The unexpected garden challenge this spring is the addition to our family of a lovely dog. Who loves to dash about the yard with abandon and who would take digging in the dirt as an invitation to dig right along with me. I will need to devise a fencing scheme that keeps her out, lets me in, and doesn't look ugly. I'm not asking for much, lol!

The valerian, columbine and chocolate mint I planted last year have all come back up this spring. The valerian and columbine I started from seed, so those are especially gratifying. The mint I planted into a spot where if it spreads it won't cause problems, and I'm really hoping it spreads wildly because it is a delicious mint.

My raspberries, mugwort, chives, thyme, tarragon have all emerged from their long sleep; and the who-knows-where-they-came-from Johnny Jump-ups in the garden are blooming madly. I see my scheme to let the borage go to seed and thus never buy borage again has worked, as there are a plethora of little fuzzy baby borage plants emerging as well. Roses are putting out leaves, and a few of the iris have lovely green leaves.

I didn't plant the iris. They were already here, victims of being seeded over with grass at some point. I've tried to rescue them, but have had limited success (and only a couple of blossoms). I'm going to relocate the ones that have survived in one last effort at saving them.

I need to prune the sage and see how well the lemon balm is coming up.

So much to do, so little time!

Sproutlings!

The pansies and chamomile have begun sprouting! I wasn't sure how well the chamomile would germinate so I sprinkled a LOT of seeds per plant cell in my seed-starting flat. I don't know why on earth I thought they would be less likely to sprout just because they are nearly microscopic in size, LOL!!

Have misplaced the camera or I would take some photos (not that they would be exciting yet, given the barely-sprouted nature of these sprouts).

Something I love about this time of year is that the weather is so variable. Today for instance it has been cloudy, chill and rainy. So rather than clear flower and garden beds outdoors I've been staying cozy indoors with a hot drink and my stitching. Mmmm.

A little chill in the air is nice when doing vigorous yard-work. I don't, however, enjoy working in the rain unless I absolutely must.

It will be curious to see what sprouts next. In this round of starts there are also bunching onions, sweet Williams, eggplant, bee balm, gaillardia, four o'clocks and snapdragons.

I'm a bit of a wild and irreverent gardener. Flowers and veggies and herbs get tossed together and planted wherever they seem they ought to be. And that means a riot of color everywhere, and tasty things to eat tucked into any corner of the yard at all. Love it!

There is a certain beauty, too, in a well-ordered strictly vegetable patch or decorative floral/herbaceous border. I enjoy looking at such gardens, and even spending some time in them. But what makes my soul sing is something a bit less structured, a bit more wild.

End of the month I'll start some more seeds. Each year I try something new, both in plants to grow and methods of gardening. This year I'm experimenting with Gardening by the Moon. I'm also trying onions, new varieties of peppers and tomatoes, and a few more herbs.

Ahhh, Spring!