Just another Day on the Farm

Homemade Taco’s

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So yesterday was national taco day, something that was all over the net but its also October unprocessed, no problem, I made a corn-flour yeast based dough and made flat breads for the shells. I rolled them thin and cooked them in a cast iron

I cooked up onion garlic mushooms and fresh tomatos to which I added canned burger (our beef) and taco spices, some greens an salsa an it was a awesome dinner all the way round.

For some taco history, I have linked to a site below and copied a part of it for you to read!

Some Taco History
For a dish so widely available, the history of the taco is really unknown. But according to taco expert Jeffrey M. Pilcher, the word originates from the silver mines in Mexico in the 18th century, when taco referred to the little explosives workers used to extract the ore.These were pieces of paper wrapped around gunpowder and placed into holes carved in the rock. “When you think about it, a chicken taquito with a good hot sauce is really a lot like a stick of dynamite,” says Pilcher in an online article at Smithsonian.com. “The first references [to the taco] in any sort of archive or dictionary come from the end of the 19th century. And one of the first types of tacos described is called tacos de minero—miner’s tacos. So the taco is not necessarily this age-old cultural expression; it’s not a food that goes back to time immemorial.”

Still others claim tacos predate the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico in the 16th century. Anthropologists say there is evidence suggesting inhabitants of the lake region of the Valley of Mexico ate tacos filled with small fish. The fish were replaced by small live insects and ants in the states of Morelos and Guerrero, while locusts and snails were favorite fillings in Puebla and Oaxaca.

Taco Bell is believed to have pushed the widespread popularity of Mexican food in the U.S. Founded in California in 1962, the chain of fast-food restaurants serves up a variety of Tex-Mex foods to more than two billion customers in 5,800 restaurants in the U.S. alone.

The hard-shell taco was invented long before Taco Bell, a discovery that would aid their expansion across North America. The U-shaped version is first noted in 1949 in a cookbook by Fabiola Cabeza de Vaca Gilbert. A device that would hold the taco in its U-shape as it deep fried helped in the mass production of this product. Kits are now available everywhere.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged homemade tacos | 4 Comments

Fall Forest Hiking

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

If you have been reading for awhile or at least this year, you know that I have been camping more, taking bush type trips more and we got out for a nice hike this past weekend, I am busy enough on the farm that I am not getting away for overnights at this point.

The colors around here are just! starting to change, hints in this and that tree that is open to the edge of the main roads but back into the bush where the tree’s are creating a micro-climate not so much.. but the ferns tell a different story

Its was one of those amazing fall days, warm but cool and it smelled like fall. crispness in the air somehow.. and the mushrooms have been loving the rains.. so many to choose from..

Then there was this bad boy just hanging out.. in real life his colors and patterns were so stunning, but despite being sweet enough to let me take a few photos in different formats, this one does not do it justice but its what I have

And then was a couple lovely looking Chaga’s but to high up for me to get at them

and then this wonderful Grandfather tree that just had to be taken in black and white.. No matter how busy things are, or how much you need to do in the gardens or the kitchen or just life..

It was a wear orange kinda day and I was very unhappy to see someone working in the forest with a drone in a non- machine area. Never seen that before.. but the land itself was just what I needed.

Unprocessed Food Costs -Week One

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Oct 1st

Breakfast Apple – .50 cents plus tea an honey – total cost 75 cents (me) Hubby Apple Cake Slice and tea.. 1 dollar.
lunch Half a 4 pound chicken, with a green salad 2 pound roasted chicken at 5 per pound, salad 2.00 total 12 dollars
Snack Green Grapes -4.32
Supper – Pork Chops, pineapple and green beans
Now that pork need to be 6 dollars per pound, pineapple (2 for 5 sale) but regular 3.99, honey. 40 cents worth, 5 cents molasses, 3.99 bag of fresh green beans and 30 cents of butter..
Dessert 3.99 fresh raspberries (but harvested from our raspberry patch)

Total Cost if bought at organic (pork soy free) meats, fresh veggies and raw honey and fresh fruits

Total Cost for the day if all bought- 38.08 Averaging 6.34 cents per meal and two snacks

Farmgal Total cost for the day-17.75 Averaging 2.96 per meal and two snacks

Farmgal savings : 20.33

Oct 2nd

Breakfast -Orange 29 cents, tea and honey .50 cents, hubby also had the last piece of the apple spice cake 1.00 plus tea for a .25 cents

Lunch- 4 potato’s -Large organic heritage type 1.00 1 apple .75 cents 1 large carrot- .30 cents 1 tsp of lard- .40 cents an herbs 05 cents.

Supper- Mashed potato’s 1.50 and butter .50 half a roasted chicken 2 pounds -10 and Basic Green salad with mushroom and carrot with a little bit of dill dressing. 2.99 (going for the most basic salad in a bag) and 3 tbsp. dressing .40 cents

Snack 3.99 worth of rasberies

Total 23.94 total average of 3.99 per meal

Farmgal* total -8.90 Average of 1.48 per meal

Potato from the farm, chicken from the farm, apple from a friends apple tree, some but not all greens from the farm as well as fresh rasberries from the fall patch.

Farmgal’s Savings 15.04

its odd to think of a week one as two days but as I want to do this on weekends.. that’s how it worked out.. I am running Monday to sunday for the overviews

I can say this, I think that its going to be worth figuring this out, I know that I took it for granted that we can and do eat so many things off the farm, and we are so used to costing it out at the raising price that other then the odd time that we go.. huh.. that’s a 22 dollar rabbit in the stores it tends to slip to the side

thanks to the two folks that commented one the first post..

Wow that is incredible and just solidifies wanting a farm where i too could raise my own meat. If i had to guess you are at an 87% savings on the farm. Although you are so awesome, im sure you are going to blow that out of the water. Monthly i guess around 575 for food with you 2

I am not sure that I will make that kind of savings but I do think it will be over 50% but we will see if I am right as the garden is coming in an its fall.. I normally budget in 200 a month for off farm shopping for the household an extra food, including the food box but at least a few months a year I drop that to 50 a month or per pay day, we will see

I don’t calculate anything as detailed as you – but the odd time I wander into a grocery store I am shocked at the price of food – in particular, meat, produce and dairy. I’m not clear on how a family can afford to eat healthy these days. My ultimate goal, is to spend near next to nothing at a grocery store. After twelve years, I’m settled in at between 100 and 150 a month, and most of that is on sundries (toilet paper, toothpaste, dish soap, shampoo, ziploc bags, oh yes – coffee, etc). One of our ‘rules’ is that if we’re out of something (say chicken) then we simply don’t eat chicken until we raise more.
Of course that wouldn’t work for everybody. 😊

great rule and one that I have been known to use as well, and yes I am shocked all the time in regards to the costs in the stores.. they say that it will cost a family of 4 about 1200 a month to eat healthy.. that is a lot of money..

Posted in October Unprocessed | Tagged October Unprocessed, october unprocessed mini challange | 2 Comments

Apple Sauce Cake Recipe

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Unprocessed apple Sauce spiced Cake

1/4th pork lard
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup apple sauce
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. of molasses
1/2 cup whole milk (sheep in my case)
1 cup raisins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1 tbsp. Baking Powder

Mix fat, honey, apple sauce together, then add rest of the wet an the raisins and spices, mix well, add flour, salt and baking powder, mix though but do not overmix, it will be thick batter, put into a cake pan or muffin tins and bake at 350 till golden brown and knife comes out cleanly

Posted in 100 mile diet | Tagged apple sauce spiced cake | 1 Comment

October Unprocessed- Overview

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Well, it’s here!

And I drove past the tim’s three times today on my way to the vets to pick up the cats and no coffee for me.. LOL

Breakfast was simple, a nice locally produced apple called a silken

Originally tested as (8S-04-33). Parentage is Honeygold X Sunrise from the breeding program at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre – Summerland B.C. It is an early fall selection that was noted for its unique white gold porcelain colour and for its outstanding texture and flavour. It is a multiple-pick apple usually harvested over two weeks just ahead of and into the McIntosh season. The fruit hangs well in the canopy and maintains its fresh quality characteristics over a period of 2 – 3 weeks.

Fruit is medium in size and rated very high in appearance and flavour tests. The skin colour is cream having a translucent appearance like white porcelain with a bright lustre. Occasionally a slight pink blush is present but no stripes. Stem-bowl russetting is characteristic but does not extend over the shoulder. Lenticels are inconspicuous. It is firm, crisp and juicy. It is high in aromatic intensity and sweetness and moderate in acidity. It has a short storage life, about 8 weeks in air storage (0°C) and is best suited for direct sales.

I bought a lovely quarter bushel of them.. so good, down to my last three now..

Lunch was a green salad with herbed oven roasted chicken

The challenge of the day.. 0 mile approved unprocessed mayo.. more on that soon enough!

I did a weight check in this morning and will update at the end of the month on if I was successful at taking a bit off!

Cost breakdown : This is an interesting plan, I decided that I would track costs for this month, now many things will come from the farm but they will be tracked out their replacement value, not what at what it costs to raise them. but I will run it side by side, I want to see both the full costs and the savings..

Just as an example, last nights supper all meals will be the whole amount, I will do the per person or portion cost out at the end

Six boneless pork chops
one pineapple
2 tbsp. honey
1 tsp of molasses
four cups of green beans
1 tsp of butter

Now that pork need to be 6 dollars per pound, pineapple (2 for 5 sale) but regular 3.99, honey. 40 cents worth, 5 cents molasses, 3.99 bag of fresh green beans and 30 cents of butter..

Total 16.74 for a total of 8.37 cents per serving

wow.. now lets farmgal it..

my pork costs me 2.12 a pound to raise and I butchered (which hugely reduced costs) pineapple 2 for 5 so 2.50 and the beans were from farm, from saved seed going with 25 cents for ease. plus honey, molasses an butter same as above

Total 6.68 for a total of 3.34 per serving

Farm saving on that meal 10.06

That’s crazy, wow.. those number are wild to me.. part of me REALLY wants to do this compared to the cheapest way but that’s not fair to my quality of food.. but for fun sake

lets see what we can do on the cheap side

Pork tenderloin bought on sale and self-sliced at 2 dollars a pound, can of pineapple on sale at a dollar, and two can’s of green beans both gotten on sale.

pork 3, can good pineapple 1 dollar, green beans .77 cents a can and the rest the same at full meal at 6.29 for 3.14 per meal

Now of course if you where being frugal, you would have made rice, and lowered the amount of pork per serving and added a onion and only used one can of green beans, dropping it into the dollar per serving range

I can see that its going to eye opening an startling to me on how much we would need to spend to eat as good of quality of food if we bought it compared to the farm..

So want to take a guess? how much would our monthly bill be if we had to buy it all? how much will the farm save us percentage wise?

Posted in 100 mile diet, October Unprocessed | Tagged October Unprocessed | 3 Comments

Hair Curlers- The no fuss, no heat way!

Posted on October 1, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

So this is a switch in topics (nothing new on this blog right) now way back when I started the blog, I had very short hair.. now its changed colors lots in between but its also grown so much! Ah, the wash it, let it dry and run your finger though it, my favorite cut for working! light weight, easy and you can wash it out in a sink, dry with a paper towel and go.. in my younger years to have easy kept hair was a MUST! After all, I have so many more things to spend my time and energy on..

As I got older, I decided to grow it out.. So as it grew, for a Christmas gift from my dad, I got the most awesome hot steam curlers.. love them! Yes, there are going to be away to many hair photos in this post.. LOL

If you have medium hair, they will add great body and a nice gentle wave, but I found as my hair got longer, that the weight of it pulled the curls out and down.. I still like my steam curlers if I want a curly up-do.. put them in, curl.. and then do the fancy up parts and it looks fab but it was no longer cutting it for “curls” The above photo does have a finishing hair spray to it, otherwise, nothing else..

You see when I wash my hair let it air dry and then brush it.. this is what I get, pretty yes, and I do like it.. nothing else in this.. just plain old hair.. but I wanted to find a way to get curly hair again..

Which has lead me to a new way to get wavy or curly hair.. now I was raised with curlers.. and I hate them.. honestly I have put these into my mom’s hair and had it done to mine for years.. never ever liked them!

Then I found these! WHOOT.. you take a bigger (looser waves) or a smaller (tighter curls) you take clean just slightly damp hair and you just start twisting it around and around until its ready to start curling in on itself and then you do just that.. make it into a little ball, you can put a pin though it for daytime curling or you can put a soft band around if for easy night sleeping. you can move these around your head for whatever works best for you day work or your night sleeping. and you leave them in till its dry.

Then you just undo them and shake your hair with your fingers and DONE! Love it.. it lasts me all day, it gets softer and looser over the day that is true and for a event, I might put a bit of hairspray to help it hold in place but I am good without it. It reminds me of the soft body waves we put in the 90’s but without any chemicals, so easy to do..

Now maybe you already knew how to make and use Bantu no heat easy curls but I did not, so I figured why not share 🙂

This was the video I watched to learn how, so while there might be better ones out there, this got the job done for me.. and I am sharing it for the fact that it just works so well! plus I am showing the big loose curls and she is showing the tighter more curly version

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Investing in the future -Farm Cats

Posted on September 30, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Now I will own up to the fact that I do tend to get the wide eyed look when I say that I have personal pride pack of purrpots on the farm.. most but not all are indoor-outdoor cats.. some are truly barn-yard cats.

But that does not mean that they do not need extra care.. they need the basic’s, water (and that means a unfrozen water source in winter) food (yes, you can let their kibble bowl run out between morning and evening chore time so that they hunt more) and shelter.

Now I know Shelter is a tricky one.. technically, you only need to let them have access to a building but honestly, I think they need a bit more then that.. at least in Canada, they need a area made for them, now that can be straw bales set up the right way so there are snuggy warm sleeping spots in them.. or double built insulated cat sleeping box’s, remember do not fill the winter sleeping areas with blankets or towels, the ideal is straw.. hay will do but straw is the best!

but the truth is even if they are farm cats they need a bit more then that.. they need regular deworming, they need to be treated for pests, including but not limited to.. ticks, flea’s and ear mites and depending on where you live.. heart worm.

Vaccines.. well they are more tricky.. by law, most places they need rabies. and I understand that.. but the rest.. its up to you.. I personally believe in kitten vaccines and one adult follow up and if you really think needed, one middle age booster.

but lets talk about the one thing you can do for them that is NOT required but its such a good idea! Alter them.. I know, I know..

I got him fixed and then the fox got him

I got her fixed and she got hit on the road

I got her fixed and then she was just gone

I have heard all of those above from friends on farms and I understand, I am weird, my cats just seem to stick around and live for like forever! compared to most farm cats..

But None the less!

Alter them.. your females do not need to have a litter or more a year.. yes, I know its awesome to have kittens on the farm, and I like having at least one intact female cat on the farm myself.. I love having a cat that is born here and thinks this farm, this land, this home and us are the center of their world.. but I have had strays come in and be the best, and I have been given a kitten that fit in like it had been born here..

Regardless.. bottom line .. if you want a litter fine.. but its not healthy for a momma cat to have a litter or two every single year, so if you want those kittens, have them and then fix the momma cat, or be prepared to lock her up during her heats (and don’t think for a second that she will not do a walk about to go find a boy, because she will!)

However you decide to manage your female so that she has limited litters in her life time.. the males are different..

While its true they will not have kittens, and they can very much live full lives in a pride, if you can afford to do so.. fix your males!

Remove the balls, remove the breeding, remove the fighting, remove the wanderlust, Remove the spraying! Remove the injuries that come with all of the above.

Well looked after altered males are a delight on the farm, they are steady as a rock, tend to be very healthy, good hunters and clean boys..

Sunny has become one of my pride, he is also the father to my current kittens, and he passed on his shorter hair, his wonderful temperament and his long big body.. he even adopted Blue as a close buddy!

He is a amazing father, and the first tom I have ever seen that taught his kids how to hunt, he would bring them his hunts, but I know he has had a rougher life and its time for him to properly settled down.. and that means he is also now fixed as well.. Enjoy the good life old boy, you have earned it!

Having said that, don’t think that they will not fight.. they will.. they are still very protect of the farm and the girl cats.. I have seen my altered males gang up and drive away stray males.. I never see them fight among themselves or the females but when it comes to strays.. they are not so kind! Its a rare stray that can move in and become part of the pride..

and in keeping with this.. Patrick is the first of the kitten pride of 2016 one that has gone to be altered.. Blue will follow in a few weeks as he is a bit younger and the girls will go when they are a touch older and bigger.

Now this one is tricky.. so let me be very clear! I am grateful for Vets! they are important.. they can do things we can not, and they are needed! a good vet is worth his or her weight in gold! if you find one, grab hold.. hang on and treat them very well!

BUT! those really good vets are getting harder and harder to find.. so many of the newer vets and so many of the vet clinics that do small animal (cat, dog) are losing or perhaps in some cases, never had.. any understanding for a farm critter and their life..

Which brings up the issue.. money.. its true.. the costs of altering has in some cases gone though the roof. It used to be that you could get a boy cat altered for a very lower cost, pay a bit more for the females but now.. you can find vets asking upward of a couple hundred to five hundred per cat.. I get it.. I do.. if you only have one pet cat.. and you want to have all the extra’s and you want to pay 500 for a spay.. fine..

But for those on the farms, where that money needs to be found, where other areas need to give and a little bit here and little bit there taken away from to save up enough to get that farm cat fixed.. its worth asking around..

Keeping it real on the farm.. I have not needed to get teenage cats fixed for a number of years, all my older cats are altered and my middle age female intact cat is that way because I want her to be.. so it was a shock to find out that my small critter vet prices had risen so high (see, he moved from a small clinic with basic’s to a new building with all the bells) and wow has the prices jumped!

It was around 500 per boy cat.. and a bit more for the females.. ok then.. so I looked to the lower cost altering clinics.. but like normal.. they are for the city folks only.. my rural country address need not apply.. but at least it gave me a base line.. male cats 165 plus tax and females 190 plus tax, no shots, no checks..

Ok, so I started hunting down a new old fashion, farm type vet, and I found them about 20 min away.. 120 for the under a year male plus exam, plus rabies shot.. for 200.. great deal.. and an extra 60ish for the bigger adult male cat.. As the meds are based on weights.. that is fair as well

They will be getting a good chunk of change out of me over the next three to six months and that’s ok.. I have no issues paying a fair price for a job well done..

If you are on a farm, do you keep none, most or all your farm cats altered? where do you come down? what is the spay costs like in your neck of the woods? are you finding that farm vets are getting harder and harder to find?

Posted in Critters | Tagged farm cats | 7 Comments

War of 1812 Reenactment-Local Events

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

The War of 1812 was a military conflict that lasted from June 18, 1812 to February 18, 1815, fought between the United States of America and the United Kingdom, its North American colonies, and its Native American allies. Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the war’s end in early 1815 the key issues had been resolved and peace returned with no boundary changes.

The United States declared war for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by the British war with France, the impressment of as many as 10,000 American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy,^[5] British support for Native American tribes fighting European American settlers on the frontier, outrage over insults to national honor during the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair, and interest in the United States in expanding its borders west.^[6] The primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies; they also hoped to set up a neutral Native American buffer state in the US Midwest that would impede US expansion in the Old Northwest and to minimize American trade with Napoleonic France, which Britain was blockading.

The war was fought in three theatres. First, at sea, warships and privateers of each side attacked the other’s merchant ships, while the British blockaded the Atlantic coast of the United States and mounted large raids in the later stages of the war. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U.S.–Canadian frontier. Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. At the end of the war, both sides signed and ratified the Treaty of Ghent and, in accordance with the treaty, returned occupied land, prisoners of war and captured ships (with the exception of warships due to frequent re-commissioning upon capture) to their pre-war owners and resumed friendly trade relations without restriction.

With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, the British used a defensive strategy until 1814. Early victories over poorly-led U.S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U.S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britain’s Native American allies, ending the prospect of an independent Indian confederacy in the Midwest under British sponsorship. U.S. forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, and seized western parts of Upper Canada, but further American offensives aimed at Montreal failed, and the war also degenerated into a stalemate in Upper Canada by 1814. In April 1814, with the defeat of Napoleon, Britain now had large numbers of spare troops and adopted a more aggressive strategy, launching invasions of the United States; however, an invasion of New York was defeated at Plattsburgh, and a second force, although successfully capturing Washington, was ultimately repulsed during an attack on Baltimore. Both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. These repulses led Britain to drop demands for a native buffer state and some territorial claims, and peace was finally signed in December 1814, although news failed to arrive before the British suffered a major defeat at New Orleans in January 1815.

In Upper and Lower Canada, British and local Canadian militia victories over invading U.S. armies became iconic and promoted the development of a distinct Canadian identity, which included strong loyalty to Britain.

Today, particularly in Ontario, memory of the war retains significance, because the defeat of the invasions ensured that the Canada’s would remain part of the British Empire, rather than be annexed by the United States. The government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012,^[10] intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border.^[11]

Information per Wiki for the basic info on this for anyone who is unware of in the information on the war of 1812

Just a few photos from our local event.. I was already not feeling well, but was not truly sick yet, and hubby was starting to feel better after being sick last week. There is a cold-flu thing going around this fall and it hit my hubbies office with a bang.. normally, he does not get sick but this one had him sniffy and tired.. and then he shared with me.. lucky, lucky me!

This big boy is a Canadian horse and a x-RCMP horse.. enjoying his retirment.. my grandfather bought a team of Canadian’s way back when to work on the farm..

I came home with some lovely oven fired bread and this lovely!

Its a two loaf cast iron bread pan.. I was hoping they would have one for sale and got there bright and early in the morning to pick it up.. I will show some breads made with it in future times..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged cast iron, cast iron bread pans, local events | 2 Comments

Canning Costs- Ways to make it just a bit cheaper..

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

Last year as I was processing food, and canning this and that.. my mother looked at me and said with a laugh in her voice (after not having been on the farm for eight plus years), Girl you have every canning tool and toy there is…

I looked up with surprise, because I just do not think that way.. everything I have is used and used well, used lots, some things only get cracked out when I am doing bushels of things but then they are life savers..

Then at one of my teaching events, I heard that from a few other folks as well.. well how do you do that if you don’t have the equipment?

At its most basic, you need a pot, any pot big enough to provide proper water coverage over the jar height will work, you do not need to buy a canning pot but you are in luck! watch the second-hand shops and the garage sales and you will find older canning pots for cheap..

You need your jars, it used to be that you could find them cheaper in second-hand shops, at garage sales or farm sales but these days those jars have value, so if you find someone who offers you jars (even ones that are filled with older food, snap them up, empty them, bleach them out, give them a good wash and wink at me) or if you ask and your friends aunt, no longer cans and she has 400 in the basement, you want them.. JACKPOT!

Lids and rings.. the costs of these are sink.. they are the one thing that needs to be replaced each time you can and their costs are going up and up.. even worse, even the best companies are making these cheaper and cheaper, they have thin downed the metal, they have thinned down the rubber, they used to use enough rubber that you needed to heat and warm it, now they use just as much as they can barely get away with to make it work..

Given that the best of the lids now are just good enough, it’s the one area, I am going to strongly recommend that you do not skimp here.. go for the good ones, but for heaven sakes plan ahead and buy on sale, buy at the end of the season liquidation prices and store them as needed so you are not paying full price on them.

I found very few good priced lids last year, I think I picked up maybe a dozen or more box’s that I found a good price on.. and the rest of my lids all came from my storage but I was watching my storage amounts going down, normally I like to buy to refill it.. but for two years running, I had found some small amounts of replacements.. two years ago, I found an amazing sale on Tattler lids and I snapped them and their rings up by the hundreds, which is nice but does not help me.

So I started looking early in the season.. and yikes! the prices, locally, the regular set of rings and lids at its highest was almost four dollars a box, the 12 wide mouth lids at the highest I saw was 3.49 cents, and the highest I saw for the regular mouth lids was 2.69, like I said! Crazy!

After careful searching, watching and a dear friend that was kind enough to send me photos of lids on sale even if it was a in store 40 min away, I was finally able to get and bring in a good amount to put away in the pantry. So I was able to get the case of lids-rings for 1.80 per box.. and I was able to get the 12 box of Bernardin regular mouth for 1.24 and the wide mouth for 12 for 1.94

So that let me bring in 720 regular lids, 432 wide mouth lids, 228 regular mouth lids and rings sets.. so that brings me in a total of 1.092 regular lids and 502 wide mouth lids for the year of 2016 so for one time uses, I have just enough to can up to 1594 jars but then you need to add in the tattlers lids.. and that means that I could can up another 400 jars..

Ops, now I am short jars LOL I am ok with that, I would rather have more lids then jars..

That is a good savings compared to the regular local prices this year.. so for what its worth, if you can find sales and you have the space, I try to recommend that you keep at a bare min! one full years worth of canning lids

Now that is an interesting statement, because it’s just not as simple as counting jars, or at least I hope it’s not.. certainly counting your jars is a good start, and I am going to round it up to a 100 jars for ease of my example..

so you own a hundred jars.. 70 of them are regular mouth pints and quarts and 30 of them are wide mouth pints and quarts.. so you need a hundred lids right..

Nope.. you need to look at your year.. because if you are doing your canning right, you are going to empty that jar and refill it up, anywhere from one to four times a year! Lets assume you are going to empty (by using them) and refill them as things come on sale.. each month of the year has something that goes on sale that you should be considering filling your jars with even though out winter.. (clearly if you can grow a lot of your own food great)

So suddenly if you bought a 100 lids on sale, you are going to be either buying another 100 to 150 plus at full price and even worse, you are going to be buying full price and paying shipping costs..

A good case if ever to pick up extra, also as I have heard time and time again, I went to can this or that, and there are no canning supplies in my local store.. the stores consider this seasonal, where we know that its year round, so you need to be outsmart them 🙂

Moving on.. Energy.. o yes, Energy is required to can.. you have to heat and boil your water or heat and hold the pressure in the pressure canner by power, propane or wood heat..

So if you are like me, that these costs are going up, up UP! then you will need to learn your power rates and learn to can during the lower times.. and depending on where you are, it might be worth investing in a two canning setup for propane.. as right now, the costs of the propane is cheaper per unit return wise then the electric power is locally, but that could be flipped where you are.

Now you have your pot, your jars, your lids and rings and you are growing raising some or a lot of your own food and you want to put up as much as possible but you do not have a pressure canner..

Tricky to answer.. but I will do my best..

A) for almost all veggies, you can get around this by pickling.. be it beets, corn or radish or turnip or carrots.. do the lightest pickle brine that it allowed for safety purpose, then when you open the jar, rinse the food, then heat them up very gently, then drain the pot and put fresh water in again and heat though and serve as normal.. by the time you add your sauce, your butter, or your seasonings or have them in soups an stews, no one will ever know that you pickled them instead of used a pressure canner.. and you were able to safely put up low acid veggies in a water bath..

But even pickling vinager added up in cost and so I do highly recommend at least one cheaper smaller pressure canning pots.. but as we are being frugal.. they do go on sale.. every Christmas on amazon.. at the end of canning season’s in local stores, and hit your social media.. Ask, Ask and Ask.. do you have one in a closet not being used that can be borrowed, do you have one that you don’t use anymore.. its amazing how many are just sitting in the basement, waiting to be scrubbed and cleaned up and put to use..

They are workhorses, and while you need to do the safety checks be they new or be they older, they have very few parts and as long as they are not dinged up, and hold pressure.. they will work for years and years..

So what do you truly need that you must buy, and the best quality you can afford.. a high quality jar lifter.. and a great funnel.. you will use those two tools more then you will think.. get a big thick one for the lifter, something that can reflect the heat, that will give you a rock solid grip and same with the funnel, cheaper ones can be a bit long in the ends, and you want one that will help you make sure you are going to get your head space learned from it.. I like to find a funnel that will give me a one inch head space if I take it to just the edge and then I can watch the inside carefully and get my half in spacing easily as needed.

Any of idea’s or thought on how to keep your canning start up costs and or running costs on the lower end!

Posted in Canning | Tagged Canning, fall harvesting, farming, harvesting, Homesteading | 1 Comment

When things do not go as planned -Sqaush

Posted on September 28, 2016 by Just another day on the farm

The first frost has hit the farm, but only in spots.. got to love microclimates.. a little bit here and little bit there .. my poor squash yield for this year is enough to make me cry..

Are you ready! I planted 160 seeds of different squash and pumpkin in six different areas and gardens, of them.. I had only 26 come up in the drought and they grew a tiny bit and then just sat there.. no growth, no runners, no flowers..

Then the aug rains came and the plants took off! first they sent out runners then came the male flowers and finally the female.. o so many female flowers.. on some of those plants, over 15 plus female flowers on the vines now, and there are dozens of itty bitty wee squash starting but out of those 26 plants, I am getting.. Two.. yup.. that much space given, that many rows made, that many rare (some very rare) heritage seeds, some amazing land race butternut squash and even with my hugelbed this year.. I am getting 2! squash..

Now what?

I mean it.. hmmmm, now what.. what are my choices.. well the first thing I did was take a look at squash at the farmers market and then I signed and shook my head and walked away.. small squash that ranged 3 to 5 dollars to larger that cost upwards to 40 each..

Ok, then, so much for the idea of buying local from anyone around me.. not going to happen, they had as bad of a year as I did and the prices reflect it.. I can NOT afford to buy at those prices.

So lets look at the stores.. SCORE.. my one local store had very nice field pumpkins for 97 cents each, big ones.. not perfect for what I want but useable for sure.. I snapped up a dozen, but then I found pie pumpkins for a dollar.. much better.. I grabbed a dozen for processing..

but what about the real stuff.. the squash.. well so far.. nothing yet. I am watching and the time is passing me by but so far.. no bins of butternut or acorn squash or any other yet.. I am watching for it.. I want local Ontario grown of course.. We will see if I find any or not..

So I looked at hubby and said, well its a very good thing I put up a extra years worth of butternut squash last year when I had lots to do so..

I have 48 pints of farmgal butternut in the pantry, enough that if I never find any local at the store, never find any sales, I will be ok.. that’s is the point of a canning.. if I had just cooked and mashed and froze them, then they would be to old in the freezer but in the jars, they are perfect, and as long as I budget them, I can have regular squash for different uses till next years crop..

I got a great deal on local carrots, I picked up and processed over a hundred pounds worth, other then some fresh ones over the winter they are done for storage for the winter.

I have said it before and I will say it again.. when you have a good year.. plan and put up a average two year supply into your canning pantry, because you never know what the garden is going to do!