Comments on: On non-marathon food preservation http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/ This is a journal, of sorts, of an organic garden in SW Michigan. "Ut sementem feceris, ita metes: non semper erit aestas." Tue, 29 May 2012 17:42:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Liz http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3368 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:53:55 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3368 Nope… steam canner as opposed to boiling water bath canner. It’s not meant for low acid foods, and the USDA doesn’t approve for high acid, but I say, screw you USDA. What do they really know about food safety, anyway? *cough* Olestra *cough*

I answered you in more depth over at Flickr. :)

]]> By: El http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3365 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:07:56 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3365 Liz, so you have a steam canner as opposed to a pressure canner? So, that gets things as hot as a boiling water bath or does it get things as hot as the pressure canner (240*+)? But yes I haven’t heard canning people talking much about the heat issue and it’s always been a no-brainer for me: it’s cooler, less messy, less scary so that’s why I get out the pressure canner. Yes it does remove good stuff through the heating but that’s okay as I supplement with other fresh foods.

]]> By: Liz http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3354 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:09:07 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3354 True about the heating up of the kitchen bit. I switched from a water bath to a steam canner a couple of years ago for acid foods (including, yes, tomato sauce & salsa. Living on the edge, that’s me!). The steam canner is so wonderful…. I will never go back to that big cauldron of boiling water (which took for-ev-er to heat, anyway, on my wimpy range). I always love hearing the “why”, so thanks! :)

]]> By: El http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3352 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:38:12 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3352 Hi Kathy: it was an inadvertent greenhouse, actually. I had the piece of plastic from erecting the greenhouse, and Thanksgiving was coming and I was hosting 13 people and I knew the snows were coming so I stuck the plastic over the last of the lettuces outside. I held it down (not kidding) with a few rocks and an old shovel. I had enough lettuce for Thanksgiving and then I ignored it, but noticed that the darned things were not dead sometime in March! Wow. So, that’s my story. Yes, the plastic hit the top of the plants and somehow they still froze and kept on growing. I am not sure if it is a repeatable experiment, but it included the biggest head of Bibb lettuce I have ever grown. It makes me think I will try it again though with the last of this year’s outdoor lettuces!

]]> By: Kathy http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3351 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 05:19:45 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3351 Hi El,
I spotted a post of yours back in June about laying a sheet of plastic over your soil for a poor girl’s greenhouse. I’m wondering how anything grows….doesn’t the plastic keep it down? You know, squashing it?
Eliot Coleman is still changing my life but I’m at the scratching my head stage!

]]> By: El http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3350 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:23:38 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3350 Good question Liz! Yes the ratio of tomatoes to non-acidic stuff like the peppers and onions and celery in the sauce was fairly high, but I play it safe with the pressure canner on anything but straight tomatoes. Oh, and the pressure canner is NOT AS HOT as a boiling-water bath steaming up my kitchen in the non-air-conditioned summertime here. It’s on, it’s off, it keeps its steam to itself (thanks). So that is why. (I also find it easier and less, uh, scary than the boiling water. Know people fear pressure canners but, well, I don’t.)

]]> By: Liz http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3348 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:06:52 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3348 You say non-marathon, but I feel exhausted reading this! ;)

Question: why do you prefer using a pressure canner for tomatoes?

]]> By: El http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3343 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:42:52 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3343 Thanks, Mrs GH! It was pretty tasty.

Jennifer, wow, multitasking must simply be the way you need to do things: I confess I do try to overlap tasks, but on this particular day I just wanted to get to the beach! I guess you’re lucky he’s not your first child, huh? ;)

]]> By: Jennifer http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3342 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:47:56 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3342 You are just cool, that’s all there is to it! I love to maximize my time like this.

I have five children and the youngest is a firecracker of three year old boy, but I’ll be brave enough to can in a couple of years when he is better about doing what he is told to do and not doing what he’s told not to do. He has a nice burn scar on his chin from sneaking a hot busciut off a just-out-of-the-oven sheet after being told not to touch because it was hot. Just the thought of canning with him in the house gives me a slight panic attack. :)

Of course I could just set time aside and ask my husband to take our little guy out for a while, but that defeats the purpose of this time maximising post!

]]> By: Mrs. Greenhands http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3336 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:35:18 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3336 Your canned tomatoes look great!

]]> By: El http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3335 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:58:00 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3335 Yep. They’re sealed, but you need to eat them more quickly. You do need to fasten the jars down more for pressure-canner batches than you do for the boiling-water baths. I tighten as far as I can then I take a partial turn back. Seems to work! Glad to hear you’re living life under pressure, Ang!

]]> By: farm mom http://fastgrowtheweeds.com/2008/07/31/on-non-marathon-food-preservation/#comment-3334 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:52:12 +0000 http://fastgrowtheweeds.wordpress.com/?p=1010#comment-3334 I just used my pressure canner for the first time the other day, and I’m still an intrepid newbie, so thanks for the post! The water went out from the jars, and while I understand the reasons for it, and the future preventitive measures……are the beans okay for storage with only 1/2 a jar of liquid left in them?

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