Pressure Canning On your Wood Cookstove

So Ive been Pressure canning ( and water bath canning) our garden harvest for near 7 years now, about the same amount of time I have been cooking and baking with our wood cookstove. So you think I would be totally comfortable Pressure canning on my wood cookstove, right?? wrong.

Any body who has or is learning about pressure canning knows that it can be extremely dangerous. I mean you are essentially building up steam in a large pot, letting little bits come out at a time.. to much pressure and *BOOM ( not sure that's the sound it what make, haha but you get my drift) you could have an exploding canner.

In the winter I do all of my baking ( its actually our only way to bake) and stove top cooking on the woodcookstove. But if I have something to pressure can I use my propane top stove.
Well awhile back our propane stove top ran out of propane and we just haven't gotten around to filling it back up. which why the hurry, we don't use it much anyway..
Until yesterday, when I realized I had boiled down some bones from a chicken and had stock to can.

I have often thought about what if.. what if something happened and their was a gas shortage? would I be able to preserve our  food without propane or gas?

That question was answered today and the answer is YES! Successful pressure canning session on the wood cookstove... and I am going to share with ya'll just how I did it

PLEASE NOTE: if you are not familiar with pressure canning or wood stove cooking, I suggest you try these things separately for awhile before attempting this. This IS or atleast CAN BE dangerous and you should have some experience under your belt first.....


KNOW YOUR STOVE

so Basically, when you get your stove or if you already have one and know your stove, you know that there are Hot spots and cool spots on your stove top. Obviously the hot spot would be right above where the fire is blazing.
My stove has a fire box on one side and then an oven on the other,, anything I have ever needed to boil goes over the fire and then if I need it to simmer just slide it over as needed, the further you push it over/away from the fire the cooler it usually is.

If I am trying to bring something to a boil ( in this case the water in the canner) I usually open up the firebox door and take a quick look to see where the fire is biggest.. then move the canner accordingly, placing it directly over the first.

                canner before I added the weight, you can see its almost directly over the eye and firebox




HOW I PRESSURE CANNED ON MY STOVE

So basically, I placed the water directly over the fire.. I had a good fire roaring ... one mistake I did make,, or one thing I could have done differently, was take the eye ( the metal circle you see on the stove top is removable so you can set your pot directly on the fire) off, my water probably would have boiled a lot faster.
I let the canner exhaust steam for 10 minutes
I then ( this is where it gets tricky) Placed the weight on the canner .( I have a weighted gauge canner)
Once the weight started rocking,, I moved it over about half way,between the firebox and the stove..it was still rocking pretty fast,,(you want a slow and steady rocking motion) so I moved it so I was about 3/4 of the way over ( near the oven)...

So here you see I have it about in the middle,, I ended up moving it over to the right about another 2 inches and that seemed to be the perfect spot for a gentle rocking motion.. if I felt it was slowing down , I would slowwwly move it back over an inch,, etc..

REMEMBER if the weight stops rocking,, that's ok, you just have to start you "time" over, but you DO NOT want it rocking like crazy,, that makes me nervous and should make you nervous too,,lol
once I had a steady rocking motion I only had to move the canner a couple times, and only like 2" to the left or 2" to the right depending....
I choked the fire off to keep a steady burn..


and that's it,, that's how I did it !
again, I am not sure this helps,, but for anyone that is familiar with cooking with wood, I can tell you  if you are confident in your woodstove cooking abilities this will be a BREEZE!

For those of you who haven't cooked on wood,, and want to can with it,, start with less explosive things like soups etc,, haha
LEARN your stove ( as they are all different) , then maybe pressure can on a regular stove for awhile
Then once you feel comfortable with both, maybe you are ready to give it a try!


Any questions?? you can ask them here and I will be glad to help!!


Blessings
Jaime

Spring like Temps and injured Chicken

I couldn't think of a good title for this post,, haha.. Its been an eventful 5 days with lots going on... That time of year where we scramble to get ready for spring. Although its only January there is a lot to be done in preparation for Bee Season...
We have been building and painting nuc hives ,  a lot of these will most likely be mating nucs for our Queens.

I started My SEEDS!! It felt so good to get my hands in some "dirt" ( ok seed mix) and plant.  Ive started broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Bunching Onions, and Kale, including a gorgeous ruby red Kale ! Ill be starting My warm weather crops in another month or so.

Norah has been gardening too, in fact she used over half of my soil. Besides selling wild Onions, Hemlocks, grass and holly plants...............................................

she is also in the process of catching a rabbit so she can start a rabbit farm. In the meantime the only other "animals she has for sale are some ladybugs..hehe

the weather has been gorgeous the past 3 days ( in the 60's!) even the bees have been out to stretch their wings, use the bathroom ( which I have proof of all over my windshield, haha) and get a drink... all the hives look good from the outside and we hope to get in for a small inspection if we see some warmer days in the next couple weeks...

On a heavier Note :/ Our Polish Hen Liberace was recently scalped by our ****** rooster Elton..
Elton was ( and I say was because he no longer lives here) about 6 months old  and ready to get frisky with Liberace,, for about 2 days he would chase her around, when they would go in the coop there would be lots of "thump, bump" sounds on the roof. and we thought is was funny... the next morning ( after this thumping and bumping started happening) I went out to give Liberace and Elton some scraps.. Liberace did not exit the coop, and I instantly KNEW something was wrong.. I opened up the coop door and saw her huddled in the corner completely bloody and (what I didn't realize at the moment) scalped.. I frantically picked her up and brought her in the house, wrapped her in a a towel, and cried ( mostly because I felt bad,, thinking I could of prevented it had I not been busy giggling.. )

Its been 4 days not since this happened and I am happy to report she is doing well!! she is eating and drinking and lively. Her head is dealing with some infection that I hope nature takes care of on its own.. all in all it seems she will be ok. She is still in the house until she fully heals....
To then which she will have her very own chicken tractor until I get some polish hens to put with her. I will never put her with a rooster again, and am even unsure about putting her with larger breeds..

Lets just hope that fabulous head of hair of hers, grows back ;)

Blessings

The Cool Family

Beekeeping Basics

I recently had the pleasure of blogging On Cold Creek Homesteads Page..

For anyone interested in the BEEginning Basics of Beekeeping this is a good place to start. A simple write up covering the basics On what it takes to get an apiary up and going!

http://coldcreekhomestead.com/blog/2014/12/28/lets-get-buzzzing-about-bees



Blessings
The Cools

Hibernating

cold, rainy , grey..................... no sun on the solar panels for 3 days.**.Hibernating***

Sitting by the cookstove, labeling soap, Making homemade soup and bread, baking,baking,baking  and taking care of a sick little one...
***Hibernating***

feeling optimistic for the longer days ahead, sun on our backs,  hands in the dirt, and fewer sick days...........

Blessings
The Cools

Chicken Sausage Take two

So, last weekend the weather was warm enough to butcher our birds..... Being off The power grid we have very limited freezer space.. With a completely empty freezer to start with, I think we would be able to fit maybe 10 birds in there , which is close to what we butchered.. We decided to make more chicken sausage, A) because its delicious and a change from just regular ol chicken, and B) it takes up way less space....

This year is our second attempt and chicken sausage,, we made it about 3 yrs ago and I am not sure what we did wrong ( maybe we didn't add enough fat or the broth?) but it was dry.. edible, but dry....

Chicken Sausage TAKE TWO:

 So Chicken Sausage involves a little bit of work , but the end product is so worth it.
The General steps are : Debone the meat ( a bit tedious) , run through the meat grinder ( ours is hand crank so we have the little on help, and she loves it! ), add the seasonings and broth, grind again and use stuffer attachment to stuff during the second time grind.

I thought I would share the recipe for anyone interested.. I have to say its REALLY GOOD. This is a country sausage..

CHICKEN SAUSAGE: COUNTRY STYLE

-  5lbs of chicken deboned ( about 2 birds) including all that fat ( this will make the sausage moist and not dry)
- 2 Tbsp Salt
-2 Tsp Pepper
- 2 Tsp Ground Sage
- 1 Tsp Ginger
- 1 Tsp Thyme
- 1 Cup cold Chicken Broth ( we added a pint both time we made this (2cups) and it turned out great..

Be sure to add all the fat and the broth, which is what gives it its moisture , since chicken does not have the fat content that pork does..

I give this recipe an A+ and the ingredients are pretty basic so most of them can be found in your kitchen cupboard.


Enjoy!

December projects

Well winter is officially almost here.. Its been rather mild here in North west NC, and we have been able to get outside and work on all the things we cant get done in summer .
This Morning was a bit chilly, atleast do chilly to process our chickens. Robb defeathered one bird and quickly came in to warm his hands over the cookstove.. Cold and wet don't mix.. so we decided to wait until next Sunday to do the other nine.. But hey we have dinner for tonight ;)

 

 

Robb has been busy Building mating Nucs for the apiary
Mating nucs are tiny 2 frame hives, that we will Put newly reared Virgin Queens in.. The Queens will then mate, start laying eggs about 3 weeks later, and then we will move these frames into a full size hive.
Our plans are to really expand this year.. So he has plans on rearing a lot of queens, which means lots of mating nucs need built before spring!






Today ( instead of processing chickens) we started on Norahs Tree House! This is her Big present from us. We went and purchased some lumber yesterday to get started. She is over the moon about this, and I know she will get so many hours of play and imagination time ( and quiet time) here in her own little space..

I am starting on my HoneyBee Stepping stones for the Back gardens!! I can not wait to see what these look like throughout the pathway.. I am wondering if I should use pigment in some?? If so,, what colors/color combo do you think would look nice?
My plans are to get one or 2 done a week, So by spring I will have enough to place throughout the back garden.


Dreaming of spring here, but keeping busy .

What have you been up to??

Holidays are Here

Holiday cheer is in full swing here at the Cools.. If Norah had it her way we would have started decorating in October. She is a verrrry excited little girl this time of year!
She is 7 years old, so the Magic Of Christmas is something to Behold. I am not sure how much longer she will believe in Santa, so I am savoring these years with her and sharing in her excitement!!!

What started out as a few homemade salt dough Christmas ornaments turned into a full Blown Factory,, She spent 2 days straight creating and painting. She decided she  wanted to sell some. I figured this was a good way to teach her about giving, so agreed. We sold them for 2.00, she gets .50 shipping is .50 and 1.00 goes towards St. Judes Childrens Hospital. This opened up a great dialog about children who may not be as lucky or fortunate as her this time of year. Those teachable moments come up when you least expect them ;)

I finished Norahs Advent Calendar, I am not a big fan of the Numbers,, I could not find Iron on numbers anywhere, so ended up using a marker paint pen,, Being that it is December 2nd, I really just wanted to get it done. I will probably end up putting some nicer Iron on Numbers , on.
These calendars  can be filled with chocolates, treats or little "notes" with rewards; ex. Popcorn tonight, or Movie time with Mom... :) A great way to countdown to Christmas with the littles in your life.

The Tree is up and decorated. We purchased to strands of LED lights, but could use another strand or 2... This way we can have the Lights on all the time ( being off the grid we need to conserve) 2 strands only use about 9 watts. eventually we will have enough to to put lights outside as well...


I really do love this time of year <3 p="">

Blessings
The Cools