Sunday, July 20, 2014

More greenbeans, squash and cuc's. Canned pork

I picked some of the larger squash when I got to the farm as well as more cuc's.  

I brought some pork that I bought at Safeway for $2/lb.  I want to PC it - I have never done pork before.

I spent some time and set up the dehydrator (a Cabela's purchase earlier this year) then I used a mandolin to slice the squash thin (about 1/8th inch) and then placed the slices on the racks and put them in the dehydrator.  I set the dehydrator to 115F and set the time to 24 hr.  While those were dehydrating I set to work on the pork.  I cut it into 1 inch cubes (and cut some of the fat off while doing so) and raw-packed it into 5 pint jars (along with 1 tsp of salt per pint). I left about an inch space at the top - maybe a little more in some.  I was super concerned about the fat melting and screwing up the seal at the top.  I cleaned the tops of the jars very carefully before I put the lids on to make sure there was no grease between the lid an the jar.  I tightened the lids up and placed in them in the PC. Cooked them for 75 mins after pressure came up.

While the pork was canning I sliced a bunch of cuc's up readying them for bread and butter pickles (I found a Mrs Wages mix in the back room so I decided to use it).  I got a bit scared when I couldn't find enough jar and lids - but then I realized i actually had some brand new jars in a case from last year so I was ok.  I put the cucumber slices in the jars and then covered them with the hot mix.  cleaned the jar tops and put on the lids as usual an then loaded 7 quart jars into the water bath canner.  I was just putting the canner lid on to help the water come back up to boil when I heard a "crack".  Sigh.  I little investigation turned up that one of the older jars broke a bottom out.   I took the broken jar out an removed as much of the cuc's as I could grab safely.  I added some hot water (carefully, not wanting to do any more damage from thermal shock!) to bring the water level back up and brought the water to boil.  Processed the remaining quarts for 10 mins.

I still had to wait for the pork to finish canning after all of the pickle shenanigans - was up until almost 2 am!  Good news was that all of the jars sealed and look pretty good.  Of course, the pickle jars needed to be washed and I gave the pork jars a good washing too to make sure the grease was off as best I could.

The next day I checked the squash in the dehydrator - they had turned into paper thin slices.  The weren't crisp though.  BTW, I did use some salt (salt flour from Zimmerman's) on the slices.  They really aren't that good to eat straight.  Maybe I will try toasting some to see if they crisp up...

Anyway,  before I left I picked (and continued to de-weed) the green beans in the big patch.  Maybe got 1 1/2 quarts.  I picked some more squash an cuc's as well.  Also picked a couple beets and 5 Kohlrabi.   Also stopped by mom's place (she needed gasoline for mower) and picked a couple of handful's of green beans there.  There are lots of beans there but they arent quite reay yet.  Next weekend I will have a good harvest there!

Here are some pics:

The 6 surviving quarts of bread and butter pickles

Canned pork!  5 pints. Cold/raw-packed works fine for pork.  Lean meats should be hot packed.


The squash in the dehydrator.

No comments:

Post a Comment