Shaun-ta's White Chicken Chili

Shaun-ta's White Chicken Chili

Okay, we all know by now that I am not a photographer and to make matters worse, I have a really dumpy camera! So trust me when I say it is soooo much better than it looks. This is my own version of chicken chili, I am quite proud of it. So if you are looking for something yummy for dinner, look no further.


Shaun-ta's White Chicken Chili

6 Chicken Thighs
1 Large Green or Red Pepper
1 Medium Sweet Onion
2 tsp. Cumin
1 Tb. Oregano
2 Cups Home Canned Chicken Stock
2 Cups Water
1 Cup Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
4 Cloves Garlic
1 lb. Cooked White Beans
Salt and Pepper to taste

This is how I did it. Place chicken thighs in the bottom of a 6 quart crock pot. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Add remaining ingredients and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours. At the end of the cook time remove the thighs from the pot and take the meat from the bone and add it back in. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Top with sour cream, jalapeno slices, and shredded pepper jack cheese. Serve with tortilla chips.

Cook's Notes:
1. I chose to use chicken thighs, bone-in, because they are very flavorful and delicious, and they are very inexpensive. I rarely use boneless skinless chicken anymore. http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/03/meat-me-in-middle.html

2. I used green pepper, so this is a very mild chili. I was thinking of my children. But if you want some heat, use whatever kind of pepper you want, jalapeno, green chili, etc. I loved the bit of heat that the canned jalapeno slices brought.

3. Because I used bone in chicken I used part water, part stock for my liquid, because I knew the chicken bones would bring lots of yummy flavor to my soup. If you opt to use boneless chicken you will want to use all stock.

4. I added 1 Cup of my homemade Roasted Tomatillo Salsa, this made it sooo yummy. Any green salsa would work, but you can find my recipe here:
http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/10/roasted-tomatillo-salsa.html
or the canned version here:
http://ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2013/08/green-tomatillo-salsa-canned.html

5. Because I came up with this recipe on the fly, I didn't have time to let my beans slow cook, so I cooked them separate in my pressure cooker and then added them into my chili when they were done about midway through the cooking time. You could choose to soak your beans overnight and them let them cook right in the chili, but you will need to increase the amount of liquid you use. I will probably try this the next time I make this. Yes I will be making it again and soon. Yummy! For more info on cooking beans check out this post:
http://www.ourprovidentlife.blogspot.com/2012/02/bean-cookin-101.html

6. As always, after I removed the chicken from my bones, I put my bones in a separate pot, covered them with water and let them simmer away for several hours. It only made about a cup of stock, but well worth it. I used the cup of stock later in the week for something else. You can of course always stick it in the freezer. I use up every bit of chicken every time. I never buy stock.

We all loved this chili! and it is on our to make again and again list. I hope you enjoy it too!

Sprouting: 1974 Wheat

Wheat Canned in 1974

I often refer to a bunch of 1974 wheat as my inheritance.  It was canned in 1974, this wheat has been moved countless times over the near 40 years of its existence.  About 4 years ago it my wonderful parents shared a bunch of their old food storage with us (not as many mouths to feed anymore).  We were happy to receive it, in fact at first we though it was too old and decided to open up a bunch of it and spread it in our garden to add some extra nutrients.  Funny thing happened, a wheat started popping up all over in the garden.  Surely if wheat will grow, then the 1974 wheat still has some life to it.

Around this time the LDS Church came out with a study that showed that these long term storage foods have a even great shelf life than was originally thought. Foods Lasting 30 Years or More.  Needless to say we didn't dump all of the food storage in the garden (only a few cans).  We held onto it and later received some more, unfortunately with our current house layout there is not a lot of room for storage (no basements in Texas), so I am sorry to say that this wheat has spend probably 2 years in the garage outside of the ideal storage ranges.  This will affect the quality and nutritional values some. 

Wheat sprouting in cotton bag

So as I have been experimenting with sprouting grains I have used this old wheat and new wheat to compare.  Now both wheat's are Hard Red Winter Wheat's though they probably generations removed with all of the GMO and other cross breading it is still a reasonably fair experiment.

The new wheat sprouted almost 100%.  The older 1974 wheat sprouted at about 20%.  While this little experiment was just tossed together, I think there is something to consider.

1. Even old wheat still has value, while only at 20% sprouting, this does not mean only 20% nutritional value.
2. Long term storage foods need to be rotated.  This wheat should have been used years decades ago.
3. Long term food storage needs to be stored in a cool, dry place. (easy with a basement)
4. Use your old wheat, even if not stored in idea conditions.  Mix it with newer wheat if you must.

Sprouted 1974 Wheat

We will continue to work through this older food as we continue to integrate these long term food storage items in our everyday life.  Every can we open is fresh and still full of nutrition.  Make sure you are implementing these foods in your diet, and rotating your foods to avoid waste.

I will be putting some posts together in the future, showing some food storage solutions for small houses.  This is often a reason given for not having food storage, no room...

A New Year: 13 New Skills for 2013

As 2012 comes to a close, we look forward to the next year.  As most people we are looking forward with hope, while looking at some ways to better ourselves.  How many times do we make New Year's resolutions and they never make it past Jan 31st?

When setting any goal we need to keep a few things in mind:

• Our goals need to be both realistic and achievable.
• Goals should stretch you, and be a challenge.
• Setting a timetable is helpful, rather than just an open ended goal.
• Greater success can be found if we write down our goals and tell other about them. The individuals we share our goals with can offer their support and even work on similar goals at the same time. 

13 Skills

Jack Spirko over at TSP has a new website up called 13Skills.com.  This is a place where you can layout your goals for the next year (13of them to start).  It is a great way to not only write down your goals, but share them with others.  You can share your profile with family and friends or become friends with other on the site with the same goals (there is also a dedicated area in the TSP Forums for this.  There is also a place to link over to your efforts on your own blog.

Lets face it, the generation of today and even yesterday falls, well short of what our grandparents and great-grandparents had in the knowledge and skills department.  We need to reeducate ourselves and work towards a more self-reliant and provident life.  Adding just 13 skills in your life will help you regain some of those lost and forgotten skills and knowledge.  There are 158 Skill categories to choose from with an endless number of goals you could set under each category.  

Our Profiles

Jacob's 13 Skills Profile
Shaun-ta's 13 Skills Profile
 

Get the Most out of 13Skills

With 13Skills it is important to list skills you want to learn or expand.  For instance if you are a great gardener, don't just list gardening as completed and "I have gardened for years, I am awesome"  Instead pick an area of gardening that you would like to expand or learn more about, for example "Gardening: This year I will go all year with using ZERO pesticides or petrochemical fertilizer."  This is a great goal, it is a long term goal, simple and achievable.  Along the way there would be some learning and expansion of knowledge as you learn how to deal with squash bugs without pulling out the pesticides.  Or how to build up your soil naturally without running down to the store for some 16-16-16 or other fertilizer.

After you complete a goal in an area, you can then revisit that goal with a new one under that same category.  Like if you just completed a learning how to can pickles you then could have a new goal of canning several types of jams or fruit.

Some of My Goals

 Fitness One of my focus areas which I know is a little cliche, fitness.  In a nutshell I need to lose weight, improve my stamina and better my overall health.  I have slipped into a lifestyle where I typically eat very healthy but not every meal just when it is convenient. I drink too much soda and work too much to get to any exercise.  If I am going to be the best father, husband and person I can be (and be around for a long time), I need to be in far better shape.  

I have a long term plan, but I am starting with an achievable goal that supports my long term goal.  My short term goal is completing a 90 day cycle of Insanity a workout series of videos.  My brother loaned me the DVD's and I like the variety and gadget free method of working out.  I also plan to look to find more outdoor activities to do, like digging holes, digging post holes, digging and building swales etc.  This intermediate goal will help me start the year right while also helping me towards my larger goal for the year.  Shaun-ta' plans to join me in this effort and a lot of my other goals will help to support this goal.

 Food Preservation  A few of my goals have to deal with food preservation including Canning meat, curing/smoking meats, fermenting, and harvesting Grain.  This is all an effort to make better use of the food we either grown or find great deals on.  These are all skills which will save us money while providing more nutritious food for my family.

We have some canned meat as part of our 3 month food supply of regularly eaten foods.  We often will use canned turkey or chicken in place of tuna in sandwiches.  Or if we are short on time we will use the canned turkey in enchiladas or other dishes.  We bought an extra turkey around Thanksgiving with the plan of canning the whole thing.  We expect to do this in mid January together.  Shaun-ta's Dad speaks of how his mom would can up venison after their fall hunts, it would make great sandwiches.  We also would like to can some pork.

Curing meats, we use pepperoni quite often making pizza for Pizza and Movie Night.  I would love to make our own pepperoni, where I know exactly what is going into it, and have the enjoyment of eating something we made ourselves.  I also expect it will cost a fraction of the cost of what is found in the store and the quality will be far superior too.  This will be an interesting process, I also plan to learn and make one other "dry sausage", I am not sure what yet but I'll figure it out soon.

Fermenting, I want to learn the art and nuance of laco-fermentation.  This is a great method of preserving your garden vegetables without canning, with the added benefit of better digestive health with the pro-bioics it creates.  I plan to try several different types of veggies out, of course pickles and a veggie mix called chow chow.    

Harvesting Grain, I planted a couple types of grain last year (quinoa and amaranth).  I want to plant some small test plots of different grain and harvest them using different traditional methods.  I want to grow at least 6 different grains to experiment on what works best in this area.  I know you are probably asking why I would even bother, when grain is so cheap.  Well the reason is simply because I want to try it out, see what is involved and see if growing any percentage of our grain makes sense if land area was available.  I am also exploring sprouting grain, which unlocks some of its nutrition and increases digestibility.    
  

Male Blue Orchard Bee (Mason Bee)

Beekeeping; this year I plan to start and keep 3 honeybee colony's, a couple of which will be not the standard hive you typically see, but a Warre' hive.  I really am fascinated with bees in general.  I already work a lot with Mason Bees.  Last summer, I spent a day working with my Dad on his hives and really enjoyed it.  I of course would love more Honey in the house and we would replace a lot of the sugar we use with Honey.

I want to keep my bees in a chemical and natural method as possible in a  managed hive.  My yard though full of good pollen and nectar bearing trees, bushes and flowers is often missing that soft drone of honey bees working the blossoms all year.  Adding a hive and colony near by will help some, and will work well to enhance what my mason and leafcutter bees are already doing.

Final Thoughts

We would like to encourage you to sign up and create your own profile on 13 Skills, make some good achievable goals and get to work.  Share your profile with family and friends and lets work towards bettering ourselves one skill at a time.

Watch for future posts from us showing our progress in each of the areas on our profiles. 
 

Shaun-ta's Bottled Salsa

One thing that we really love at our house is salsa. We eat a lot of it, especially when we bottle our own, because it is good! Last year we didn't get enough tomatoes to can salsa, but this year with our garden expanded and our tomatoes rocking, I went on a mission to replenish our supply of salsa.  This is my own recipe that I came up with as I played around with and experimented with a few recipes. Several years ago, as I was learning more about canning, I wondered why I couldn't just can the fresh salsa that I always made and loved. You might have the same question and here is a good resource for you to go to learn more about safe canning methods and the reason why you can't just can some of your favorite family recipes. When you are canning it is important that you follow recipes that have been properly researched and tested for safety.

The only changes you can safely make in these salsa recipes are to substitute bottled lemon or lime juice for 
vinegar and to change the amount of spices and herbs. You should never alter the proportions of vegetables to acid and tomatoes because it might make the salsa unsafe. With that being said, it was using this method that I developed my salsa recipe and I would encourage you to do the same. Choose an approved recipe and make it your own by adding the spices and herbs that your family enjoys. There are lots of approved recipes out there, here are a few places you can get them:
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/pnw0395/pnw0395.pdf
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/b3570.pdf
http://nchfp.uga.edu/

I haven't been able to find the approved recipe that I developed my recipe from, it has been such a long time, and I have been using my recipe for years. So I will share with you the recipe that I use and the method I use for canning my salsa. It might give you some ideas of how to develop your own recipe.

Shaun-ta's Bottled Salsa

8 Cups Tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 & 1/2 Cups Chopped Onion
1 & 1/2 Cups Green Pepper, chopped
1 Cup Jalapeno, chopped
6 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
Cilantro, fresh or dried to taste
2 tsp. Cumin
2 tsp.  Black Pepper
1/8 Cup Salt
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Vinegar

The first step is to prep your tomatoes. I do a three bowl set up. You start by placed your tomatoes in boiling water to loosen the skins.

You will know when your tomatoes are ready because the skins will begin to split.

The skins on your tomatoes will peel right off at this point. Some people dip their hot tomatoes into ice water immediately after the boiling water, but I skip this step because I feel it is unnecessary. I just place them into my second bowl and let them cool for a second before coring and peeling them.

Next I dice my tomatoes and when I am making salsa I do this into a colander with a bowl underneath to catch the extra juice. Straining off the excess juice helps you to get a nice thick salsa that you don't have to cook forever.

I bottle the extra juice separately to use for chili or soups ( it wouldn't be good for drinking.) To bottle your juice follow my recipe for bottling diced tomatoes for the correct amounts of salt and lemon juice to add. Process the juice the same as you would your diced tomatoes.

Next chop up all of your veggies. You may or may not want to pull the seeds out of your jalapenos, it just depends on how spicy you want your salsa. I usually remove mine. I use the end of a spoon to remove them. You can wear gloves if you want, they can burn your skin and make sure not to touch your eyes.

Dump everything into a large pot. The larger the pot the faster your salsa will cook up and get nice and thick. I inherited this pan from my Grandmother. It is one of my cherished possessions and I use it for many things. Bring everything to a boil and then reduce your heat and let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until you reach your desired thickness.

Here is the finished product. Nice and thick, just how we like it.

Pour your hot salsa into clean jars.  I did both pints and quarts, a few of each.

Clean jar rims and put on lids. Process your salsa in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes and you have your own homemade bottled salsa, yum.

Canning 101: Diced or Whole Tomatoes

We have been very blessed to have a bountiful harvest of tomatoes this year. It has been wonderful to eat so many fresh tomatoes. We have also been canning a lot of them for future use. Here is the method I use to can whole or diced tomatoes.

The first step is to dip your tomatoes in water that has come to a boil for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

You will know when the tomatoes are ready to pull out because you will see the skin on the tomatoes split.

When this happens the skin will come right off the tomato. I remove them from the hot water and place them into a bowl to cool for a few minutes. Then peel and core each tomato.

Once the skin is removed and your tomato is cored you can cut them into whatever size you like. I usually do some that are diced for sauce and some that are cut into larger chunks for chili.

The easiest way to get your tomatoes into the bottle without making a huge mess is to use a canning funnel like the one pictured. It just makes the process a lot easier.

Fill your clean canning jars up with your peeled, diced tomatoes. Leave about 1/2 inch head space. There is no need to add any liquid to the jars. The juice from the tomatoes is sufficient.

Because Tomatoes are lower in acid than other fruits you do need to add some acid to make sure there is a safe level of acid in each jar. So for each quart add 1 tsp. lemon juice and for each pint add 1/2 tsp. lemon juice.

I also add some salt to each jar. For each quart add 1/2 tsp. salt and for each pint add 1/4 tsp. salt.

Clean the rims on your jars and place lids on each jar. Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes for pints and 45 minutes for quarts.


That is all there is to it, now you have home canned tomatoes ready to use for spaghetti sauce, soups, and other dishes.

In a PIckle. . .

We are a pickle loving family. Even our 15 month old loves them. This year we planted pickling cucumbers so I could restock our supply of canned dill pickles. We grew some really beautiful cucumbers that were perfect to make dill pickle spears with. Today I am going to share with you my method and recipe for making dill pickles.

Loosely pack clean cucumbers into clean quart jars, leaving about 1/2 inch headspace. I did pickle spears, but you can also do whole baby cucumbers or slice them into chips.

Into each quart add:
1 tsp. Dill Seed
1 tsp. Mustard Seed
1 to 2 Cloves Fresh Garlic 
This year I also added some Ball Pickle Crisp that Jacob got a great deal on awhile back. I have never used it before, so I will update you on how it works.

Next make a brine by combining:
2 Cups Water
1 Cup Cider Vinegar
1 Tb. Pickling Salt


You may need to increase or decrease the amount of brine you make according to how many quarts you have, but do not change the ratio of ingredients. Bring the brine to a boil.  Slowly pour the hot brine over the cucumbers, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Clean jar rims and put lids on jars.

Process your pickles in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes (or adjust the time according to your altitude).  Remove from heat and allow them to cool for awhile before removing the jars from the canner.

I also made beet pickles this year, which I love. To make beet pickles follow my directions for preparing your beets, found here. Once your beets are in the jars replace the hot water and salt with the same brine you used for your dill pickles. You can then process them in a hot water bath just like your dill pickles. I did mine together in the same batch.

I did 11 quarts of dill pickles and 4 quarts of beet pickles, yum!

Canning 101: Beets

We harvested about 20 lbs. of beets from our garden near the end of May. I really wanted to can some beets this year, so we planted a bunch. I was able to can both regular beets and beet pickles. Below is the method for canning regular vegetable beets. I will share the beet pickle recipe in a future post.

 I started by cleaning and trimming off all my greens. I did this outside so I had less mess in my kitchen. I had two little helpers munching away on beet greens the whole time. Not only did we get a lot of beets but we also came away with several bags of greens. Jacob and I have really grown to love beet greens. Once you have all your beets cleaned stick them in a stock pot and pre-cook them for about 15 to 25 minutes. You want to be able to poke a fork in them, and the skins will slip off easily. They will undergo further cooking when you pressure cook them.

You also want to make sure to leave about an inch of stem on the top and about an inch of the root. This makes it so your beet doesn't bleed out. :)

Once your beets are pre-cooked dump them into a colander and allow them to cool until you can handle them. As you can see from the photo the skins slip right off. Peel and trim your beets.

 Then dice or slice your beets however you like them, into clean jars. I did some diced and some sliced into circles. I will usually peel, trim, and then dice each beet into a jar, so I am only handling them once.

Once your jars are full of hot beets add 1 tsp. of salt per quart (if desired) and then fill the jars with fresh hot water, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Wipe bottle rims and put on lids and rings. Beets must be pressure canned because of their low acidity. Click here for appropriate pressure canning times and weights for your altitude. Be sure to follow the instructions for your pressure canner. To the right are my newly canned beets. From our 20 lbs of beets we got 5 pints of regular beets and 4 quarts of beet pickles, plus we had beets for dinner that night. Yum! In the next couple of weeks I will be posting how to make the beet pickles and also sharing one of my favorite beet recipes so be sure to check back.

Honey and Mayonnaise Sandwiches

When I was a kid, I made up a sandwich, I remember asking my mom to make this for me all the time.  It was a simple sandwich of Honey and Mayonnaise.  Now I can't say I've eaten that sandwich anytime in the last 25+ years but I remember it being really tasty.

Local raw honey (notice its dark amber color)

Just recently I realized that our family had consumed a quart of local honey in about 5 weeks.  I brought it to Shaun-ta's attention and she lovingly informed me that it was in fact me who consumed the lion's share.  I guess it's true, I probably did partake in at least 1/2 of it.  I love honey, I normally have to keep my urges in check.  A few months back we bought a gallon of honey from some folks at church who manage a lot of local hives.  We were able to buy a gallon for a great price, this honey was all local not pasteurized and or filtered (sometimes called raw or pure honey).  It was really good honey, darker than normal clover honey had bit's of pollen in it and has a little stronger flavor.

Honey is pretty amazing stuff, if properly stored it can have shelf life beyond our life.  There was honey found in the Egyptian tombs and was still edible. Honey has a great big list of benefits. One the reported benefits comes with consuming local honey to build ones resistance to pollen allergies. Some of the other  benefits and properties are:

• Anti-oxidant
• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-fungal
• Anti-biotic factors
• Anti-microbial
• Vitamins - C, D, E K, B6, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and certain amino acids. 
• Minerals - calcium, chlorine, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium and zinc 
• Protein
• Raw honey contains beneficial live enzymes that aid in digestion
• Raw honey also contains pollen which is high in protein and can aid with allergies.

To keep up with honey consumption we plan buy a few gallons the next time it comes available.  Ultimately we hope to start a couple honey-bee hives next year.  I already manage various species of solitary bees for pollinating, so It will be fun to work with honey bees too.  So I have 6 months or so to decide what type of hives to build and get them ready for the season.  I hope to be able to catch a feral swarm next year along with starting one from a nucleolus colony.

 

What is the verdict on the Honey and Mayo Sandwich?

Four of our mouths agree it is actually pretty good.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

20 lb. of Strawberries for $20 - Wahoo!

Last Saturday night I went to the store at 9:00 pm, which is sometimes necessary when you have 3 small children. I was so excited to find a great deal on strawberries. $1.00 for 1 lb. so I bought 20 lb. I went home immediately to make strawberry freezer jam, which I absolutely love. I usually try to make both freezer and cooked jam, because even though I like cooked jam, I really think that freezer jam tastes tons better.It seems to maintain that fresh strawberry taste a lot better and of course it keeps that beautiful bright red color.

Mixing together the Pectin and Sugar.

Freezer jam is really easy to make and I was able to utilize the deal that Jacob got on freezer pectin several months ago. There is really nothing to it, but I was glad that Jacob was willing to jump in and help me. He mixed together the appropriate amounts of sugar and pectin (just follow the instructions on the bottle of instant pectin) while I cleaned and crushed the berries.

Crushing the Strawberries.

I like chunks of berries in mine and so you can just simply crush them using a potato masher. Then you combine the sugar pectin mixture with the fruit and stir for a specified amount of time. It is only 2 or 3 minutes. Put your jam into containers for freezing. As you can see in the picture below we used some containers that we bought specifically for freezing and then when we ran out of those we used a few jars and some other random plastic containers. 

13 Pints of Strawberry Freezer Jam.

The jam has to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes and then you put it in the freezer for storage. That is all there is to it. So easy, anyone can do it. We made 13 pints of freezer jam and we still had about 6 lbs. of strawberries left, but I had no more containers to put jam in so we decided to freeze some of the berries.

6 lbs. of Frozen Strawberries.

We use frozen berries a lot for homemade yogurt and smoothies. We usually buy frozen strawberries at Sam's Club, 5 lb. for $9.00. So we got a great deal here, 6 lb. for $6.00. I just lay the berries out on a tray in a single layer and freeze them overnight. Then I pull them out and put them into a freezer bag. They come easily off the tray and break apart this way so they are not frozen together in a huge clump.Perfect for fruit smoothies.
I was so happy about this deal and I am so glad to have strawberry freezer jam again!

Canning 101: Green Beans

 We eat a lot of green beans at our house and we have been eating loads of fresh ones for several weeks now, I have been picking them every other day. I thought I had better can a few pickings. In addition to our large pressure canner,  I have a small pressure cooker that only fits three pints. I actually really like it, because that is about what I can harvest in one picking from our garden.

Canning green beans is actually very simple and it only took me a few minutes to prepare these 3 pints for processing. Here is the method I use:

1. Clean and Sterilize your jars.
2. Wash and trim your beans, removing strings. I snap larger ones in half.
3. Fill your jars with cleaned beans. Add salt if you like ( 1 tsp. per quart, 1/2 tsp. per pint). Cover beans with boiling water, leaving 1 inch of head space.
4. Wipe jar rims and put on your lids.
5. Process in pressure canner.
Processing time is 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts. If you are using a weighted gauge pressure canner use 10 lbs. pressure for altitudes 0-1,000 ft. and 15 lbs. pressure for altitudes over 1,000 ft.  If you are using a dial gauge canner please refer to this table for pressure weights. Be sure to follow the instructions for your pressure canner. 

It is that simple and you now have your own home canned garden beans.

Preserving the Harvest

Tomatoes and Cucumbers from our Garden.

For the past few weeks we have really been enjoying the harvest.  My kids love the fact that they can eat a whole cucumber by themselves for a snack. We have had tomato sandwiches almost everyday for lunch, tomato slices every night for dinner, and last night we had spaghetti with sauce made from all the yummy things from our garden. It has been amazing to eat all of these fresh things from our garden. I just love it!

Newly preserved Pickles and Beets.

My daughter and I were reading the story of Joseph of Egypt last night. I paid particular attention to a few verses from the 41st chapter of Genesis:

"Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, dreamed dreams which greatly troubled him. The wise men of his court could not give an interpretation. Joseph was then brought before him: “Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:

“And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:

“And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed. …

“And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: …

“And I saw in my dream … seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:

“And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:

“And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: …

“And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, … God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.

“The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. …

“… What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.

“Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

“And there shall arise after them seven years of famine;

“… And God will shortly bring it to pass” (Gen. 41:17–20, 22–26, 28–30, 32).

I was reminded of the importance of saving some of what you are given in times of plenty for the leaner times. This has always been an important principle of  Self Reliance and Provident Living taught to us by prophets of God.

Jacob and I both grew up in canning families. We learned to can and other methods of preservation from a young age. I remember helping my mom in the kitchen as she canned bottle upon bottle of peaches, beets, beans, tomatoes, etc. In this way we were able to enjoy the harvest throughout the unfruitful days of winter.  My growing family has relied heavily on my mother's abundance of canned fruits and veggies throughout the years and I have always enjoyed the ability that I have to do this as well. This harvest has been no exception, as much as we are enjoying eating all of the fresh veggies, I have also been canning to preserve these wonderful things for a time when they are not as abundant.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing my recipes and methods for canning some of the things I have been preserving.  It is important especially if you have never canned before to have some background knowledge of basic canning rules and methods.  Not all vegetables and fruits can be preserved in the same way and so to ensure the safety and health of your family it is important to follow properly researched methods for canning each item.  If you are just starting out as a  home canner here is a link to an excellent resource for good canning practices. I have used this resource from the Utah State University Extension often. Another excellent resource is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Good luck with your canning! And if you have any questions, comments, or ideas please send them my way.

Check out the sidebar to follow us by e-mail.  An  e-mail will be sent to you each time we post something new.