Corn cobs and kernels.

I realize that many who see this are in the depths of winter with snow and ice and cold all around. It seems strange knowing that that we are in the peak of our summer vegetable harvest here in Australia.I love seeing all the photos going up of life on the other side of the world.We really are the same, world over and we all love our gardens and canning and cooking  no matter where we come from.It is the mainstay of many of our lives, and also a  productive pastime as well as a necessity.
Corn is such a useful vegetable to have on hand,we use it to death in soups, stews, casseroles, salads and just as a side vegetable or mixed with others.

We had a very  successful corn patch last year and once again decided to plant another patch this year here on the coast which also has been very fruitful.
We had a lot of issues early on with  nuisance birds we have here called "The Indian Minor birds",they rip out seeds and small seedlings, we had to  cover everything with nets to begin  and then strung fishing line across the gardens and suspended old cs's,canning rings, and bits of tinsel to try and scare them....it worked with reasonable success.

The garden progressed well and this last photo of me in front of the corn was taken  about 4 days ago.
The beans in front have been equally productive this season, we were lucky to have recieved good rainfall here right when it was required.It's a shame that we are not getting any rain up at the farm.
We harvested our little crop the day before yesterday and ended up with a yield of about 80 cobs of corn of varying sizes, but mostly medium to large.
We decided that we would  cut the kernels off  enough cobs

to fill one canner load(19 pints)  and cut the rest into smaller cobs to freeze and cook as cobs.
I use a sharp knife to de-kernel the cobs, but we have seen an attachment that goes on your electric drill that makes the job super speedy and easy that we are going to look into for next year.

So, after filling my 19 pint jars loosly with the kernels  this is what I was left with. We were very pleased with the  amount.
I then bagged up all the cobs  into individual meal sizes to  freeze.
Next I poured water into my jars leaving abou1/2 -1 inch head space, de-bubbled and adjusted water levels. I add no salt to mine preferring to do that if  or when required. I raw pack whenever possible as that is just a method that I prefer to do.
I  then  wiped the rims of all my jars with a bit of paper towel soaked in white vinegar,placed on my lids that had been simmering in a pot of water, added the bands and screwed to finger tight.

Then they were all ready to be processed, bags went into the freezer, and we loaded the jars into the pressure canner. We have it set up at the moment out in the laundry room as it was too windy to use the gas burner outside and keep it regulated, so we chose a sheltered position. as I have said in previous posts, I have only a glass top stove here  on the coast and can't use my big AA on that.

We stacked the jars into the canner, I double stack the pints, fitting 19 in all, vaseline the pot edges and lid edge and lock down with the wing nuts and set going.
The corn kernels were processed at 10lbs pressure for my altitude for 55 minutes for the pint jars.
After the  processing time has elapsed, I turn off the gas, and leave the canner to come back down to zero pressure, leave a few more minutes and remove the weight. We then wait a few more minutes before removing the lid.
As we processed it outside, we  then carried the canner inside to remove all the jars out onto my kitchen bench which I cover with a bath towel.

I leave the jars overnight to cool completely ,next morning I remove the bands, check the seals,wash and label the jars, store the rings away, and add the jars to my pantry.

This is my final product. 19 jars of lovely golden corn kernels, Last year we processed the corn in half pints, but due to the cost of lids we decided to this year do more canning into the pint jars which seems to be working well so far.
We keep a few basic canned vegies, corn, carrots, green beans, potatoes,chick peas,and 4 bean mix, they all come in handy and help to produce quick meals when i need them too.
I  am just wondering what my next canning project will be, not much more in my garden now, so may have to pay a visit to a local vegetable producer and see what i can pick up cheap to keep me going. We made a decision this year to not grow a single tomato as the cost of seed/plants, water, sprays, and fruit fly traps was prohibitive. We can buy wonderful cases of good quality  tomatoes for $5.00 a case,which is great as they are that price per kilo in the shops.
So everyone, I will be off, I also have an appointment  this morning with the blood bank to donate blood, something I do every three months.
I hope all the readers in the cold parts of the country keep warm and visa versa for the ones in the warm parts of the world.
Best wishes to everyone,
Cheers,
Jane.

Thanks Dad !!!

Our Blue Cattle Dog Tilly  and her mate Doug the Kelpie love to chase  a soccer ball. They will chase it all day every day all over the farm.They get to be a real nuisance at times pushing the ball into the middle of what ever project you happen to be doing at the time and expecting you to kick it or throw it for them..

We have a grey water pit at  the farm into which all out kitchen,bathroom and laundry grey water flows into. We then hook up a small petrol pump and pump the water from the pit  out onto the lawn and trees. It passes through a rudimentary grease trap before running into the pit.
The pit is quite deep, my husband can nearly stand up in it.
Well recently when Brian was pumping it out, the dogs were racing around crazy with their ball and it just happened to fall into the pit.I just love the following images, they were just too cute.

And then it was like...."Hey Tilly the ball has  fallen in, come and look"

And then...."oh dear what will we do"
I think they thought that if they watched hard enough and really willed it to happen, that the ball would just magically appear again.

I think it was about then that they realized that Dad was there and they began asking him to save it for them

 

So good old Dad came to the rescue and pulled out that dirty smelly old soccer ball out  of the grey water pit.

So there were two happy dogs ,once again playing with their old soccer ball.

Another time when Brian had just started  pumping it out, Doug the Kelpie was racing around chasing the ball and then he just disappeared. Suddenly Brian realized that he had fallen into the pit and had to quickly rescue him as the water level was quite high. It certainly scared him and he was very wary of it that day.
For safety reasons we always keep a heavy concrete lid on it, the only time it is removed is when it is being pumped out. Because we don't live there full time it doesn't have to be emptied as often as it will when we become full timers.
 Today is the end of Winter, with Spring just around the corner with the promise of new growth and colour, all we need is that ever evasive rain.
Until next time,
Cheers,
Jane.

A glut of citrus

As Usual at this time of year we have a glut of citrus. I gave  a lot of citrus  away as I just didn't have the time or the need to preserve  it this year as I already had a wonderful supply of marmalade from last year.
So this year I only kept  the tangerines and ruby grapefruit and I only had a few lemons and limes as the trees are only new.
I decided to attempt jelly which I have never made before, My Mum( and after speaking to my cousin this morning,) my Aunty Belle  used to make quince jelly when I was very young, but I barely remember.
I borrowed my sons big Breville  juicer which he has in storage at our house and took it up to the farm with me.This sure saved me a heck of a lot of time.
I had two  shopping bags of tangerines to juice , and i ended up with 9 litres of tangerine juice,and one litre of ruby grapefruit juice,and a cup full of lemon juice and a small amount of lime juice.

I kept four litres aside to make four batches of jelly and decided to attempt to can the remainder of the juice to use at a later date. I have never canned any juice before so this was a real trial for me..will let you know how it goes.We simmered the juice for 10 minutes,then strained through several layers of muslin,placed back into pot,added the pectin and reboiled for 1 minute, then added the sugar and reboiled for another 1 minute.
I made four individual batches as I wanted to try a variety of  additives, in one batch I did I added lemon juice and the 4 1/2 cups of sugar and the pectin another I added no lemon juice and less sugar and pectin and the grapefruit I added lime juice. This was purely all experimental for future use.

We prepared our jars, rings lids ect according to instruction filled to within a quarter inch, removed any bubbles and sealed. We then processed them in a double layer in my trusty old Fowlers Vacola water bath preserver for 20 minutes. We decided to set it up outside this time  so that we could run a lead to the generator to run it.
As our property is off grid,  we only have limited amounts of electricity, and on a fine sunny day we would have been ok to run it off our batteries, but we had had several overcast days and so we didn't want to add the extra drain onto the batteries on top of regular household use.

We removed the jars after processing and left on the towel covered table overnight to cool completely and seal which they did.
I then removed the rings, and washed the jars. I had already pre-labeled the jars  as they had been different things and needed to know which was which.

The colour was quite good, though  the jelly not quite as clear as I had thought it would be, maybe the straining process needs to be more thorough. The taste of the tangerine jelly was good, although quite tart, but that suits me. the ruby grapefruit jelly was quite bitter, we think because the lime juice we added was from Kafir limes and not the sweeter  tahitian limes, and I think that may have affected it.I would use the ruby grapefruit again  but omit the limes...the colour of it was beautiful.
So my next attempt at jelly making  will be with a sweeter fruit, either pomegranates or grapes or mulberries,or what ever I happen to come across. I have been contemplating purchasing a steam juicer for this purpose.
The canned juice colour seemed to keep good, although the juice has appeared to have separated slightly.Whether this  all comes together again on re-opening the jars remains to be seen. Will  keep you informed when the time comes.
While we were up at the farm this time I went around and took a few house photos for record keeping and history purposes as we are planning quite a few changes over the next year or so as we make more serious  progress towards living on the farm full time.
So I thought below I would pop in a couple of pictures of my old workhorse of a kitchen. Nothing glamorous but it has been fairly practical.

We arn't sure what we will do exactly but that big brick chimney that leaks water everywhere every time it rains will go and be replaced with big glass sliding doors out to our later to be covered entertaining area,It has created a huge chain of events, each relying on another job to be done before it can be...I am sure we will be living in chaos for a while but it will eventually all be worth it.
So until next time,
Regards to everyone,
Jane.