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.

Canned turkey and vegetable soup.

We love soup, in  every shape and form. I grew up in a fairly large household as did my husband, where there was always a big pot of soup on the stove to feed the hungry hordes. At our house it was mainly  mutton, as that is what there was plenty of  and occasionally it was chicken if we had a feral rooster or two to get rid of. Mum always grew a big vegetable garden and the soup was always thick  wholesome and yummy....always brings back good memories of home.
When  I learned that you could pressure can meats,I started to pressure can  my soups, also mainly chicken and lamb. We only recently made a batch up the farm and canned it. I have included this into this post just to show how i usually made it.

We were lucky to find a bargain at our local chicken factory sales shop, they were selling massive turkey wings for $2.00 per kilogram.It was for sale in 12 kilogram boxes. We chopped these into three sections each, the meaty end we used for the soup pots ,the mid pieces we put into the smoker and the tips were doggie treats.
I placed the turkey into the pots with pre- prepared chicken stock and cooked until the meat started to fall off the bones,I then removed the bones and added  pre-canned tomatoes and corn,chopped carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, herbs, and salt,pepper, garlic and any sauces I could find.
This then simmered on the stove for an hour or so until all flavours merged and vegetables cooked.

after this I removed them  off the stove and cooled a little, I then  filled all my hot jars, debubbled, wiped rims with paper towel and white vinegar, placed pre-simmered lids on and screwed on the bands finger tight. These were then processed at 75 min 10lbs for pints and 90 min 10lbs for quarts.

After the first batch of 14 quarts was complete, I removed them and then processed a second batch of pints to give to my elderly  mum  for handy quick meals for her. She finds them invaluable.
So , when we came back home  to the coast we thought that the turkey was such a good buy that we would purchase some more. his time after having seen so many raw packed  soups on the canning sites, we decided to give it a go as well.

This time,  Brian sat and trimmed the meat off the bones(which we froze for the dogs) while I prepared  the carrots, onions, celery and potatoes ready to layer in the jars as follows.

We had purchased 12 kilograms of turkey wings, the meaty end pieces that we used with bone in weighed about 6 kgs, it produced enough trimmed turkey to do two full canner loads of pints (38 altogether)

After layering the meat and vegetables, I added garlic, mixed herbs, chilli,pepper,( BBQ sauce to the first batch and Home made tomato sauce to the second batch), and filled the jars to about 1 inch from the top with chicken stock(I used stock powder dissolved with water this time),de-bubbled and adjusted liquid, wiped rims clean with paper towel and white vinegar, topped with simmered lids and screwed on the bands finger tight.We then once again used our new brilliant outdoor  propane set up to process the soups.

We processed the pints for 75 minutes at 10lbs pressure for our altitude, and then turned off the gas, cooled the canner down  and removed the lid. The two of us then  carried the canner inside to unload the jars onto a bath towel covered bench top to cool overnight.
Next morning, I removed bands, checked seals, washed jars and bands, stored the bands away with the rest of the multiplying hordes  labelled the jars and stored in the pantry.

This is a brilliant way to make soup, quick and easy, also a heck of a lot cheaper than my old way(unless you do the first cook on the wood stove), and the final product  was amazing. This will be many,many quick meals for me when Brian is away working or we just want a lazy hot  meal, and as we are trying to watch our weight this also helps with portion control.
Will I do this again, Yes  I most certainly will.
I am learning so much every day from all the amazing people from all over the world that I meet  on the canning and  homesteading sites that I have contact with, and I am sure making many life time  acquaintances.
We live in an amazing time in history and I for one  am loving it.
So my friends,
until we have the pleasure of meeting again,
Cheers for now,
Jane.

veggie protection in our hot Aussie summers

About 5 years ago we had this great idea of making a hoop shade house to protect our plants in the  extremely hot summers we have here in Australia.
We built the shelter with just three hoops. 2 inch poly agricultural pipe over metal star pickets forming the skeleton. We then covered it with nylon bird mesh to keep out birds and other  nuisance animals and then covered it with high density  shade cloth.
We found that this was totally impractical as it was too shaded and the plants went spindy  and leggy and  didn't thrive.
We removed the shade cloth and just left it for several years with just the mesh.

Recently I had a whole pile of potatoes sprout  and I suggested to Brian that we plant them up at the farm in those garden beds, As they would have no protection we mulched them heavily with sugar cane mulch .It has been extremely dry up here  and the mulch has helped greatly.
So yesterday I suggested to Brian that we really needed to put some cover over the potatoes or they just would not survive the next  couple of months and we would loose them.
So we decided to revamp the  hoop  structure a little.

Where we originally had three poly hoops we now have five.
We then screwed in  three horizontal rows of metal as   strenthening supports to the structure.

For this we used some old metal tent poles that we had been hoarding for years for no particular reason but knew they would come in handy one day.
We then made a very lucky phone call to enquire  about the price of shade cloth . We first rang our next major town  which is 32 miles away (thinking that our little local place wouldn't stock it. The price in the bigger town was $13.90 per metre for 3.6 metre wide cloth.
We decided  just to check  our local fellow (6 miles away) to be really surprised that he quoted us $5.60 per metre for the same width. We went in immediately and purchased  the required amount , double checked the price, paid and made a  very quick exit as that was super,super cheap.

We attached the shade cloth  ,making it higher up on the back side of the cover as the sun is more prominent on the  front side most of the day.
On the side where it is hanging down we attached a 7.5 metre long 1 inch diametre plastic pipe so that we could use the overhang as a roll up blind, that we have up for most of the year and just roll down when the heat is extreme.

We think that this amount of shade will be the right amount and that hopefully we will grow  lot's of healthy vegetables under here. Our blue Cattle dog Tilly certainly seemed to be enjoying the shade as she barely moved from laying in one of the gardens for the whole day while we were  working there, even today she has spent a few hours under there9 even though there is plenty of other shade for her.)
So here's hoping this works,I will update you all at a future date to check on the progress and see how it goes.
So a cheery farewell to all,
regards,
Jane.