The Gift of Blood- Well worth considering.!

Today I  had an appointment with the Blood bank. Here in N.S.W where we live  we can either go into our permanent blood bank building right in town or if we are lucky enough to live  in areas where the mobile unit comes to we can donate there.
The latter was the case for me today ,so I ventured down to my local shopping centre this morning to do my donation.

I have been a blood donor off and on  since I was about 18, being a plasma donor for a while  but now back to donating whole blood. I was greeted by a friendly fellow outside who gave me some paperwork  with a few pages of questions designed to decide on my suitability as a donor.

I was then taken up the stairs to enter the lovely AIR CONDITIONED mobile donation centre.
Once inside I was weighed(unfortunately),my blood pressure taken, and my iron levels checked before being taken into a private interview room to personally discuss my answers to questions on the earlier paper work.

 After having my dreaded weight checked I relaxed for a while and was given a cool drink of my choice.

At this point, this is where my planned good deed came to an abrupt end, unfortunately due to the fact that I had been on some prescription medication I was unable to donate my blood today and would have to wait a couple of weeks before I could..
As I was leaving, I took a photo of the  lovely dedicated people who work on this mobile donation unit and we commented that most of the chairs were empty and that ,that, was a very sad thing,especially as donations are needed so badly.

I went home deflated, and was about to start writing this post when I had a thought, so I jumped back in my car, headed down to the shopping centre where the mobile  unit was  and asked if there was some kind person that would step in  my place and allow me to photograph them to complete my post, as I thought this to be an extremely worthwhile cause to be promoted if possible.

I was introduced to Hamish who kindly consented to allowing me to photograph him as he progressed through his blood donation.

They took Hamish's blood pressure, cleaned his arm and placed a needle in his arm to collect the blood.This is all relatively painless i can assure you, having  done it  about 50-60 times myself.
This was Hamish's 8th donation.

Each  donation only takes about 6-10 minutes, they take a total of 500mls of blood, 30mls in a sample for testing and 470mls in the larger  container.. You have to allow about an hour for the whole process from start to finish .

I noticed Hamish was quite relaxed  during the donation, even taking  some time out on his mobile phone. They then began the  short process of disconnecting him .

The blood donation is then taken over to the counter and sealed off, numerous checks are done repeatedly  and we were told that each of these donations are divided up into 3 different products, If I remember correctly it was red blood cells, plasma and platelets. This means  they said that 3 individual people can be helped with each donation instead of just one.

After the donation is complete, they usually ask you to sit quietly for a few minutes, to make sure you feel  alright , and then you exit the  unit and sit  outside for a bit with a cool drink and a nice selection of goodies to eat.
I sincerely wish to thank Hamish for his kind co-operation in helping me finish this, He told us that he was heading up to the vineyards in the Hunter Valley this weekend with his wife to celebrate their 1st  wedding anniversary, I wish them every happiness.
So as we go about our crazy ,rushed Christmas celebrations, please give a thought to many who  may desperately need your kind donations over  the holiday period.
If you are an Australian reader of this post then please  ring  the blood bank on  131495 or go to  Donate blood.com.au and make an appointment to do your little bit.
I hope and pray that there will be enough to meet the demands.
Thank you readers for staying with me on this one, it is something I truly believe in and every little bit helps a lot.
Thanks again,
until we meet again,
Jane.

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.

Rhubarb Champagne

I love to watch  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on the TV show "River cottage".
In one of the episodes I saw a long time ago they were preparing for a  party and they decided to make Rhubarb Champagne. It really caught my fancy ,and I decided there and then that I would certainly try it one day.
I have been unable to track down the original recipe but found one  on a forum for self sufficiency that I belong to that was very similiar in ingredients and method from what I could recall.

As our rhubarb is flourishing, I made one batch about three or four weeks ago, and decided to do another as to have a good supply  over the Christmas Holidays.
We picked the rhubarb ,removed the leaves and washed and trimmed the stems.We then cut it up into small pieces.I made a double batch , which was 1.6 kgs chopped rhubarb.

The recipe said to slightly squash the rhubarb with a rolling pin to bruise it to release the juices(or  alternatively freeze the chopped rhubarb overnight and thaw as this releases juices as well)The first batch I bruised  and the second I froze so I could compare.

Next  I  added 1.2 Kgs of white sugar and  330 mls of white wine vinegar.
The recipe   then calls for  2 cut up lemons with the pips removed. I had no lemons so used bottled lemon juice to equal roughly the same amount.

You then add 9 litres of water and place altogether in a big plastic tub or stainless steel pot, mix until the sugar dissolves completely, cover with a clean cloth and set aside in a cool place for about 3 days,I gave it a good stir and a smash with a potato masher each day just to break down the rhubarb.

After the 3 days, I then removed all the rhubarb pulp, squeezing it hard to extract the final  beautiful pink juice.(I then composted the remaining pulp)

I then strained it through a double layer of muslin to remove any lingering  rhubarb pulp.

What a glorious colored liquid it produced, I just adore it.
Next the bottles have to be filled, I had collected plastic bottles with screw caps as I have had explosions in the past from ginger beer in glass bottles and have learnt my lesson painfully.

Because I had made the previous batch, I hadn't saved enough plastic bottles and fell short. I had three glass bottles with ceramic stoppers and  wire bales on them,so  decided to go ahead and use them, but not doing the caps up and  placing a  pin pricked balloon on the top instead of a cap.(I had read about this on  one of  the canning sites that I belong to)It will be interesting to see if this method works.

Once capped these bottles are then kept in a cool dark  spot for about 4 weeks.You may need to gently release the gas from time to time as it builds up.
I keep them in this plastic tub  so that if the plastic bottles  do  rupture from the pressure as least some of it will be contained.
Our first batch has been sitting for about 3 weeks, so we decided to  give it a little try.

Happy hour has definately  hit a high note at our place this week,this was  so lovely.
A delicate soft pink ,lightly bubbly ,mildly alcoholic jewel in a glass.
It has a lovely  gentle rhubarb taste(as you would expect) but not over powering.
The second batch was bottled  four days ago and I have already had to start releasing gas as this lot is bubbling frantically, it appears to be a much stronger batch  at this point.
My daughter is coming to visit this week so I will get her  opinion on my little experiment.She has the Apple Pie Moonshine  and this  to sample.
I think it will be a lovely summertime drink to have  in the Christmas holidays, Brian  tried it and said it wasn't bad(that means quite good). Although he did look quite  funny with a  pink flute in hand instead of his normal beer or red wine..
So, until we meet again,  to everyone  a happy goodnight.
Cheers,
Jane