Under Pressure Or My New Shiny

Isn't she pretty?  Yesterday, I purchased this pressure canner and shall name her Cora the Canner.  She's something that I plan on using a lot, especially if my plan to create a little food forest is successful.  I do have a freezer and it is great, but honestly, lots of times I think, "Oh, I have such and such in the freezer and we should have that for dinner tonight," but then I forget to take it out of the freezer and this way on nights like that, I will just have to open a jar and I've got the basis for whatever dinner.

In order to test it out, I bought three pounds of dry black beans.  I read two different methods of canning dry beans.  One was adding dry beans to the jars and boiling water and the other was to soak overnight, give them a quick parboil, add to jars with boiling water and can that way.

So, since I bought a new shiny, guess which method I used?  If you said the soaking overnight, then you are grossly underestimating my enthusiasm for new toys, as well as my complete inability to grasp the concept of delayed gratification.  (Not really true about the gratification, except when it comes to new toys.  Which reminds me, I really should do a post about another new toy I received this year, but never mind that right now.  See? I'm helping you with delayed gratification.  You're welcome.)

At any rate, I rinsed half of the beans very thoroughly, trotted down to the basement to my hoard stash of vintage canning jars I scored at Goodwill for $2/box.  (Happy little dance)  I washed them in hot soapy water and then filled them with boiling water to sit for a bit.  Meanwhile, I boiled some water on the stove to use to pour into the jars after I added the beans.

Check out this jar...

Apparently, these are worth some money and that's sweet and everything, but they are also utilitarian items and there is nothing wrong with using them for the purpose for which they were intended.   (I clearly don't grasp the entire collecting canning jars thing...)  I have about 20 of these pint jars.  I suppose I could look up the value of them.  If they were worth a nice price, I could sell them one at a time.  Then I could use the funds to add to my vintage toilet paper roll collection.  

Anyway... after I washed the beans I started heating up 3 quarts of water in the canner, Next, I added a heaping 1/2 cup of beans to each pint jar.  Then I added 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt on top and then filled the jars up with boiling water, leaving an inch of head space.

This is a picture of adding salt because I know that is difficult to visualize. 

This is actually from this morning, when I did the other 1 1/2 pounds of beans after soaking them over night.  I decided to get all crazy and add the salt first.  It really doesn't matter which order they are added.

I plunked all the jars down into the now hot (but not boiling - that's important) water and sealed the canner up.  An hour and fifteen minutes later, this is my result!

8 pints of canned black beans ready to dump into salads, be smooshed up to make black bean tostados, added to yummy yummy salsa, or whatever else my little heart desires.

I also did 8 more pints this morning with the pre-soaked beans and just from a visual alone, I think I like the dry bean method the best, but the proof is in the tasting.  The dry pack method probably results in a much firmer bean, which would be best for salads, soups or salsa.  

So, that's it gentle readers.  I'll leave you with this picture of one of my favorite canning jars (okay, okay, I get the whole canning jar collecting thing after all).  

ps.  (I don't collect old toilet paper rolls)

pps.  (One of the lids didn't seal properly, so I had the occasion to taste the beans from today.  A little too much salt for my liking, but the beans were delicious!)

Beginning Permaculture in My Urban Backyard

Yesterday, it was hot here.  After a relatively mild August for Philadelphia, I was not prepared for 90 degree heat and a buttload of humidity.  I wanted to work in the backyard, but it was just too hot for me, so I decided to wait until evening before doing yard work in hopes that it would cool down significantly.

This did not work.  I still managed to sweat enough to soak my entire shirt and head and feel like I should have been chanting some meditation for enlightenment.

Around 4:00pm, I ran to my local home center and picked up two bags of composted manure, two bags of organic top soil, a bag of potting soil and a bag of shredded pine bark.  The most expensive thing was the potting soil at eleven dollars and change.  The rest of it was around two bucks a bag.

After arriving home, I scrounged around and managed to come up with enough cardboard to cover the area where I wanted to start a permaculture bed - under the apple tree, one to support the apple tree's health and two to grow something there that is useful (although I am not sure just what yet).  The first thing I did was to dump the bucket of half eaten/rotten apples and leaves under the tree and spread that out evenly.  Then I laid the cardboard on top, making sure to overlap the edges so nothing could grow through.  Then I wet the cardboard down pretty thoroughly.

Next up, I dumped the bags of composted cow manure on top of the cardboard, spread that around and wet that layer down pretty well too.  On top of the manure, I spread the top soil, making sure to completely cover all of the cardboard so that nothing was showing.  Another wet down and then the last layer was the shredded bark, which I also wet down.

A fairly sizable tiny vampire bite on my face later, I stood back to survey the results.  It looks pretty good, but I think I'm going to go back to the home center today and get four more bags of top soil and a couple of bales of hay.  I think this should give me the depth I wanted and the hay on top will keep the shredded bark from wicking all the moisture from the top soil I plan on putting on top of that layer.

I originally thought about planting comfrey under the tree until I read that it was toxic to both humans and animals.  Something in it damages the liver.  I would like to put something under there that would be edible, while at the same time help support the tree's health.  A little more research is called for.

In the meantime, my packages arrived yesterday.  One of them contained a everbearing mulberry bush and a Violet de Bordeaux fig tree.  I have to say that I was rather surprised by the small size of both plants.  I guess when they said 4" pots, my mind was like, "okay, that's going to be about a foot tall."  ha!  Try about 3" for the fig and maybe 5" for the mulberry.

Anyway, they'll grow.  I just may not have figs for a couple of years.  Bummer.

In other news, I've been watching a youtube channel called "Linda's Pantry" and now I want a pressure canner.  She cans just about everything, but the beans intrigued me the most.  Never thought of canning my own black beans or pintos.  

I've been busy...

I know it has been a long time since I wrote a post and I'm not really sure where the time has gone.  However, I keep thinking about it and I finally decided there is no time like the present, right?  So here goes...

What I've been up to:
Let's see.  Work on the porch hasn't really progressed past my last post.  The railings are done and have survived a winter with lots of snow, a spring with some rain, and a mild summer.  They still look great and I'm completely pleased with them.  I would still like to screen in the porch at some point, but I just haven't gotten the motivation nor funds to do it yet.  

I've been spending a great deal of time out in the backyard, trying to get it back in hand.  4 nights of school and homework on weekends created a jungle out there of amazing proportions.  I've pulled lots of weeds, mostly creeping charlie, thistles (ouch) bind weed and dandelions.  I'm getting something to help with the weeds, but more about that later.

One of the things I was lacking in the backyard was a compost bin.  I've been tossing clippings and weeds over the fence in the back where there is a 10 foot space between my fence and the neighbor in back of me.  Since they have a few trees and bushes back there that block the view, there wasn't a question of unsightliness, but it did seem a waste to me to just toss all that organic matter over the fence.  After a few days of looking (and gasping at prices), I found a moderately priced unit on Amazon and ordered it.

Now in the past when I have had a compost bin, nothing really happened except it got real stinky and I only got usable compost out of it about once a year, so this time I spent some quality time with my computer and read quite a few articles and watched some youtube videos about proper composting.  Armed with that information, I was able to load my bin in the recommended layers of green vs brown and in no time at all, I had a cooking compost going.  It's been pretty amazing watching everything cook down and feeling the heat come off of it.  When I have veggie matter from the kitchen, I make a hole in the middle, dump the stuff in and cover it up.  I figure I should have some decent compost in the fall, just about the time to plant some stuff in the backyard.

This leads me to one of the other things I've been researching - food forests.  There are some fine videos out there about turning your landscape into a food forest.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it basically means creating an edible landscape with fruit trees and other edible crops grown in conjunction with the trees.

Like most Americans, my landscaping is mostly ornamental in nature.  I have one apple tree, which frankly has been a bigger PITA than help, but after reading up on fruit trees, I realize that I've made a number of mistakes with it.  One is that I let it get completely out of control and I have never taken care of the soil the tree is growing in.  The result of this is that from about mid-July on, I'm picking up hundreds of apples that are full of insects, half-eaten by tree rats (squirrels) and have some sort of blight or fungus on them, rendering them entirely inedible.

The rest of the backyard is filled with perennials.  Pretty, but hardly useful except for attracting bees and butterflies.  That is of course, a wonderful thing, but none of those plants are going to feed me.  I do have a small area where I've put in tomato plants, a couple of peppers and a few herbs.

After reading all these blogs and watching all these videos, I've realized two things.  Number one is that I want to put in some dwarf fruit trees, some berry bushes and number two is that I really need to amend my soil.  I've neglected it for far too long.

I don't want this post to be too lengthy, so I'll stop here.  Tomorrow, I'll cover some of the things I've learned and write about the plans I want to implement in the immediate future.

Thanks for reading - I promise I will be better about posting, so that the energy doesn't die down.  For me or my readers.