How to Can Food

How to Can Food In this episode of Becky’s homestead we’ll be talking about canning, log cabin electrical and I’ll be reading your letters, stay tuned. Hi, I’m Becky and I’m a homesteader. I love to raft race and built my log cabin because I wanted to enjoy a simple life. Homesteading is being as self sufficient as your present situation allows, such as growing your own food, making some of the things you need, building your own home and trying to live in harmony with nature. Now, I’m going to show you how you can join with my show. In every episode, I’ll show you how to escape from the consumer raft race. I’ll give you encouragement, ideas, how to’s and what not to do. So you can live your homesteading life style too. Welcome to Becky’s Homestead. Hi, I’m Becky and welcome to the homestead. In this episode, we’ll be talking about canning, homestead electrical and I’ll be reading some of your letters. Let’s get started. Okay, I’ve been wanting to can for years and this year, my friend Nancy helps me learn how to can. So I was so excited and it’s so easy. I was so intimidated by canning and I thought it was difficult but when trying it, I’ve realized how easy it is. I want to explain on a few things that I learned about canning. First of all, there is a book that you buy and you can get it online or a library or whatever that tells you how to can. So get the book and follow the book but basically, I did the canning in a pressure cooker with -- it’s called the wet pack. You put boiling water in there, okay just so you know that. I like the pressure cooker because that is the only method that has 100% bacteria kill and I’m actually picky. So I went with that route. Okay, some of the things I learned which I didn’t know is the jars are different. If you can see these jars, this one here is called a wide mouth jar and this one here is just a regular jar. These are both quart jars. The wide mouth jars are little more expensive than the regular quart jars but I like the wide mouth jars. Another good thing about the wide mouth jar is when you’re putting your potatoes or your green beans or whatever in the jar, it’s easier to put them in and fill the jar up with the wide mouth. And it’s also easier to get them out when it’s time to use them. And the wide mouth jar, some people use them as a glass because they have the nice shape to it. Okay, I want to talk about the lids. This little part of the lid, this one I have it in the long hand because this is for the wide mouth because it’s a little bigger. If you look closely, it has the little rubber seal built in to the lid. You do not reuse this little part to the lid. You write on this lid with a sharpie when you canned your vegetables. So you just write on there and then when you eat your vegetables or your fruit or whatever, you throw this part away and you can buy boxes of this little lid top. So you don’t have to replace the jars or the screw top. The screw top is what holds the little lid on when you’re canning and that just goes on there. So this part you save, this part, you throw out and you buy a box of these. Once they’re canned like this, you don’t need the screw top and you can take the screw top off and keep them in a bag and just store all your jars like that because it’s sucked on there now. It filled with the back. So it was so easy and so much fun but the hardest part about canning is the fact that the preparation is a little time consuming. So you just peel in the potatoes, cutting them up and washing them. The green beans, the sting beans, you have to snap the beans and wash them so that it takes time but that’s pretty easy work actually and just sit in the table and take your time to enjoy it. So really, that’s the hardest part. The potatoes took 60 to 90 minutes to cook in the pressure cooker. So that is pretty time consuming as well but you basically don’t have to do anything and then the string beans were 25 minutes. So every vegetable has a different cooking time. So I would highly recommend canning to everybody. It’s so much fun and so easy and when you see all your nice jars of fruits and vegetables, you just feel so happy. So go ahead and give it a try. I’m certainly glad I did. To a beginner, electrical is very intimidating and scary. I know it is for me and it was for me but once you read the book and you start working you will realize that it just go circuit by circuit back to the circuit in the fuse box. So it’s not quite as intimidating as you think once you get going. Today, my son Scott came over and we are going to be working on the electrical. He is going to be pulling the wire for the washing machine circuit. So let’s go watch how he does it. Here’s Scott and he is working on my electrical today and I’m so happy. I’m behind the camera for once and it’s a nice switch. So exciting! Electrical! You're getting that right there. Okay, now I’m going to read some of your letters. Here’s one from Craig, he writes, “Hi Becky and good day to you. My name is Craig and I’m from England in the United Kingdom and I have been watching your videos and love them. I would love to be able to have a simple life in the cabin so ideal. I have a mortgage, poorly paid job and too many bills. I can only hope that one day. I will become lucky enough to have these things. It seems odd and it would cost me more to live a basic life than to carry on my current life. Keep making your videos. It’s very inspiring. Your bubbly and uplifting personality is bringing it contagious, the very best to you and your family, Craig.” Well Craig, if I were in your shoes and I was it one time, I would start by selling everything I didn’t need just simplifying where you are now. And paying off your old bills but most importantly, don’t make any new bills. It is a small journey to get into the position to move and afford your own property but it can be done and with a little diligence, you can simplify where you are. So I hope you get started on that. And the next one is from John and John writes “Nice video. What state is your homestead in? Do you have a well? Did you have a contractor dig the well and do you have electrical service. How many could you look at before you purchase?” Well John, I do have a well and we did hire a local company to put it in. That one company installed the well, power and septic. And the advantage of that was, this man has been in town for many, many years. If I’m not mistaken, his father had the business before him so he was able to pull all the permits and get everything done very quickly whereas if you’re a new comer, coming into the town. It is a little more difficult to pull the—and get things done. So that is an advantage to hiring a local person. Thanks for watching, if you have any questions, please email. Happy homesteading! Bye- bye. I still want to go and look Scott. He is fully protected. God forbid if it would shift on him.