Canning, Canning and More Canning!!

Yesterday was a busy day on the Small Homestead. Hubby found himself at home and made good use of his time building on our chicken house. At the rate these little Australorps are growing, they are going to need larger accommodations in the very near future!!

Just the beginning of a beautiful home for our hens!

I helped him hang a few pieces of siding, but my time was spent in the kitchen!! I needed to wrap up what I call odds and ends in canning...you know, a few jars of this and a few jars of that.

On Friday I had made a beef roast in the crockpot for supper and typically I will make noodles with the broth or I will bless our dog babies with broth over their dog food. I then had a brilliant ( I thought) idea!! Why not can that broth to use in soups this winter! So that's just what I did.

I had already strained the broth Friday evening so on Monday all I had to do was take it out of the fridge and skim the fat off the top. I prepared my jars, rings and tips and poured up the broth. I ended up with four pints and since my canner needs at least eight pints to work properly, I also canned four pints of water....which I used in my dishwater later---no wasting here!!

Hubby had also pulled our tomato plants up and I had several green tomatoes so I decided to make pickled green tomatoes. The recipe tells me I will need to wait four weeks to give them a taste....

Then the dessert of the day...I had some apples and made twelve half pints of Apple Cinnamon Jam!!! Oh my gosh is that stuff wonderful!! A plate of hot, homemade biscuits is certainly in our future!!

It was an exhausting day. Homestead living is not for the lazy or faint at heart for certain! It is so very rewarding though. It is a pure blessing to look at the shelves of food that God has provided for us and I admit I get a warm fuzzy when I see the labor my hands has done in order to provide for my family.

In the coming posts I will share a few of the recipes and the canning procedures that I follow. It's important to do that canning safely!!!

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