Shifting Season

Canned Green Beans.

Yesterday, we had sunshine…. Yesterday the sky was blue and I watched a pair of randy robins for some time out by the edge of my woods… Today, the weather has shifted. The rain taps on the windows. The sky is grey and this clean moisture can also be smelled as well as viewed in the grey sky above…

Days like today play a purpose in homesteading just as do those bright sunny days. Yesterday evening, we learned how to use a pressure canner. We packed uncooked green beans in jars and canned them for use later, when again the weather is bad and nothing fresh will grow…. An incredible time to prep for canning.

Green Beans

Choose only quality green beans in perfect condition. No mold or discoloration or bruising.
Chop off the ends of each green bean.
Get out your clean jars.
I used the water bath canner to heat my clean jars AFTER I took the rings and lids off and set those in a pan with sides and used the water boiler on the counter to fill it with NEARLY boiling water.

Preparing lids and rims.

Then, I heated up the pressure canner LID OFF, with about 3 inches of water in it! When the cans came out of the water bath canner too hot to touch we used a canning prong tool, to move them onto a dish towel on the counter.

We packed UNCOOKED green beans into the hot jars.
We boiled water in a separate pot with half a teaspoon of salt to every pint of water.
Add boiled salt water to jars packed with green beans. Then take a canning tool or one of those squegie like thingies you use for frosting stick in the jar aimed down all around the sides of the jar to get rid of air bubbles. Wipe around the top of the jar careful not to burn yourself on the jar.
Collect the lid and ring from the hot water pan,
Close the jar twist till tight to touch.

Boiling salt water and heating pressure canner.

This is where you check your altitude and put in any weights should they be necessary, into the pressure canner.
Stick jars in the pressure canner. Take care that they DO NOT TOUCH each other! Take care that the jars DO NOT TOUCH THE WALLS OF THE POT! And make sure they sit on a metal or plastic “lift”/platform/thing in the bottom of the pot, rather than placing the glass jar flat on the canner bottom.
Once canner is loaded close it and make sure it locks. I would NEVER can with an unlocked pressure canner!

The gage on top will start registering pressure as the temperature inside the pot goes up. Take it up to 11. Then begin very slowly and carefully to turn the temperature DOWN, to hold it at 11. You NEVER WANT IT TO GO LOWER THAN 11 WHILE CANNING GREEN BEANS! However, it is ok if it is a little bit higher than 11. But 11 is where you want it or as close to it as you can acheive if higher than 11.
We left it alone for 20 minutes and a piece on top began gradually to “dance”. That is how the canner maintains proper levels of pressure.
Once 20 minutes passes, DO NOT RUSH TO OPEN PRESSURE CANNER! It is FULL of pressure! Instead, turn off the stove and wait. Watch the gage. When it hits 0, wait another 5-10 minutes. Then using the canning tongs, unlock and open the pressure canner. Lift off the lid so your face will be as shielded as much as possible in case there is still pressure.

Several Jars In pressure canner that has just been opened.

Remove jars with canning tongs. Place them back on the dish towel. DO NOT TOUCH THEM OR WASH THEM OR HANDLE THEM IN ANY WAY! Just let them sit for 24 hours.Then, go check the seal by pressing the top of the jar. If it doesn’t make that punchy jar top sound and it doesn’t press in then plump back out your seal should be fine. Wash the outside carefully and gently, then put away to cure.

Leave canned green bean jars to sit for 24 hours. DO NOT TOUCH THEM, they are very HOT!

Even on yucky days like today, there are things that can be and need to be done. Preparations for the winter need to be made, new skills need to be acquired. Life on the homestead isn’t just about playing with cute animals. It is also labor intensive. It needs a lot to function the way it should. This is a lifestyle that needs all you have to give… But when it works, you can use the nice weather and the icky. You can be self sufficient or close to it. But it takes work to live comfortably this way.

Now that I can can, bring on the pandemics, and the food supply break downs. I am ready to face them. I will never be a prepper, but after this experience and given I am doing all this during quarantine…. Though I will never be a holy roller and I am not the type to stock pile tanks and other weapons…. I feel better knowing, I can eat no matter what comes next. There is something to the idea of some small scale preparation. No need for bunkers…. Or bomb shelters…. No need to get nuts. But, some basic skills for long term comfortable survival, such as canning…. This might be wise. We need to start living an older less polluting way, or we will not live long. This is why we settled here 6 years ago and gradually got started. But pandemic has pushed us into skill growing over drive…. It is a relief to see that canning really does work and preserves food… It is a relief to be getting that much closer to not needing anyone or anything or society for our long term survival. Which means we can include it when this quarantine is over to whatever capacity we choose. It also means next pandemic, we won’t be caught with our pants down.

Thank you for joining me to do a simple canning project. Only my second. First with the pressure canner. it has been fun. Remember pressure canners can be dangerous. Use them with great great care. Where pressure builds up, stuff can blow up. I know several people who only water bath can. Which means no meats and no vegies but they love making jams, pie fillers, and fruits. There is no right or wrong. Just, take care to be safe when working with hot objects or things that can go BOOM!
This has been an interesting indoor bad weather adventure.
I am so glad you came along for the ride!
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

Tags: acreage, ag, agriculture, agro, airbnb, B&B, canning, Canning green beans, farm, farmer, farmer's wife, farmer's wife blog, farming, farmstead, food preservation, homestead, homestead blog, homestead farm, homestead wife, homestead wife blog, homesteader, homesteading, house wife, housewife, housewife blog, innkeeper, Innkeeper's blog, long term food storage, massachusetts, massachusetts farm, Massachusetts homestead, new england, old fashioned house wife, old fashioned housewife, old fashioned living, pressure can green beans, pressure canning, self sufficiency, simple living, travel, wildflower farm

About wildflowerfarm

Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.

My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.

Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.

Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.

Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.

We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.

We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.

This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.

We welcome you on this journey with us.

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Shifting Season

Shifting Season

About wildflowerfarm

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